The French blockading fleet was under command of Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux, and consisted both of sailing and rowing vessels.

On the night of 6 July Abraham Duquesne escorted 5 fireships to the mole of the harbor, where the Spanish galleys were abandoned, and set fire to them.

The worsening of the situation inside Tarragona after the battle, caused largely because the vessels that had entered the port remained blocked, adding hundreds of mouths to feed, compelled Philip IV of Spain to order the assembling of a second relief fleet.

Viceroy Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt had to face simultaneously a land relief, and was forced to abandon the siege, retreating to Valls.

Marshal Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt, the newly-appointed Viceroy of Catalonia by Louis XIII of France, decided to lay siege to the port city of Tarragona, one of the major towns of the Principality still in Spanish hands where through the defeated force under the Marquis de Los Vélez had passed after his defeat.

Meanwhile, the main Spanish army, then led by Federico Colonna, Prince of Butera, had received reinforcements and moved from Tortosa to Constantí, a village near Tarragona where a small garrison was left.

In April the Franco-Catalan offensive was launched, and on 4 May, La Mothe was in front of Tarragona ahead of a force of 10.000 foot and 2.000 horse soldiers, and the siege began.

[7] Sourdis, who had at that moment 15 galleons, 4 pataches, 5 fireships, 11 galleys, and two prizes, committed the mistake of allowing the Spanish squadrons of Naples, Genoa, and Sicily, under the command of its Generals Melchor de Borja, Gianettino Doria, and Francisco Mejía, to join forces.

[1] An aviso intercepted shortly afterwards by the French warned them that the Spaniards were preparing a double relief of the town by land and by sea led respectively by the Marquis of Leganés and the Duke of Fernandina.

[2] During the night, the captains of the French fireships did their best to fill their vessels with gunpowder, and on 6 July, under the escort of 5 sailing ships commanded by Duquesne, they went to set fire to the remaining Spanish galleys.

[3] The Duke of Fernandina managed to escape with the galleys which had failed to break the French blockade, claiming to have won the battle for having introduced some relief into Tarragona.

[10] The command of this new fleet was entrusted to the Duke of Maqueda, who sailed from Cádiz on 20 July and was joined by more vessels during his voyage along the Levantine coast.

The superior numbers of the Spaniards allowed them to flank the French vessels and batter Sourdis, inflicting major damage to two of his galleons.