Participants in the Nationalist uprising were the 800[2] men of the Guardia Civil, six cadets[3] of the Military Academy, one hundred Army officials and 200 civilians from right-wing political parties.

[3] The only weapons that they possessed were rifles, a few old machine guns and some hand grenades, but the officials and Guardia Civil had managed to bring in abundant ammunition.

Additionally, ten prisoners captured during sorties in Toledo and about 100[5]-200[6] hostages (including women and children) were held by the Nationalists through the duration of the siege.

[8] The Alcázar became the residence of the Spanish monarchs after the reconquest of Toledo from the Moors but was abandoned by Philip II and in the 18th century was converted into a military academy.

Apart from this symbolism and a small-arms factory, Toledo was a city of no military value to either side; the Nationalist forces there were small, isolated, badly equipped and in no condition to conduct offensive operations.

The Republican government believed that since the garrison was only 64 kilometres (40 mi) southwest of Madrid and would not be receiving any immediate help from the other Nationalist forces, it would be an easy propaganda victory.

Over the next five weeks, the Republicans attacked the House of the Military Government on eleven occasions but were turned back each time by the Nationalists.

After the war, Franco posthumously awarded Guillermo Juárez de María y Esperanza, with the Orden del Mérito Militar for his bravery in the breach.

Had the Republicans captured the House of the Military Government, it would have enabled them to mass a large number of troops only 37 metres (40 yd) away from the Alcázar.

He was unable to contact Moscardó because the telephone wires had been damaged the previous night from grenades thrown by the Republican militias and he was unwilling to use other methods of communication.

On the morning of September 18, explosives in the mines were detonated by Francisco Largo Caballero,[12] completely destroying the southwest tower and the two defenders in it.

The attacks failed after a determined defence by the Nationalists, but the Republicans responded with a continuous artillery bombardment of the Alcázar throughout the night and into the next day.

The first sign of an advancing Nationalist column was on August 22 when a plane sent by Franco airlifted a trunk of food into the Alcázar along with a message to the defenders that the Army of Africa was on its way to relieve the garrison.

The symbolic value of the Alcázar grew as weeks went by, and the Republicans threw badly needed men, artillery and weapons into the fortress capture (instead of using them to confront Franco's northern advance through western Spain).

The press was invited by the Republican government to witness the explosion of the mines and storming of the Alcázar on September 18, when the Prime minister Francisco Largo Caballero himself detonated the mine, but it would not be until September 29 that the press entered the Alcázar, this time by the invitation of the Nationalists, turning the whole affair into a huge propaganda victory for the Nationalists, undermining the Republican morale.

In December 1936 a delegation of Romanian Iron Guard led by Ion Moța and Vasile Marin presented a ceremonial sword to the survivors of the siege and announced the alliance of their movement with the Spanish Nationalists.