The Battle of Cardadeu on 16 December 1808 saw an Imperial French corps led by Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr assault a Spanish force commanded by Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu and Theodor von Reding.

By the fall of 1808, a French corps under Guillaume Philibert Duhesme was besieged in Barcelona by a 24,000-man Spanish army led by Vives.

As part of Emperor Napoleon's plan to seize the Kingdom of Spain in a military coup, several key points, including Barcelona were captured in February 1808.

[5] In the early summer of 1808, a 12,710-man French corps commanded by General of Division Guillaume Philibert Duhesme was stationed at Barcelona.

[6] This modest-sized corps was instructed to put down the insurrection in Catalonia, to send assistance to Marshal Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey in his attempt to capture Valencia, and to hold Barcelona.

News of the French disaster at the Battle of Bailen on 22 July 1808 buoyed Spanish morale and depressed the Imperial troops.

The French commander was able to send strong columns through the loose blockade in order to gather food and other supplies.

On 12 October, an Italian column was roughly handled at Sant Cugat del Vallès with 300 casualties and the expeditions stopped.

[14] Because Del Palacio remained almost inert during his tenure of command, the Catalan Junta replaced him as Captain General with Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu on 28 October.

[16] Vives skirmished with the French outpost line on 8 November, but then went into hibernation until reinforcements arrived under General Theodor von Reding.

General Conde de Caldagues commanded the 4,998-strong 1st Division which consisted of six artillery pieces manned by 70 gunners, 50 sappers, the cavalry regiments Españoles Hussars (220) and Catalonia Cazadores (180), the regular infantry regiments the 2nd Walloon Guards (314), Soria (780), Borbon (151), 2nd Savoia (1,734), and 2nd Swiss (270), and the volunteer tercios Tortosa (984) and elements of Igualada and Cervera (245).

General Francisco Milans del Bosch led the 4th Division which was made up of 3,710 volunteer soldiers in the following tercios, 1st Lerida (872), Vich (976), Manresa (937), and Vallès (925).

[18] After the failures of the summer, Napoleon appointed General of Division Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr to replace Duhesme on 17 August 1808.

Saint-Cyr's reinforcements did not begin to assemble in southern France until mid-September and lack of wagons caused further delay.

After assigning Reille to hold Figueras and Roses and to protect the roads from France, Saint-Cyr had about 1,500 horsemen and 15,000 foot soldiers in three divisions of 26 total battalions.

The French general knew that besieging Girona was out of the question; in the time it would take to capture the place, Barcelona would be starved out.

In order for his plan to work, the Imperial general hoped to keep Vives guessing as to his true intentions and to defeat his opponent in detail.

He wished to tempt Álvarez and Lazán into offering battle, but the two Spanish generals declined to be drawn out, seeing that their 8,000 men would be crushed.

On the 11th, Saint-Cyr sent his artillery and wagon train back to Figueras and marched to La Bisbal d'Empordà where his quartermasters handed out four days of rations to each soldier.

On 12 November, the Franco-Italians passed near Palamós and fought their way through a force of miquelets (Catalan militia) under Juan Clarós.

[27] On 13 November, Saint-Cyr's host stumbled into Vidreres which was near the coast road that led to Malgrat de Mar, Mataró, and Barcelona.

On the 15th the entire Franco-Italian army snaked through the hills, bypassing the small fortress of Hostalric and reaching the inland road at Sant Celoni.

Though his men were tired, Saint-Cyr hustled his soldiers along the highway until they reached the dangerous Trentapassos defile which was found to be unoccupied.

Vives responded by sending Reding and seven battalions of his leading echelon, a total of 5,000 men, to watch the inland road.

Though Caldagues begged him to send every available man to stop the Imperial army, Vives held back at least 16,000 troops to maintain the blockade of Barcelona.

The area was dotted with pine and oak groves amid plowed fields, making it hard for both sides to discern enemy movements.

The last rations had been eaten, ammunition was running low, and every minute of delay allowed Lazán to close in on his rear.

The French commander immediately directed Souham's 10 battalions to angle to their left and assault Reding's right flank.

With the Spanish position unraveling, Saint-Cyr ordered the Italian light cavalry under Carlo Balabio to charge up the main highway.

On 21 December Saint-Cyr's army faced Vives, Reding, and Caldagues at the Battle of Molins de Rey.