Generals Prim and Topete led the insurrection against Isabel II and began a march towards Madrid.

They were met by the royalist troops of Manuel Pavía y Lacy, Marquis of Novaliches, who advanced as far as Andalusia.

The army of General Pavía was composed of two infantry divisions, a cavalry division, an artillery brigade with 32 field guns, a vanguard brigade and some minor auxiliary units, with a total of approximately ten thousand men.

Pavía planned his deployment in two columns, one along the road on the right bank of the Guadalquivir to fall back from the bridge in the town of Alcolea defended by the troops of General Serrano, fortified in the knowledge that the circumstances prevailing in the rest of Spain at that time were in their favour.

General of Staff Jiménez de Sandoval then took command and at nightfall, ordered the troops to withdraw and began negotiations.