text:
Peninsular War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 6 December 2017.
Jump to: navigation, search
For the 1862 American Civil War campaign, see Peninsula Campaign.
This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. The readable prose size is 102 kilobytes. Please consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding or removing subheadings. (February 2015)
Peninsular War
Part of the Napoleonic Wars

The Second of May 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes by Francisco de Goya, 1814
Date
2 May 1808 (sometimes 27 October 1807[a]) – 17 April 1814[b]
(5 years, 11 months, 2 weeks and 1 day)
Location
Iberian Peninsula and southern France
Result
Allied victory
Treaty of Paris
Belligerents
Bourbon Spain
British Empire
Kingdom of Portugal
French Empire
Bonapartist Spain
Duchy of Warsaw
Commanders and leaders
Arthur Wellesley
William Beresford
John Moore †
Francisco Castaños
Juan Martín Díez
José Palafox
Gregorio de la Cuesta
Miguel Álava Esquivel
Joaquín Blake
Bernardino Freire †
Miguel Pereira Forjaz
Francisco da Silveira
Napoleon I
Joseph I
Joachim Murat
Jean-Andoche Junot
Jean de Dieu Soult
André Masséna
Michel Ney
Louis Gabriel Suchet
Joseph Mortier
Auguste de Marmont
Jean-Baptiste Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Claude Victor-Perrin
Casualties and losses
91,000 killed in action[1]
237,000 wounded[1]
[show]
v
t
e
Peninsular War
First invasion of Portugal 1807–08
Invasion of Portugal
Padrões de Teixeira
Évora
Roliça
Vimeiro
Spanish uprising 1808
Madrid
Bruch
Valdepeñas
Alcolea
Cabezón
1st Gerona
La Romana's Escape
1st Zaragoza
2nd Gerona
Medina de Rioseco
Valencia
Cádiz harbour
Bailén
Napoleon's campaign 1808–09
1st Pancorbo
Valmaseda
Burgos
Roses
Espinosa
Tudela
Somosierra
Cardadeu
Molins de Rey
Sahagún
Benavente
2nd Zaragoza
Castellón
Mansilla
Corunna
Second invasion of Portugal and northern Spain, 1809
Villafranca
Braga
Amarante
Lugo
1st Porto
Vigo
Grijó
2nd Porto
Santiago
Sanpayo
Castile and Andalusia 1809–10
Uclés
Miajadas
Los Yébenes
Ciudad Real
Medellín
Alcantara
Torralba
Talavera
Arzobispo
Almonacid
Baños
Tamamés
Ocaña
Carpio
Alba de Tormes
Cádiz
Murcia
Aragón and northeast Spain 1809–14
Castelló d'Empúries
Valls
Monzón
3rd Gerona
Alcañiz
María
Belchite
1st Hostalrich
2nd Hostalrich
Mollet
Vich
Manresa
Lérida
Mequinenza
San Quintín
La Bisbal
Tortosa
Pla
1st Tarragona
Montserrat
Figueras
Cervera
Saguntum
Massanet de Cabrenys
Valencia
Alicante
Altafulla
1st Castalla
2nd Castalla
2nd Tarragona
Santa Engracia
3rd Zaragoza
Ordal
Third Invasion of Portugal 1810–11
1st Astorga
1st Ciudad Rodrigo
Barquilla
River Côa
1st Almeida
Trant's raid
Bussaco
Torres Vedras
Pombal
Redinha
Condeixa
Casal Novo
Foz d'Arunce
Sabugal
Fuentes de Oñoro
2nd Almeida
Siege of Cádiz 1810–12
Cádiz
Montellano
Fuengirola
Baza
Barrosa
Zújar
1st Bornos
Tarifa
2nd Bornos
Castile and northern Spain 1811–13
1st Badajoz
Gebora
2nd Badajoz
Campo Maior
Úbeda
Albuera
Usagre
1st Arlabán
Durán's action
Benavides
Cogorderos
Riego de Ambrós
Arroyo dos Molinos
Tarifa
Navas de Membrillo
Orbigo
Cerdagne (France)
El Bodón
2nd Ciudad Rodrigo
Rocaforte
Sangüesa
3rd Badajoz
2nd Arlabán
Villagarcia
Almarez
Maguilla
2nd Astorga
Salamanca
Garcia Hernandez
Guadalajara
Majadahonda
1st Bilbao
2nd Bilbao
Burgos
Mañeru
Villodrigo
Venta del Pozo
Tordesillas
Tafalla
Vitoria and the Pyrenees 1813–14
San Millan
Vitoria
Tolosa
2nd Pancorbo
1st San Sebastián
Pyrenees Offensive
Maya
Roncesvalles
Lizasso
Sorauren
Buenza
2nd San Sebastián
San Marcial
Bidassoa
Pamplona
Nivelle
Nive
Garris
Orthez
Toulouse
Bayonne
[show]
v
t
e
Napoleonic Wars
Third Coalition
Anglo-Spanish War
Russo-Persian War
Franco-Swedish War
Fourth Coalition
Russo-Turkish War
Gunboat War
Finnish War
Dano-Swedish War
Anglo-Turkish War
Peninsular War
Anglo-Russian War
Fifth Coalition
Anglo-Swedish War
French invasion of Russia
Sixth Coalition
German Campaign
Campaign in north-east France
Campaign in south-west France
Swedish-Norwegian War
Seventh Coalition
Neapolitan War
Waterloo Campaign
Minor campaigns of 1815
West Indies Campaign
Adriatic campaign
1st Java
Indian Ocean
2nd Java
The Peninsular War[c] (1807–1814) was a military conflict between Napoleon's empire and the allied powers of the Spanish Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Portugal, for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war started when French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807, and escalated in 1808 when France turned on Spain, previously its ally. The war on the peninsula lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814, and is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation, significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare.
The Peninsular War overlaps with what the Spanish-speaking world calls the Guerra de la Independencia Española (Spanish War of Independence), which began with the Dos de Mayo Uprising on 2 May 1808 and ended on 17 April 1814. The French occupation destroyed the Spanish administration, which fragmented into quarrelling provincial juntas.
A reconstituted national government, the Cádiz Cortes—in effect a government-in-exile—fortified itself in Cádiz in 1810, but could not raise effective armies because it was besieged by 70,000 French troops. British and Portuguese forces eventually secured Portugal, using it as a safe position from which to launch campaigns against the French army and provide whatever supplies they could get to the Spanish, while the Spanish armies and guerrillas tied down vast numbers of Napoleon's troops. These combined regular and irregular allied forces, by restricting French control of territory, prevented Napoleon's marshals from subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces, and the war continued through years of stalemate.[2]
The British Army, under the then Lt. Gen. Arthur Wellesley, guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French in Spain alongside the reformed Portuguese army. The demoralised Portuguese army was reorganised and refitted under the command of Gen. William Carr Beresford,[3] who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Portuguese forces by the exiled Portuguese royal family, and fought as part of a combined Anglo-Portuguese army under Wellesley.
In 1812, when Napoleon set out with a massive army on what proved to be a disastrous campaign to conquer Russia, a combined allied army under Wellesley pushed into Spain, defeating the French at Salamanca and taking Madrid. In the following year Wellington scored a decisive victory over King Joseph's army at Vitoria. Pursued by the armies of Britain, Spain and Portugal, Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, no longer able to get sufficient support from a depleted France, led the exhausted and demoralized French forces in a fighting withdrawal across the Pyrenees during the winter of 1813–1814.
The years of fighting in Spain were a heavy burden on France's Grande Armée. While the French were victorious in battle, their communications and supplies were severely tested and their units were frequently isolated, harassed or overwhelmed by partisans fighting an intense guerrilla war of raids and ambushes. The Spanish armies were repeatedly beaten and driven to the peripheries, but they would regroup and relentlessly hound the French. This drain on French resources led Napoleon, who had unwittingly provoked a total war, to call the conflict the "Spanish Ulcer".[4][5]
War and revolution against Napoleon's occupation led to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, later a cornerstone of European liberalism.[6] The burden of war destroyed the social and economic fabric of Portugal and Spain, and ushered in an era of social turbulence, political instability and economic stagnation. Devastating civil wars between liberal and absolutist factions, led by officers trained in the Peninsular War, persisted in Iberia until 1850. The cumulative crises and disruptions of invasion, revolution and restoration led to the independence of most of Spain's American colonies and the independence of Brazil from Portugal.
Contents
[hide]
1 Origins
1.1 Portuguese negotiations
1.2 Spanish situation
1.3 Invasion of Portugal
2 Iberian insurrections, 1808
3 Spain in revolt, 1808
4 British intervention, 1808
5 Napoleon's invasion of Spain, 1808
6 Corunna Campaign, 1808–1809
7 Second Portuguese campaign, 1808–1809
8 Fall of the Junta Central
9 Joseph I's régime
10 Emergence of the guerrilla
11 Revolution under siege
12 Third Portuguese campaign, 1810–1811
13 Stalemate, 1811–1812
14 Allied campaign in Spain, 1812
15 French autumn counterattack, 1812
16 Defeat of King Joseph, 1813
17 End of the war in Spain, 1813–1814
17.1 Campaign in the eastern Atlantic region
17.2 Campaign in the northern Mediterranean region
18 Invasion of France
18.1 Battle of the Nivelle, November 1813
18.2 Battles of the Nive, December 1813
18.3 Battle of Garris, February 1814
18.4 Passage of the Adour, February 1814
18.5 Battle of Orthez, February 1814
18.6 Action at Tarbes, March 1814
18.7 Battle of Toulouse, April 1814
19 Aftermath
20 Notes
21 References
22 Further reading
23 Other media
Origins[edit]
Portuguese negotiations[edit]
Princesa Line Infantry Regiment (left) and Catalonia Light Infantry Regiment (right)
The Treaties of Tilsit, negotiated during a meeting in July 1807 between Emperors Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon, concluded the War of the Fourth Coalition. With Prussia shattered, and Russia allied with France, Napoleon expressed irritation that Portugal was open to trade with the United Kingdom.[7] Pretexts were plentiful; Portugal was Britain's oldest ally in Europe, Britain was finding new opportunities for trade with Portugal's colony in Brazil, the Royal Navy used Lisbon's port in its operations against France, and he wanted to deny the British the use of the Portuguese fleet. Furthermore, Prince John of Braganza, regent for his insane mother Queen Maria I, had declined to join the emperor's Continental System against British trade.[8]
Events moved rapidly. The Emperor sent orders on 19 July 1807 to his Foreign Minister, Talleyrand, to order Portugal to declare war on Britain, close its ports to British ships, detain British subjects on a provisional basis and sequester their goods. After a few days, a large force started concentrating at Bayonne.[9] Meanwhile, the Portuguese government's resolve was stiffening, and shortly afterward Napoleon was once again told that Portugal would not go beyond its original agreements. Napoleon now had all the pretext that he needed, while his force, the First Corps of Observation of the Gironde with General of Division Jean-Andoche Junot in command, was prepared to march on Lisbon. After he received the Portuguese answer, he ordered Junot's corps to cross the frontier into Spain.[10]
While all this was going on, the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau had been signed between France and Spain. The document was drawn up by Napoleon's marshal of the palace Géraud Duroc and Eugenio Izquierdo, an agent for Manuel de Godoy, Prince of the Peace.[11] The treaty proposed to carve up Portugal into three entities. Porto (Oporto) and the northern part was to become the Kingdom of Northern Lusitania, under Charles Louis of Etruria. The southern portion, as the Principality of the Algarves, would fall to Godoy. The rump of the country, centered on Lisbon, was to be administered by the French.[12] According to the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Junot's invasion force was to be supported by 25,500 men in three Spanish columns. Gen. Taranco and 6,500 troops were ordered to march from Vigo to seize Porto in the north. Capt. Gen. Solano would advance from Badajoz with 9,500 soldiers to capture Elvas and its fortress. Gen. Caraffa and 9,500 men were instructed to assemble at Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo, and cooperate with Junot's main force.[13]
On 12 October, Junot's corps began crossing the Bidasoa River into Spain at Irun.[10] Junot was selected because he had served as ambassador to Portugal in 1805. He was known as a good fighter and an active officer, although he never exercised independent command.[11]
Spanish situation[edit]
Further information: Enlightenment in Spain
By 1800, the Kingdom of Spain was in a state of social unrest. Townsfolk and peasants all over the country, who had been forced to bury family members in new municipal cemeteries, took back their bodies at night and tried to restore them to their old resting-places. In Madrid, the growing Francophilia of the court was opposed by the majos—shopkeepers, artisans, taverners and labourers who dressed in traditional style, and took pleasure in picking fights with petimetres.[d][14]
Spain was an ally of Napoleon's First French Empire; however, defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 had removed the reason for alliance with France. Godoy—who was a favourite of King Charles IV of Spain—began to seek some form of escape. At the start of the War of the Fourth Coalition, which pitted the Kingdom of Prussia against Napoleon, Godoy issued a proclamation that was obviously aimed at France, even though it did not specify an enemy.
After Napoleon's decisive victory at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Godoy quickly withdrew the proclamation. However, it was too late to avert the Emperor's suspicions. Napoleon planned from that moment to deal with his inconstant ally at some future time. In the meantime, the Emperor dragooned Godoy and Charles IV into providing a division of Spanish troops to serve in northern Europe.[15] The Division of the North spent the winter of 1807–1808 in Swedish Pomerania, Mecklenburg and towns of the old Hanseatic League. Spanish troops marched into Denmark in early 1808.[16]
Invasion of Portugal[edit]
Main article: Invasion of Portugal (1807)
The Portuguese royal family escapes to Brazil.
Concerned that Britain might intervene in Portugal or that the Portuguese might resist, Napoleon decided to speed up the invasion timetable, and instructed Junot to move west from Alcántara along the Tagus valley to Portugal, a distance of only 120 miles (193 km).[17] On 19 November 1807, Junot set out for Lisbon. As bad as the roads were on the Spanish side of the border, those in Portugal were worse, being a mere track through a rocky wilderness.
In addition to the continual rain, by the time he reached Abrantes the only guns able to keep up the pace were four Spanish horse artillery pieces, while half of the soldiers were straggling or marauding.[18] Junot organized four battalions of his best remaining men and set out for Lisbon, which was still 75 miles (121 km) away. Without a single cannon or cavalryman, 1,500 French troops marched into Lisbon on 30 November.[18]
Although the Prince Regent had attempted to placate Napoleon, he never cut his links with the British. As Junot's army loomed closer, John dithered between offering complete submission and fleeing to Brazil. Finally, Adm. Smith produced a 13 October edition of the Paris Moniteur, which declared that the House of Braganza had been deposed. At this, John made up his mind to escape. He loaded his family, courtiers, state papers and treasure aboard the fleet. He was joined in flight by many nobles, merchants and others. With 15 warships and more than 20 transports, the fleet of refugees weighed anchor on 29 November and set sail for the colony of Brazil.[19] The flight had been so chaotic that 14 carts loaded with treasure were left behind on the docks.[20]
It took ten days for all of Junot's infantry to arrive and even longer for his artillery to show up, their cartridges soaked and their uniforms in tatters.[21] As one of Junot's first acts, the property of those who had fled to Brazil was sequestrated[22] and a 100-million-franc indemnity imposed.[23] The army formed into a Portuguese Legion, and went to northern Germany to perform garrison duty.[22] Junot did his best to calm the situation by trying to keep his troops under control. While the Portuguese civil authorities were generally subservient toward their occupiers, the common people were angry.[22] Nevertheless, the harsh taxes caused bitter resentment among the population. By January 1808, there were executions of persons who resisted the exactions of the French. The situation was dangerous, but it would need a trigger from outside to transform unrest into revolt.[23]
Iberian insurrections, 1808[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Dos de Mayo Uprising.
Second of May 1808: the defenders of Monteleón make their last stand
Joseph-Bernard Flaugier's 1808 painting Escena de la Guerra de la Independencia depicts Imperial troops battling the Catalan militia
La gesta de los zapadores. The Spanish royal regiment of sappers (Regimiento Real de Minadores-Zapadores) abandon Alcalá de Henares on May 24, 1808, to join the loyalist cause in Valencia.
The Mutiny of Aranjuez, by which Godoy fell from power and Ferdinand VII came to the Spanish throne following the abdication of Charles IV, took place in mid-March 1808. In its aftermath, Spain was astir. Attacks on godoyistas were frequent, while the failure of the French to recognise Ferdinand caused much discontent and gave rise to the suspicion that they intended to restore Godoy to office.[24] By the beginning of May 1808, rumours were spreading that the Junta de Gobierno—the council of regency left behind by Ferdinand—was being pressured into sending the last members of the royal family to Bayonne.[25]
On 2 May, the citizens of Madrid rebelled against the French occupation; they killed 150 French soldiers before the uprising was put down by Joachim Murat's elite Imperial Guard and Mamluk cavalry, which crashed into the city and trampled the rioters.[26] The next day, as immortalized by Francisco Goya in his painting The Third of May 1808, the French army shot hundreds of Madrid's citizens in retaliation. Similar reprisals occurred in other cities and continued for days, strengthening the resistance. Bloody, spontaneous fighting known as guerrilla (literally "little war") erupted in much of Spain.
Locally organised rebel groups were unaware of the resistance being prepared elsewhere in Spain. According to Esdaile, the partisans were as committed to driving the ancien regime out of Spain as they were to fighting foreign armies; the Patriots had no scruples about killing officials skeptical of their revolutionary program.[27]
When Ferdinand departed for Bayonne he had left a structure of government, headed by the Junta de Gobierno. Presided over by Ferdinand's uncle, the infante Don Antonio, it comprised the ministers appointed by Ferdinand to head the ministries of Foreign Affairs, War, Finance, Navy and Grace and Justice, which since the reign of Charles III had constituted the heart of the Spanish administration. Coexistent with the departments were the Councils of Castile, the Indies, War, the Admiralty, the Treasury, the Military Orders and the Inquisition. Spain was divided into 32 provinces, each headed by a Treasury official known as an intendente, and 14 military regions, each headed by a viceroy, captain general or commandant general.[28] New heads were found for all the ministries; the Duque de Infantado, an old enemy of Godoy, was appointed president of the Council of Castile, and Gregorio García de la Cuesta was made Captain General of Old Castile. Despite a few officials having been driven from their posts by popular fury, the overall system was unchanged.[29]
Although the Spanish government, including the Council of Castile, had accepted Napoleon's decision to grant the Spanish crown to his brother Joseph, the Spanish population rejected Napoleon's plans and expressed their opposition through the local municipal and provincial governments. Following traditional Spanish political theories, which held that the monarchy was a contract between the monarch and the people, local governments responded to the crisis by transforming themselves into ad hoc governmental juntas.
The first wave of uprisings, that took place without any knowledge of revolt elsewhere, were in Cartagena and Valencia on 23 May; Zaragoza and Murcia on 24 May; and the province of Asturias, which cast out its French governor on 25 May and "declared war on Napoleon at the height of his greatness".[30] Within weeks, all the Spanish provinces followed suit.[31]
In Cartagena, red cockades—the traditional badge of the Bourbon monarchy—were handed out to the people, and the garrison supported the rising, whereupon the captain general and the military governor were arrested. A provincial junta was established under a prominent admiral. In Zaragoza, where José Palafox, a brigadier of the elite Royal Guards, had been hiding outside the city, the conspirators' agents steered the crowds into calling for him to lead them. The captain general was imprisoned, and Palafox was installed as de facto governor of Zaragoza and captain general of Aragon.[32] He wasted no time in declaring war on Napoleon and, with his elder brother, commanded a series of attacks against the French that led to the First Siege of Zaragoza (15 June—14 August 1808). Most major towns now had emergency administrations—two exceptions were Cádiz, where the town council held sway, and Zaragoza, which was in the sole charge of Palafox—but the resultant juntas refused the bourgeois revolution of Marxist legend.[33]
The deteriorating strategic situation forced France to increase its military commitments. In February 1808, Napoleon had boasted that 12,000 men could conquer Spain;[34] by 1 June, over 65,000 troops were rushing into the country to control the crisis.[35] The main French army of 80,000 held a narrow strip of central Spain from Pamplona and San Sebastián in the north to Madrid and Toledo in the centre. The French in Madrid sheltered behind an additional 30,000 troops under Marshal Bon Adrien Jeannot de Moncey. Jean-Andoche Junot's corps were stranded in Portugal, cut off by 300 miles (480 km) of hostile territory, but within days of the outbreak of revolt, French columns in Old Castile, New Castile, Aragon and Catalonia were searching for the insurgent forces.
Spain in revolt, 1808[edit]
Agustina de Aragón during the Battle of Saragossa, painting by Juan Gálvez
Valencians prepare to resist the invaders in this 1884 painting by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida.
The Spanish Army's triumph at Bailén was the French Empire's first defeat. Painting by José Casado del Alisal
Napoleon had expected popular risings, but believed that the Spanish army would either remain neutral or put itself under his command.[36] From Murat's optimistic reports, Napoleon believed the uprisings would die down and Spain become peaceful if his brother retained the throne while French flying columns seized and pacified Spain's cities. He also had no respect for the "insolent" Spanish militias that opposed him.[37] The first Army of Spain was out-numbered and had inferior troops.[38] To this end, Pierre-Antoine, comte Dupont de l'Étang led 24,430 men south toward Seville and Cádiz; Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières moved into Aragon and Old Castile with 25,000 men, aiming to capture Santander and Zaragoza. Moncey marched toward Valencia with 29,350 men, and Guillaume Philibert Duhesme marshalled 12,710 troops in Catalonia and moved against Girona.[39]
However, at the two successive Battles of the Bruch, in the mountains some 50 kilometres (31 mi) outside Barcelona, Schwarz's 4,000 troops, marching from the city towards Zaragoza, were forced back following the heavy casualties inflicted on them by local Catalan militia, the Miquelets (also known as sometents). Duhesme's Franco-Italian division of almost 6,000 troops failed to storm the city at the Girona, and leaving Chabran's brigade to hold Mataró, was forced to return to Barcelona.[40] In Aragon, Charles, comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes, the commander of the 6,000-strong French force bearing down on Zaragoza, decided to rush the city.[41] French calls for an honourable capitulation met with the reply, "War to the knife".[42] Resorting to urban warfare, Palafox defied the French for three months. Moncey's push toward the coast ended in defeat outside the walls of Valencia, where 1,000 French recruits died trying to storm the city. Managing to defeat Spanish counterattacks, Moncey began a long, harried retreat.[37]
In the north, the French found a measure of success. When Bessières's march on Santander was checked by partisan attacks in July, the French turned back and encountered Blake and Cuesta with their combined army. In the Battle of Medina del Rio Seco, the Spanish generals, at Cuesta's insistence, hurried toward the vulnerable French supply lines at Valladolid. The two armies deployed on 14 July, but Cuesta had left a gap between his troops and Blake's, which the French used to their advantage—and with Cuesta defeated, Old Castile returned to French control. Blake escaped, but the Spaniards lost at least 1,000 dead or wounded, twelve hundred prisoners and thirteen guns. French losses had been minimal—perhaps 400 men.[43]
Bessières's victory salvaged the French army's strategic position in northern Spain. The road to Madrid lay open to Joseph, and the defeats at Girona, Valencia, and Zaragoza were forgotten. All that remained was to reinforce Dupont and allow him to force his way south through Andalusia. With the Spanish threat scattered, Joseph entered Madrid on 20 July;[43] and on 25 July he was crowned King of Spain.[44] A delighted Napoleon said, "If Marshal Bessiéres has been able to beat the Army of Galicia with few casualties and small effort, less than 8,000 troops being engaged, there can be no doubt that with 20,000 men General Dupont will be able to overthrow everybody he meets".[45] However, on 10 June, every French ship of the line anchored at Cádiz was seized in the Capture of the Rosily Squadron.[46] Much alarmed, Dupont was disturbed enough to curtail his march at Cordoba, and then on 16 June to fall back to Andujar.[47] Cowed by the mass hostility of the Andalusians, he broke off his offensive and was then defeated at the Battle of Bailén, where he surrendered his entire Army Corps to Castaños.
The catastrophe was total. With the loss of 24,000 troops, Napoleon's military machine in Spain collapsed. Stunned by the defeat, on 1 August Joseph—who had no more than 23,000 troops in Madrid and believed that thousands of vengeful Spaniards were about to attack him—evacuated the capital for Old Castile, while ordering Verdier to abandon the siege of Zaragoza and Bessières to retire from Leon; the entire French army sheltered behind the Ebro.[48] By this time, Girona had resisted a second siege. Europe welcomed this first check to the hitherto unbeatable Imperial armies—a Bonaparte had been chased from his throne; tales of Spanish heroism inspired Austria and showed the force of national resistance. Bailén set in motion the rise of the Fifth Coalition against Napoleon. According to Chandler:
This was an historic occasion; news of it spread like wildfire throughout Spain and then all Europe. It was the first time since 1801 that a sizable French force had laid down its arms, and the legend of French invincibility underwent a severe shaking. Everywhere anti-French elements drew fresh inspiration from the tidings. The Pope published an open denunciation of Napoleon; Prussian patriots were heartened; and, most of all, the Austrian war party began to secure the support of the Emperor Francis for a renewed challenge to the French Empire.[49]
British intervention, 1808[edit]
Further information: British Army during the Napoleonic Wars
The Spanish Division of the North sent to fight the British in Denmark pledging to turn against France and side with the British
Britain's involvement in the Peninsular War was the start of a prolonged campaign in Europe, after which the country could no longer be accused, in Sheridan's words, of doing no more than 'filching sugar islands'.[50] To Britain, which wanted to become a military power on land as well as a naval one, it seemed that the Spanish people had rejected Napoleon and all his works and Britain found itself on the side of freedom.[51] Despite opposition, Britain and its coalition had acquired a new moral legitimacy.[52]
Five days after having declared war on Napoleon, the Junta General of Asturias sent a delegation to London to request help, as did others from Galicia and Seville. While they did not specifically ask for troops, the dispatch of a British army was soon under consideration by the Portland administration. Three British Army officers, led by a lieutenant colonel, reached Gijón on 27 June 1808 to assess the state of affairs from a military viewpoint. Following the Spanish victory at Bailén, the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, Viscount Castlereagh, sent a second delegation, this time led by General Sir James Leith, who arrived in Gijón on 30 August 1808 with a view to seeing how the north of Spain could best be reinforced to prevent Napoleon sending in more troops through Irun, and isolating him in Madrid or Burgos. Leith would later join Baird's forces in November 1808.[53]
There were fewer constraints than normal. The authorisation of embodied members of the militia to volunteer for service in the line offered a steady supply of fresh men; the need to provide against French invasion had been much reduced. Brent Spencer's division had been assembled at Cork, and brigades that had been about to raid the invasion port of Boulogne were available for immediate action.[54]
In August 1808, the British army—including the King's German Legion—landed in Portugal under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, who drove back Henri François Delaborde's forces at the Battle of Roliça on 17 August, as the Portuguese Observation Army of Bernardim Freire de Andrade shadowed Louis Henri Loison's division. On 21 August, Wellesley, who had turned to the mouth of the Maceira river to protect landing reinforcements, was attacked at Vimeiro Hill by Jean-Andoche Junot. The Battle of Vimeiro was the first occasion on which Napoleonic offensive tactics combining skirmishers, columns and supporting artillery fire failed against the British infantry line and Wellesley's defensive skills. Considered too junior an officer to command the reinforced expedition to Portugal, Wellesley was replaced first by Sir Harry Burrard and then Sir Hew Dalrymple. Dalrymple granted Junot favourable armistice terms that allowed his unmolested evacuation from Portugal by the Royal Navy in the controversial Convention of Sintra in August. In early October 1808, following the scandal in Britain over the Convention of Sintra and the recall of the generals Dalrymple, Burrard, and Wellesley, Sir John Moore took command of the 30,000 man British force in Portugal.[55] In addition, Sir David Baird, in command of an expedition of reinforcements out of Falmouth consisting of 150 transports carrying between 12,000 and 13,000 men, convoyed by HMS Louie, HMS Amelia and HMS Champion, entered Corunna Harbour on 13 October.[56]
Meanwhile, the British had made a substantial contribution to the Spanish cause by helping to evacuate some 9,000 men of La Romana's Division of the North. The division, stationed in Denmark, had been sent to northern Europe in 1807 to assist the Grande Armée while Spain and France were still allies.[57] However, on learning that Napoleon had placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne, La Romana and his officers, who included Joseph O'Donnell, secretly negotiated for the British Baltic fleet to help transport the Spanish division back to Spain. In August 1808, after seizing Danish ports and ships to make their way to a rendezvous with Admiral Richard Goodwin Keats' British squadron on Langeland island, all but three regiments that had been unable to escape transferred to Gothenburg, Sweden, before setting sail for Santander, where they arrived in October 1808.[58]
Napoleon's invasion of Spain, 1808[edit]
The Battle of Tudela by January Suchodolski. Oil on canvas, 1895
Somosierra: Polish cavalry assail Spanish gunners on a mountain pass
La bataille de Somosierra by Louis-François, Baron Lejeune (1775–1848). Oil on canvas, 1810
Spanish officials surrender Madrid to Napoleon. Antoine-Jean Gros, 1810
Because of the crippling social and political tensions caused by the rebellion, the Spanish social fabric decayed, the patriots were divided on every question and their war effort suffered. With the fall of the monarchy, constitutional power devolved to local juntas, which interfered with the army and the business of war, undermined the tentative central government forming in Madrid, and proved almost as dangerous to each other as to the French. According to Chandler, "the particular interests of the provincial delegates made the pretense of centralised government a travesty".[59][e] The British army in Portugal, itself immobilized by logistical problems and mired in administrative disputes, did not move.[61]
Months of inaction passed at the front, the revolution having "crippled Patriot Spain at the very moment when decisive action could have changed the whole course of the war".[f] The French, all but masters of Spain in June, stood with their backs to the Pyrenees clutching at Navarre and Catalonia. By October 1808, French strength in Spain—including garrisons—was about 75,000 soldiers. They were facing 86,000 Spanish troops[55] with 35,000 British troops en route.[62]
No attack was forthcoming. The Supreme Central Junta grew out of the political confusion that followed the abdication of the House of Bourbon, leading to more confusion since there was no central government and most juntas did not recognise the presumptuous claim to represent the monarchy. The Junta of Seville claimed authority over the overseas empire because of the province's historical role as the exclusive entrepôt of the empire. Realizing that unity was needed to coordinate efforts against the French and to deal with British aid, several Supreme Juntas—Murcia, Valencia, Seville, and Castile and León—called for the formation of a central junta. After negotiations between the juntas and the discredited Council of Castile—which supported Joseph I—a "Supreme Central and Governmental Junta of Spain and the Indies" met in Aranjuez on 25 September 1808, with the Conde de Floridablanca as its president.[63] Serving as surrogate for the absent king and royal government, it called on representatives from the Iberian provinces and the overseas possessions to meet in an "Extraordinary and General Cortes of the Spanish Nation"—so called because it would be the single legislative body for the whole empire, and the body that would write a constitution for it. As agreed to in the negotiations, the Supreme Central Junta was composed of two representatives chosen by the juntas of the capitals of the peninsular kingdoms of the Spanish Monarchy. Early on, the Junta rejected the idea of establishing a regency, which would have meant the concentration of executive power in a small number of persons, and assumed that role itself claiming the style of "Majesty".
After the surrender of a French army corps at Bailén[g] and the loss of Portugal, Napoleon was convinced of the peril he faced in Spain. Disturbed by news of Sintra, he said, "I see that everybody has lost their head since the infamous capitulation of Bailén. I realise that I must go there myself to get the machine working again." [64] While the allies advanced slowly, conscription and arms from the far reaches of the French Empire brought 100,000 veterans of the Grande Armée into Spain, led in person by Napoleon and his marshals.[65] With his Armée d'Espagne of 278,670 men drawn up on the Ebro, facing 80,000 raw, disorganized Spanish troops, the Emperor announced to the Spanish deputies, "I am here with the soldiers who conquered at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Eylau. Who can withstand them? Not your wretched Spanish troops who do not know how to fight. I shall conquer Spain in two months and acquire the rights of a conqueror".[66] Napoleon led the French on a brilliant offensive involving a massive double envelopment of the Spanish lines.[67] The attack began in November 1808 and has been described as "an avalanche of fire and steel".[68]
In the west, a Spanish wing escaped when Lefebvre failed to encircle the Army of Galicia after a premature and indecisive attack at the Battle of Pancorbo; Blake withdrew his artillery to safety and the bloodied Spanish infantry followed. Lefebvre and Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin offered a careless chase that ended in humiliation at the Battle of Valmaseda, where their scattered troops were handled by La Romana's repatriated Spanish veterans and escaped to safety. The campaign in the south, where Napoleon's main army overran the unprotected Spanish centre in a devastating attack near Burgos, ended quickly. The Spanish militias—untrained and unable to form infantry squares—scattered in the face of massed French cavalry, while the Spanish Royal Guard and Walloon Guards stood their ground in vain and were overcome by Antoine Charles Louis Lasalle and his sabreurs. Marshal Jean Lannes with a powerful force smashed through the Spanish right wing at the Battle of Tudela on 23 November, routing Castaños and prompting a new inscription on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Blake's isolated army reversed direction on 17 November and dug in at the Battle of Espinosa. His lines repelled French attacks over a day and night of vicious fighting, before giving up the next day. Blake again outmarched Marshal Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult and escaped with a rump army to Santander, but the Spanish front had been fragmented and the Imperial armies raced forward over undefended provinces. Napoleon sent 45,000 men south into the Sierra de Guadarrama, which shielded Madrid.
The mountains slowed Napoleon: at the Battle of Somosierra on 30 November 1808 his Polish and Guard cavalry squadrons charged up a narrow gorge through raking fire to overrun Benito de San Juan's artillery. San Juan's militias gave way before the relentless French infantry, while the Spanish royal artillerymen held their positions and fought to the last. French patrols reached Madrid on 1 December and entered the city in triumph on 4 December. Joseph Bonaparte was restored to his throne. San Juan retreated west to Talavera, where his mutinous conscripts shot him before dispersing. The Junta was forced to abandon Madrid in November 1808, and resided in the Alcázar of Seville from 16 December 1808 until 23 January 1810; hence the appellation of "Junta of Seville"—not to be confused with the earlier provincial junta.[69]
In Catalonia, Napoleon's faltering army was reinforced in October 1808, ordering Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr with 17,000 men to the relief of Duhesme in Barcelona. The presence of the Royal Navy along the coasts of France and Spain slowed the French entry into eastern and southern Spain and drained their military resources in the area. Frigates commanded the strategic Gulf of Roses north of Barcelona close to the French border, and were involved in the Siege of Roses. Lord Thomas Cochrane held a cliff-top fortress against the French for a month, destroying it when the main citadel capitulated to a superior French force.[70] The successful Siege of Roses opened the path south for Saint-Cyr, who bypassed Girona and fell upon and destroyed part of Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu's Spanish army at the Battle of Cardadeu near Barcelona on 16 December. Five days later, Saint-Cyr defeated the Spaniards under Conde de Caldagues and Theodor von Reding, capturing 1,200 men at the Battle of Molins de Rey.
Corunna Campaign, 1808–1809[edit]
Death of Sir John Moore, 17 January 1809.
Saragossa: The assault on the Santa Engracia monastery. Oil on canvas, 1827
By November 1808, the British army led by Moore was advancing into Spain with orders to assist the Spanish armies' fight against Napoleon's forces.[71] Moore received desperate appeals from the British ambassador John Hookham Frere and the Junta Central to help the Patriot cause. However, Moore's forces were dispersed and his capacity to act remained limited. While the main army under Moore had advanced to Salamanca, by 28 November none of Baird's troops had passed Astorga to the north, while Sir John Hope was still 70 miles (110 km) to the east[72][73] with all Moore's cavalry and artillery.[74] The main army was joined by Hope's detachment on 3 December, when Moore received news that the Spanish forces had suffered several defeats. He considered that to avoid disaster he must give up and retreat back to Portugal.[75] Letters from Berthier on 10 December 1808 and a dispatch on 28 December indicate that both sides were aware that the allies were defeated and that the British were prepared to retreat.[h]
Before retreating, Moore received intelligence[76] of Soult's 16,000-man corps' scattered and isolated position at Carrión[77] and that the French were unaware of the British army's position. On 15 December, he began to advance on the French near Madrid hoping to defeat Soult and divert Napoleon's forces.[78] On 20 December, Moore joined forces with Baird, who was advancing from Corunna, and his strength grew to 23,500 infantry, 2,400 cavalry[79] and 60 guns.[80] He opened his attack with a successful raid by Lieutenant-General Paget's cavalry on the French picquets at Sahagún on 21 December.[81] Moore failed to follow up against a surprised Soult, halting for two days and allowing Soult to concentrate his corps.[82] As soon as the orders for the advance had been dispatched, dramatic news arrived from the south that masses of French troops were debouching from the Sierra de Guadarrama into the plains of Old Castile. Napoleon had discovered the British army's presence and was heading north to wipe it out. Fresh orders were sent out and the British forces turned around, heading for the coast.[83] Moore's intelligence regarding the enemy's positions and intentions was mainly due to the guerrillas' capture of large numbers of French couriers.[84]
Even if the weather had been favourable, Moore was so far north that a French force coming from Madrid would not have been able to cut him off. Napoleon's only chance was to catch his opponent unawares, but Moore perceived this danger and retreated westwards immediately. Moore had requested that his sea transports should be sent from Lisbon to meet him at La Coruna. Vigorous action from Soult might have slowed Moore down enough to allow Napoleon's forces to get behind him, but Soult waited for reinforcements from Burgos and was slowed down by torrential rain.[85] Although La Romana tried to cover Moore's retreat, he was defeated by Soult at the Battle of Mansilla. Moore's retreat was marked by a breakdown of discipline in many regiments and punctuated by stubborn rearguard actions; Paget captured Lefebvre-Desnouettes at Benavente, with Napoleon watching from a distance.[86] Another minor victory was the brief respite gained at the Battle of Cacabelos, a minor battle in which the cavalry brigadier general Auguste-Marie-Francois Colbert was killed at long range.[87]
The British troops escaped to the sea after fending off a strong French attack at the Battle of Corunna, in which Moore was killed. Some 26,000 troops reached Britain, with 7,000 men lost over the course of the expedition.[88] With Moore dead, over a fifth of his army missing and several thousand more sick or wounded, the British intervention had ended in humiliation and disaster. The retreat looked like a rout; although the army had saved all its guns it had lost much of its baggage and had been forced to kill almost all the horses that had reached La Coruna. Hundreds more men were lost in winter storms in the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel. Immense quantities of material, including 4,000 barrels of powder blown up on 13 January, had been lost and the French had occupied the most populated region in Spain, including the important towns of Lugo and La Corunna.[89] Worse than the physical losses suffered by the Allies, immense damage had been done to Anglo-Spanish relations. Misled by journalists who had claimed that Moore's army was actually much larger than it was and had represented Sahagun as a victory, the Spanish were shocked by the British retreat. This was worsened by the angry accounts of the Marques de la Romana and other observers, who accused Moore of betrayal and bad faith.[90]
Zaragoza, already scarred from Lefebvre's bombardments that summer, was under a second siege that had commenced on 20 December. Despite Lannes and Moncey having committed two army corps of 45,000 men and considerable material, the Spanish citizen-soldiers were able to hold out for two months. Palafox's second defence brought the city enduring national and international fame.[91] Gates wrote that the siege "was a demonstration the French army was never to forget and ... it was to inspire Spaniards to maintain replica struggles that have few parallels in the history of war".[92] The Spaniards fought with determination, endured disease and starvation, entrenching themselves in convents and burning their own homes. The garrison of 44,000 left 8,000 survivors—1,500 of them ill—[88] but the Grande Armée did not advance beyond the Ebro's shore. On 20 February 1809, the French left behind burnt-out ruins filled with 64,000 corpses, of which 10,000 were French.[91][93] After just over two months in Spain, Napoleon returned to France, giving back the command to his marshals.
Second Portuguese campaign, 1808–1809[edit]
Marshal Jean de Dieu Soult at the battle of Oporto
After the Battle of Corunna and the British evacuation of Spain, Soult turned his attention to the invasion of Portugal. In the grand strategy Napoleon drafted in late 1808, he envisaged a three-pronged offensive into Portugal, consisting of Soult's corps from the north, Lapisse's 9,000 men from the east and Claude Victor's forces from the south.[94] With peace restored to the northern half of the peninsula, Andalucia and the Levante would be invaded and the conflict ended. Napoleon thought there was no reason why the war should continue past the summer, and such was the disarray in the Patriot camp in Spain and Portugal that it is hard to question his confidence altogether.[95] The Junta took over direction of the Spanish war effort and established war taxes, organized an Army of La Mancha, and signed a treaty of alliance with Britain on 14 January 1809. The Junta agreed that the overseas kingdoms would send one representative. As it became apparent that the war would last longer than thought, the Junta again took up the issue of convening a Cortes in April 1809, issuing a royal decree to the effect on 22 May. A committee presided over by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos organised the legal and logistical efforts to carry this out.[69]
Officially, Soult had 40,000 men at his disposal, but after the rigorous campaign in Galicia thousands of his troops were sick and he could muster 20,000 men. He experienced difficulties in equipping all of these, and a chronic shortage of horses and transport vehicles compounded his problems, but Soult persevered. He captured the Spanish naval base at Ferrol on 26 January 1809, capturing eight ships of the lines, three frigates and several thousand prisoners. Of more immediate value were enormous equipment stockpiles, including 20,000 Brown Bess muskets, which enabled Soult to repair his army's material deficiencies and to proceed with the projected invasion of Portugal.[96]
In March 1809, Soult initiated the second invasion of Portugal through the northern corridor. Soult's forces faced 12,000 men represented by the line regiments, militia and ordenanças of the province of Tras-os-Montes. Commanded by Francisco da Silveira, these forces quickly retreated amid riot and disorder, and within two days of crossing the border Soult had taken the fortress of Chaves.[97] Swinging west, the French were confronted by 25,000 unprepared and undisciplined Portuguese. While waiting for Soult's army to arrive, the Portuguese militia lynched their own commander, Bernardim Freire de Andrade, who wanted to retreat. On 20 March, 16,000 of Soult's professional troops of the II Corps advanced and killed 4,000 Portuguese troops in the Battle of Braga. A similar mismatch occurred when the French reached Porto. In the First Battle of Porto on 29 March, the Portuguese defenders panicked and thousands drowned trying to flee across the Douro River. Suffering fewer than 500 casualties Soult had secured Portugal's second city with its valuable dockyards and arsenals intact. The Portuguese sustained appalling losses, losing 200 guns and between 6,000 and 20,000 men dead, wounded or captured.[98] The French booty included immense stocks of food and munitions, and 30 shiploads of wine.[99] Soult occupied northern Portugal but halted at Porto to refit his army before advancing on Lisbon.[100]
By May 1809, the French armies were victorious almost everywhere in Spain. Victor advanced on Badajoz, defeating Cuesta at the Battle of Medellín.[100] The whole Spanish army fled south across the plain in disorder and the French cavalry pursued them, inflicting appalling casualties. Lasalle claimed that the 'disgusting Spaniards' lost 14,000 men at Medellín. By the time a thunderstorm ended the carnage, at least 8,000 Spanish were dead and another 2,000 taken prisoner. Victor's soldiers carried off nine standards and twenty guns. Estimates of the French losses range between 300 and 2,000 men.[101]
On 27 March, Spanish forces defeated the French at Vigo, and the French troops at Marín and Pontevedra were forced to retreat to Santiago de Compostela for fear of being outflanked. The Spanish force that besieged Vigo was based around a division of new troops called the División del Miño. Hall wrote:
On reaching the camp ... we found the patriot army exercising by divisions ... When we approached a general halt was ordered, and those who had muskets presented them as well they might, while those who had none went through the motions well with their pikes or staves formed out of scythes and reaping hooks ... Under our auspices the peasantry continued to flock in from the adjacent country ... we could supply a twentieth part of these patriots with arms ... And that small fraction not being supplied with officers, or disciplined, or organised in any way, it was like children playing at soldiers.[102]
Spanish forces took the initiative and most of the cities in the province of Pontevedra were recaptured. In February 1809, Reding led a reconstituted army against the French right wing and, after vigorous marching and counter-marching, took a stand at the Battle of Valls and was ridden down and wounded by French cavalry.
Fall of the Junta Central[edit]
Wellesley returned to Portugal in April 1809 to command the Anglo-Portuguese forces. He strengthened the British army with Portuguese regiments trained by General Beresford and helped them adapt to the British campaign style. These new forces turned Soult out of Portugal at the Battle of Grijó (10–11 May) and the Second Battle of Porto (12 May), and the other northern cities were recaptured by General Silveira. Soult seemed doomed, but he escaped without his heavy equipment by marching through the mountains to Orense.[100] On 7 June, the French army of Marshal Michel Ney was defeated at the Battle of Puente Sanpayo by Spanish forces under the command of Colonel Pablo Morillo, and Ney and his forces retreated to Lugo on 9 June while being harassed by Spanish guerrillas. In Lugo, Ney's troops joined up with those of Soult and these forces withdrew from Galicia in July 1809. This marked the final evacuation of Galicia by the French army and the creation of a new front.
With Portugal secured, Wellesley advanced into Spain to unite with General Cuesta's forces. The combined allied force prepared for an assault on Victor's I Corps at Talavera on 23 July. Cuesta was reluctant to agree, but was persuaded to advance on the following day.[103] This delay gave the French time to withdraw. Cuesta sent his army after Victor, and was faced by the entire French army in New Castile, Victor having been reinforced by the Toledo and Madrid garrisons. The Spanish retreated, while two British divisions advanced to cover their retreat.[104]
On 27 July at the Battle of Talavera, the French advanced in three columns and were repulsed several times, but at a heavy cost to the British force. Wellesley, ignoring Cuesta's urgings to proceed to a general attack, decided on a gradual retreat, leaving Talavera on 4 August. Wellesley was concerned about the imminent arrival of Soult with his army and was afraid of being cut off from his base in Portugal. He sent the Light Brigade to hold the bridge over the Tagus River at Almaraz and, on 8 August, Soult's army faced the Spanish army at Puente del Arzobispo. With communications and supply from Lisbon secured, Wellesley considered rejoining Cuesta, but considerable friction had developed between the British and the Spanish; after Talevera, the Spanish had abandoned the British wounded to the French. Also, actions taken by the Spanish forces resulted in Wellesley's strategic position being compromised. The Spanish had promised to provide supplies for the British if they advanced into Spain, but this was not done. The ensuing lack of supplies and the threat of French reinforcement in the spring led to the British decision to retreat into Portugal. By making this choice Wellesley was supported by the government perception about Talavera. About himself, London was all gratitude, and rewarded Wellesley with the peerage of Viscount Wellington. But considerations pointed to a careful course of action. The peace party accused the general of being outgeneraled, while insinuations were being made that Talavera was fought for no objective beyond getting an aristocratic title.[105] A string of embarrassments appeared about the excess of patronage where the principal exponents were the Duke of York and Lord Castlereagh. There was also much dissatisfaction with Wellington, as he was now known: considered an authoritarian, he also made himself more distrusted by writing about the conduct of the Cabinet and what he perceived as not enough support from them.[106]
By the summer of 1809, the Spanish Supreme Central and Governing Junta of the Kingdom was coming under harsh criticism over its handling of the war. The Spanish people demanded that the ancient Cortes be summoned and the Junta agreed. But it was difficult to restore the old assembly and bring it into session. The Cádiz Cortes would be set up, but until then the Junta exercised power. Anxious to justify its continued existence, the Junta came up with what it hoped would be a war-winning strategy.[107] Undeterred by Wellington's refusal to contribute British soldiers, the Junta planned to launch a two-pronged offensive to recapture Madrid. They replaced Pedro Caro with Diego de Cañas y Portocarrero, Duke del Parque as commander of the troops in Galicia and Asturias. Del Parque soon massed 30,000 troops at Ciudad Rodrigo with more on the way. South of Madrid, Juan Carlos de Aréizaga assembled over 50,000 well-equipped men in the Army of La Mancha. The main efforts of Del Parque and Aréizaga would be aided by a third force that operated near Talavera de la Reina under José Miguel de la Cueva y de la Cerda, Duke of Albuquerque. The 10,000-man Talavera force was designed to hold French units in place while the main armies attacked Madrid.[108]
In the autumn of 1809, Del Parque's Army of the Left numbered 52,192 men in one cavalry and six infantry divisions. Martin de la Carrera's Vanguard Division had 7,413 soldiers, Francisco Xavier Losada's 1st Division had 8,336, Conde de Belveder's 2nd Division had 6,759, Francisco Ballesteros's 3rd Division had 9,991, Nicolás de Mahy's 4th Division had 7,100, and Conde de Castrofuerte's 5th Division had 6,157. All infantry divisions included 14 battalions except the 3rd with 15 and the 5th with seven. The Prince of Anglona's Cavalry Division included 1,682 horsemen in six regiments. Ciudad Rodrigo was provided with a garrison of 3,817 troops and there was an unattached 937-man battalion.[109]
With Ney on leave, Jean Gabriel Marchand assumed command of the VI Corps, based at Salamanca. The corps had been forced out of Galicia earlier in 1809 and had been involved in the operations in the aftermath of the Battle of Talavera in July. After hard campaigning and a lack of reinforcements, VI Corps was in a poor condition to fight and Marchand's talents were not equal to those of Ney. Del Parque advanced from Ciudad Rodrigo in late September[110] with the divisions of La Carrera, Losada, Belveder, and Anglona. Marchand, overconfident and scornful of his Spanish adversaries, advanced on the village of Tamames, 56 kilometres (35 mi) southwest of Salamanca. In the Battle of Tamames on 18 October 1809, the French suffered an embarrassing defeat.[111] The French lost 1,400 killed and wounded out of 14,000 soldiers and 14 guns. Spanish casualties were 700 out of 21,500 men and 18 cannons. After the battle, Del Parque was joined by Ballesteros' division, giving him 30,000 troops. As the Spanish advanced, Marchand abandoned Salamanca and Del Parque's men occupied the city on 25 October.[112]
Marchand retreated north to Toro on the Duero River, where he was joined by François Étienne de Kellermann with 1,500 infantry in three battalions and a 3,000-trooper dragoon division. Kellermann took command of the French force and marched upstream, crossing to the south bank at Tordesillas. Reinforced by General of Brigade Nicolas Godinot's force, Kellermann challenged Del Parque by marching on Salamanca. Del Parque abandoned Salamanca and retreated to the south. In the meantime, the guerrillas in the Province of León increased their activity. Kellermann left the VI Corps holding Salamanca and returned to León to stamp out the uprising.[113]
Albuquerque pinned down the French troops near Talavera as planned, but when he found that Aréizaga's army had been defeated at the Battle of Ocaña on 19 November, he withdrew out of reach of the French. Del Parque heard of the march of Godinot's and General of Brigade Pierre-Louis Binet de Marcognet's brigades toward Madrid. He had been instructed to join Albuquerque, but instead moved on Salamanca again, hustling one of the VI Corps brigades out of Alba de Tormes.[114] Del Parque occupied Salamanca on 20 November.[115] The French general withdrew behind the Duero and again rendezvoused with Kellermann. Hoping to get between Kellermann and Madrid, Del Parque advanced towards Medina del Campo. On 23 November at that town, Marcognet's brigade returned from Segovia while General of Brigade Mathieu Delabassée's brigade arrived from Tordesillas. At this moment, Del Parque's columns came into view and there was a skirmish at El Carpio. The French horsemen drove back the Spanish cavalry but were repulsed by Ballesteros' steady foot soldiers fighting in squares, prompting Marcognet and Delabassée to retreat.[116] On 24 November, Kellermann massed 16,000 French troops on the Duero near Valdestillas. Outnumbered, the French prepared to defend themselves. But on this day the Army of the Left received news of the Ocaña disaster.[117] Understanding that the French could spare plenty of soldiers to track down his army, Del Parque fled south, intending to shelter in the mountains of central Spain.[118] On 25 November, Del Parque left so that Kellermann did not begin his pursuit until the next day. For two days, the French could not catch up with their adversaries but on the afternoon of 28 November, their light cavalry found the Army of the Left camped at Alba de Tormes.[117]
By the end of November 1809, Patriot Spain was in poor shape. In Catalonia, Girona was in its last moments, Spain's two largest armies had been defeated and the British army was preparing to leave the Guadiana. Disgusted by what he regarded as the Junta's stupidity, Wellington was convinced that a French march on Lisbon was imminent. Intelligence reports of large masses of fresh enemy troops crossing from France were received.[119] Scattered along the length of the Sierra Morena, the defenders had no way of stopping the French attack of 19 January 1810. 60,000 French troops—the corps of Victor, Mortier and Sebastiani together with other formations—advanced southwards to assault the Spanish positions. Overwhelmed at every point, Aréizaga's men fled eastwards and southwards, leaving town after town to fall into the hands of the enemy. The result was revolution. Abandoning last-minute efforts to turn Seville into another Zaragossa, on 23 January the Junta Central decided to flee to the safety of Cádiz.[120] It then dissolved itself on 29 January 1810 and set up a five-person Regency Council of Spain and the Indies, charged with convening the Cortes.[69] Soult cleared all of southern Spain except Cádiz, which he left Victor to blockade.[100] The system of juntas was replaced by a regency and the Cádiz Cortes, which established a permanent government under the Constitution of 1812.
Joseph I's régime[edit]
Main article: Kingdom of Spain (Napoleonic)
Joseph I of Spain
Joseph contented himself with working within the apparatus extant under the old regime, while placing responsibility for local government in many provinces in the hands of royal commissioners. After much preparation and debate, on 2 July 1809 Spain was divided into 38 new provinces, each headed by an Intendent appointed by King Joseph, and on 17 April 1810 these provinces were converted into French-style prefectures and sub-prefectures. Named after their chief towns rather than after their dominant geographical features, the new territorial divisions, which were almost equal in size, bore little relation to any historic units.[121] The decision to retain the historic names of many old provinces in this fashion was a significant concession.[121]
The Proclamation of the Conde de Montarco on 25 March 1812 described the government in Cadiz as an "infamous and illegitimate government ... composed, of the very scum of Spain, dependent on the caprice of an ignorant mob, dominated by British influence, and possessed of no more territory than the prison in which it resides ... that has deceived the foolish Spaniards who submit to its tyranny by promising them an illusory liberty".[122] Under threat of punishment by sequestration of property, escape to the Patriot zone was not a practical possibility except for officials with a secure position in government service, notables with property in the Patriot zone, or career-oriented young men with no family responsibilities. Thus the French obtained a measure of acquiescence among the propertied classes. While refusing to take service with the French, and in instances serving as spies or couriers, they accepted the presence of the occupying forces and on occasion struck up friendships with them. Francisco de Goya, who remained in Madrid throughout the French occupation, painted Joseph's picture and documented the war in a series of 82 prints called Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War). For many imperial officers, life could be comfortable. The German Heinrich von Brandt—an officer in one of Napoleon’s Polish regiments stationed in Aragón after the fall of Zaragoza—said that the French "were not as hated as has since been alleged".[123]
Among the liberal, republican and radical segments of the Spanish and Portuguese populations there was much support for a potential French invasion, despite Napoleon's having by 1807 abandoned many liberal and republican ideals. Before the invasion, the term afrancesado ("turned French") was used to denote those who supported the Enlightenment, secular ideals, and the French Revolution.[124] Napoleon relied on support from these afrancesados both in the conduct of the war and administration of the country. But while Napoleon—through his brother Joseph—fulfilled his promises to remove all feudal and clerical privileges, most Spanish liberals soon came to oppose the occupation because of the violence and brutality it brought.[124] Marxians wrote that there was a positive identification on the part of the people with the Napoleonic revolution, but this is probably impossible to substantiate by the reasons for collaboration being practical rather than ideological.[125]
Emergence of the guerrilla[edit]
Juan Martín Díez, El Empecinado
El sometent del Bruc by Ramon Marti i Alsina depicts Catalan guerrillas
The Peninsular War is regarded as one of the first people's wars, significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare. It is from this conflict that the English language borrowed the word.[126] The Spanish War of Independence was one of the most successful partisan wars in history.[citation needed] This guerrilla warfare was costly for both sides; the guerrillas troubled the French troops, but they frightened their own countrymen with forced conscription and looting.[citation needed] Many of the partisans were either fleeing the law or trying to get rich. Later in the war the authorities tried to make the guerrillas reliable, and many of them formed regular army units such as Espoz y Mina's "Cazadores de Navarra".
The idea of turning the guerrillas into an armed force had both positive and negative effects. Uniforms and strict military discipline prevented men from deserting; the more disciplined the unit, the easier it was for French troops to catch them when they sprang an ambush. Some partisan leaders joined up with the military authorities to avoid criminal charges, to retain their status as officers in the Spanish army, or to receive weaponry, clothes, and food.[citation needed] The guerrilla style of fighting was the Spanish military's single most effective tactic. Most organized attempts by regular Spanish forces to take on the French ended in defeat. Once a battle was lost and the soldiers reverted to their guerrilla roles, they tied down large numbers of French troops over a wide area with a much lower expenditure of men, energy, and supplies.[citation needed] According to Glover, "[i]t was these obscure triumphs—a platoon shot down in an ambush, a courier and his message captured as he galloped across the plain—which made possible the orthodox victories of Wellington and his Anglo-Portuguese army and the liberation of Portugal and Spain".[127] Mass resistance by the people of Spain prefigured the total wars of the 20th century and inspired parallel struggles by the Russians and Prussians.[citation needed] Tsar Alexander, when threatened with war, told the French ambassador, "If the Emperor Napoleon decides to make war, it is possible, probable, that we shall be defeated ... But ... the Spaniards have been defeated; and they are not beaten, nor have they surrendered".[128]
In Spain and Portugal, the populace were inured to hardship, were suspicious of foreigners and were versed in ways of life—such as banditry and smuggling—that were characterised by violence and involved constant skirmishes with the security forces. The conviction of General Bigarre became the foundation of the phenomenon of the "customs guards and smugglers who covered the whole of the country under the Prince of the Peace", Captain Blaze saying that, as the Spaniards were "accustomed to extol the exploits of the robbers and smugglers", the chieftains "have been in readiness to become chiefs of the guerrillas".[129][130] In the same way, it has been claimed that enlightened absolutism made less progress in Spain and Portugal than elsewhere, with the result that the reforms of the new régime grated on them far more than would have been the case. Tantamount to suggesting that resistance was the product of backwardness—or as the French would have put it, of savagery, ignorance and want of civilisation—this latter argument could be supplemented by arguing that Spain was Catholic and therefore given over ipso facto to obscurantism, superstition and counter-revolution. Common French complaints as they grappled with occupying such an independent and spirited Spanish citizenry was that Spain was at least a century behind the rest of Europe in knowledge and the progress of social habits. Spain's insularity and the severity of its religious institutions had prevented the Spaniards from taking part in the disputes and controversies that had agitated and enlightened Europe.[131]
Hatred of the French and devotion to God, King and Fatherland were not the only reason to join the Partisans.[132] The French imposed restrictions on movement and on many traditional aspects of street life, so opportunities to find alternative sources of income were limited—industry was at a standstill and many señores were unable to pay their existing retainers and domestic servants, and could not take on new staff. Hunger and despair reigned on all sides.[133] Because the military record was so dismal, many Spanish politicians and publicists took exaggerated comfort from the activities of the guerrillas and elevated them to the status of national heroes, while the issue was exploited by factions determined to argue that the struggle against Napoleon was a people's war.[134]
Revolution under siege[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Siege of Cádiz.
Cadiz was built at the end of a sand spit five miles long jutting out from a triangular piece of land known as the Isla de León, reached by crossing a narrow causeway-cum-bridge known as the Puente de Suazo that crossed a wide strip of creeks and salt marshes known as the Rio Sancti Petri. The possible site for a siege battery—a peninsula that half-closed the mouth of the harbour protected by the Isla—was held by troops ensconced at its seaward end in the fort of Matagorda. Batteries and redoubts commanded the entire length of the Sancti Petri, the Puente de Suazo had been blown up, the isthmus was studded with defences and Cadiz was protected by massive walls. Every boat for miles around had been scuttled, burnt or taken to the Isla de León, while the harbour was full of British and Spanish warships. The Spaniards had fitted out a large number of gunboats and launches that could patrol the Sancti Petri. Alburquerque's army and the Voluntarios Distinguidos had been reinforced by 3,000 soldiers who had fled Seville and reached the sea at Ayamonte, and a strong Anglo-Portuguese brigade commanded by General William Stewart. Shaken by their experiences, the Spaniards had abandoned their earlier scruples about a British garrison.[135]
These defences thwarted the French; an effort to persuade the garrison to surrender was rejected. Victor's French troops camped at the shoreline and tried to bombard the city into surrender. Joseph wrote to Napoleon appealing for naval assistance, but this was never forthcoming; the emperor did not want to risk a second Trafalgar. Large numbers of troops and guns were therefore pushed forward to attack Matagorda and the garrison was evacuated on 22 April.[136] With Matagorda in their hands, the French could harass the harbour and isthmus and shell Cadiz itself. Large mortars were constructed for this purpose at Seville, and the city was thereafter bombarded. The bombardment was ineffectual and the confidence of the gaditanos grew and persuaded them that they were heroes. Alcalá Galiano wrote, "From December 1810 bombs ... fired by the enemy batteries had started to fall inside Cádiz. However, these shots ... came very infrequently, and then only a few at a time ... to carry so far, the projectiles had had to be increased in weight, and were consequently mostly made up of lead without much space for powder. As a result, they caused little damage ... and in the end little notice was taken of them other than to make them the subject of humour. In theatre and streets, then, a popular couplet was sung 'From the bombs fired by the popinjays, the girls of Cádiz make hair curlers'".[137] With food abundant and falling in price, the bombardment was hopeless despite both hurricane and epidemic—a storm destroyed many ships in the spring of 1810 and the city was ravaged by yellow fever.[138]
Once Cádiz was secured, attention turned to the political situation. It was dominated by three factors: the instructions that had been left by the Junta Suprema Central y Gubernativa del Reino concerning the convocation of the Cortes Generales, the installation of a new Consejo de Regencia de España e Indias; and the emergence of Cádiz itself as a player in the political process.[138] On 28 October 1809, the Junta Central announced that after a three-month electoral process beginning on the first day of the new year, the cortes would open on 1 March. On 1 January 1810 instructions had appeared that the suffrage was to be extended to all male householders over 25. Voting was to be public and the electors were to choose parish representatives who would attend district-level assemblies. These would choose deputies to send to the provincial meetings that would be the bodies from which the members of the cortes would emerge. There would be one deputy to every 50,000 inhabitants. The provincial juntas and the towns and cities that had been represented in the cortes of the antiguo régimen would elect one deputy each. Whether the new assembly should have a single chamber or whether the clergy and nobility should have their own organs of representation were unclear.[139] From 1 February 1810—the date when it first met—the implementation of these decrees had been in the hands of the new council of regency selected by the Junta Central. Composed of General Castaños— the former minister and president of the Junta of Seville, Francisco Saavedra, Admiral Antonio Escaño, Miguel de Lardizábal—an official of the Ministry of State who had represented his native Mexico in the Junta Central, and the Bishop of Orense—who was in Galicia and did not appear in Cádiz until 29 May. This was a conservative body that in theory enjoyed absolute power. The leading reformer Argilelles said, "Its authority was as absolute and arbitrary as that of the governments of the past. There was no remedy against the use of power. The freedoms of speech and of publication ... were as chained up as they were before the insurrection.[140]
The Junta agreed that the viceroyalties of the overseas territories; New Spain, Peru, New Kingdom of Granada, and Buenos Aires, and the independent captaincies general of the island of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Chile, Province of Venezuela, and Philippines would send one representative. This scheme was criticized in America for providing unequal representation to the overseas territories. Several important and large cities had no direct representation in the Supreme Central Junta. In particular Quito and Charcas, which saw themselves as the capitals of kingdoms and resented being subsumed in the larger "kingdom" of Peru. This unrest led to the establishment of juntas in these cities in 1809, which were quashed by the authorities within the year. (See Luz de América and Bolivian War of Independence.) Throughout early 1809 the governments of the capitals of the viceroyalties and captaincies general elected representatives to the Junta, but none arrived in time to serve on it.
The French took the Spanish fortified town of Ciudad Rodrigo after a siege lasting from 26 April to 9 July 1810.
Third Portuguese campaign, 1810–1811[edit]
The Battle of Chiclana, 5th March 1811 (1824) captures the fight between British redcoats and the French troops for Barosa Ridge.[4]
For more details on this topic, see Lines of Torres Vedras.
Fearing a new French assault on Portugal, Wellington created a powerful defensive position near Lisbon, to which he could fall back if necessary.[141] To protect the city, he ordered the construction of the Lines of Torres Vedras— three strong lines of mutually supporting forts, blockhouses, redoubts, and ravelins with fortified artillery positions—under the supervision of Sir Richard Fletcher. The various parts of the lines communicated with each other by semaphore, allowing immediate response to any threat. The work began in the autumn of 1809 and the main defences were finished just in time one year later. To further hamper the enemy, the areas in front of the lines were subjected to a scorched earth policy: they were denuded of food, forage and shelter. 200,000 inhabitants of neighbouring districts were relocated inside the lines. Though not without its problems, Wellington exploited the facts that the French could conquer Portugal only by conquering Lisbon, and that they could in practice reach Lisbon only from the north. He exploited Lisbon's geographical situation and the harshness of the Portuguese countryside. In consequence, despite serious worries about his army, Wellington was confident. He wrote to Lord Liverpool on 14 November 1809:
From all I have learned of the state of the enemy's force at present in the Peninsula, I am of opinion that unless the Spanish armies should meet with misfortune, the enemy could not make an attack upon Portugal; and [that] if events in Spain should enable the enemy to make such an attack, the force at present in Portugal is able to defend that country. If in consequence of the peace in Germany the enemy's army in the Peninsula should be reinforced, it is obvious that the enemy will acquire the means of attacking Portugal... in this case I conceive that till Spain shall have been conquered... the enemy will find it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain possession of Portugal.[142]
Until these changes occurred the Portuguese administration was free to resist British influence, Beresford's position being rendered tolerable by the firm support of the Minister of War, Miguel de Pereira Forjaz.[143] Wellington held him to be the ablest man in Portugal.[144]
The French re-invaded Portugal with an army of around 65,000, led by Marshal Masséna, and forced Wellington back through Almeida to Busaco.[100] The first significant clash in Portugal was at the Battle of the Côa, where the French drove back Robert Crauford's outnumbered Light Division. Masséna moved to attack the held British position on the heights of Bussaco—a 10-mile (16 km)-long ridge—resulting in the Battle of Buçaco on 27 September. Suffering heavy casualties, the French failed to dislodge the Anglo-Portuguese army. Masséna was now cut off from Spain by the militia and the ordenança, tied to one of the worst roads in the peninsula, surrounded by deserted towns and villages, and running short of food. Large cavalry patrols were soon riding out to examine the countryside, and within a matter of hours discovered an unguarded track leading northwards around the Allied line.[145] Trant's militia had been sent to hold this road, but Wellington did not believe they could do so. By doing the unexpected, Masséna had wrong-footed Wellington, and frustrated his plan to turn back the invasion before it reached Lisbon.[146] Wellington steadily fell back to the prepared positions in the Lines. By 10 October 1810, only the British light division and cavalry patrols remained outside the "Lines".[147] Wellington manned the fortifications with "secondary troops"—25,000 Portuguese militia, 8,000 Spaniards and 2,500 British marines and artillerymen—keeping his main field army of British and Portuguese regulars dispersed to meet a French assault on any point of the Lines.[148]
Masséna's Army of Portugal concentrated around Sobral in preparation to attack. After a fierce skirmish on 14 October in which the strength of the Lines became apparent, the French dug themselves in rather than launch a full-scale assault and Masséna's men began to suffer from the acute shortages in the region.[149] Surprised by the French army's resilience in the desert-like conditions of Portugal, Wellington wrote to Lord Liverpool on 21 December 1810:
It is astonishing that the enemy have been able to remain in this country so long; and it is an extraordinary instance of what a French army can do. It is a fact that they brought no provisions with them, and they have not received a letter since they entered Portugal. With all our money and having in our favour the good inclinations of the country, I assure you that I could not maintain one division in the district in which they have maintained not less than 60,000 men and 20,000 animals for more than two months.[150]
In late October, after holding his starving army before Lisbon for a month, Masséna fell back to a position between Santarém and Rio Maior.[151] In March, with supplies exhausted, Masséna managed a skillful retreat to Salamanca, with Ney again displaying a savage talent for rear-guard fighting. Following Masséna's withdrawal, Wellington moved the 2nd Division under Lieutenant General Hill, along with two Portuguese brigades and an attachment of Dragoons, across the Tagus to protect the plains of Alentejo—both from Masséna and a possible attack from Andalusia by the French Army of the South.[152] The British suffered a setback at about the same time in the Battle of Fuengirola. On 15 October, a much smaller Polish garrison held off British troops under Lord Blayney, who was taken captive and held by the French until 1814.
During 1811, Victor's force was diminished because of requests for reinforcement from Soult to aid his siege of Badajoz.[153] This brought the French numbers down to between 20,000 and 15,000 and encouraged the defenders of Cádiz to attempt a breakout,[153] in conjunction with the arrival of an Anglo-Spanish relief army of around 12,000 infantry and 800 cavalry under the overall command of Spanish General Manuel La Peña, with the British contingent being led by Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Graham.[154] Marching towards Cádiz on 28 February, this force met two French divisions under Victor at Barrosa. The outcome was an Allied tactical victory, but due to lack of supplies no follow-on advance to Cádiz could be made.[155] The Battle of Barrosa on 5 March was part of an unsuccessful manoeuvre to break the siege of Cádiz, but the inaction of La Peña made it a fruitless success and Victor soon renewed the blockade. Soult came from the south to threaten Extremadura. He captured the fortress town of Badajoz before returning to Andalusia with most of his army. This timid surrender contrasted with the resistance mounted at Girona and Zaragoza. Badadoz's garrison numbered 8,000 effectives, had a month's ammunition and food, and was expecting a relief column under Beresford. The city's fall crowned a campaign in which, with 20,000 men, Soult had seized two fortress, taken 16,000 prisoners and defeated the Spanish army in Extremadura. Soult was relieved at the operation's speedy conclusion, for three pieces of disturbing information had reached him on 8 March and his presence was required elsewhere.[156]
Stalemate, 1811–1812[edit]
Spanish commander Joaquín Blake y Joyes.
Wellington's confidence and moral authority had been much boosted by Torres Vedras. The spring of 1811 found him intending to move over to the offensive, for which policy he had received de facto authorisation from London, where talks of major reductions in the size of the army employed in Portugal had been replaced by promises of major reinforcements. Supply difficulties, sickness among the troops and want of siege artillery meant that in the short term no great strokes of strategy could be envisaged, but it was hoped that Almeida, Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz might be all recaptured, opening the way for lightning strikes on Salamanca or Seville.[157] In March 1811 in Cadiz, Henry Wellesley was tricked by serviles eager to engineer British discontent with the Regency into putting forward a plan favoured by both himself and his eldest brother; the elder Wellesley (Wellington) would be given command of the Spanish army and British officers posts in its ranks in exchange for Britain granting the enormous loan, which the Spaniards saw as the way out of their penury. This was impractical—gaditano opinion was hostile, while Arthur Wellesley's enthusiasm failed to win over his Cabinet colleagues. A further suggestion that the provinces bordering on Portugal should be placed under British authority was also rejected. With the French ensconced in Almeida, Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, the problems these measures were designed to combat—a repetition of the troubles of the Talavera campaign—were academic.[158]
An Anglo-Portuguese army led by the British Marshal William Beresford and a Spanish army led by the Spanish generals Joaquín Blake and Francisco Castaños, attempted to retake Badajoz by laying siege to the French garrison Soult had left behind. Soult regathered his army and marched to relieve the siege. Beresford lifted the siege and his army intercepted the marching French. Part of Wellington's army had besieged Badajoz until Soult forced it to retire after the Battle of Albuera. Soult outmaneuvered Beresford but could not win the battle, writing later that he had never seen "so desperate and bloody a conflict" and commenting on the steadfastness of the British troops: "There is no beating these troops ... I had turned their right, pierced their centre and everywhere victory was mine—but they did not know how to run!"[159] He retired his army to Seville.
The allies, reinforced by fresh British troops in early 1811, began an offensive. In April, Wellington besieged Almeida. Massena advanced to its relief, attacking Wellington at Fuentes de Oñoro (3–5 May). The French claimed victory because they won the passage at Poco Velho, cleared the wood, turned the British right flank, obliged the cavalry to retire, and forced Wellington to relinquish three miles of ground. The British claimed victory because they took the village of Fuentes and their object (covering the blockade of Almeida) was attained. The French retired without being attacked. The innate toughness of Wellington's troops and Bessières's failure to support Masséna assisted the Allied effort. Bessières led the cavalry of the Imperial Guard and refused to obey Masséna's orders. After this battle, the Almeida garrison escaped through the British lines in a night march.[100] An infuriated Wellington wrote, "I have never been so much distressed by any military event as by the escape of even a man of them."[160] Napier wrote, "In the battle of Fuentes Onoro, more errors than skill were observable on both sides, and the train of accidents did not stop there. The prize contended for was to present another example of the uncertainty of war".[161] Masséna was forced to withdraw, having lost a total of 25,000 men in Portugal, and was replaced by Auguste Marmont. Wellington joined Beresford and renewed the siege of Badajoz. Marmont joined Soult and Wellington retired.[100]
The greatest Spanish coup at this time was the work of the Catalans. Aided by three young clerks employed by the garrison, on the night of 9–10 April the former cleric, Francisco Rovira, let himself into the fortress of Figueras at the head of 2,000 men. Because it commanded the main road from Barcelona to the frontier, the French would not accept its loss and after confused fighting in which Rovira and his men received ineffectual support from troops of the First Army brought up by its latest commander, the Conde de Campoverde, the fortress was blockaded. Thinking that relief was unlikely, Marshal Macdonald, the commander of the French Army of Catalonia, eschewed formal siege operations in favour of starving the defenders into surrender. Defended by irregulars, the fortress held out much longer than expected, but on 17 August, with no food remaining it was forced to capitulate after a desperate attempt at a break-out was foiled. Macdonald wrote,
The unevenness of the ground caused the head of the columns to waver and made their weapons jingle, and this attracted the attention of our advanced outposts... We awaited their approach, and as soon as they opened the attack we threw hand grenades amongst them.... The Spaniards lost a large number of killed, wounded and... prisoners; on our side no one had a scratch. Next day the enemy ran up the white flag... I accorded them the honours of war. The garrison laid down their arms and remained prisoners; out of respect for their bravery the officers retained their swords.[162]
The fighting had not prevented the French from seizing more ground. The French next attacked the vital city of Tarragona. The Spaniards had been able to maintain a small, regular army in southern and central Catalonia because Tarragona was a port, a fortress, and the last region whose resources remained intact as far as the Patriot cause was concerned. The emperor had deemed that it should be taken. Tasked with this was the Army of Aragón under its commander, General Suchet, who was given a third of the Army of Catalonia to ensure that his operations were not marred by friction with Macdonald.[163] Wellington soon appeared before Ciudad Rodrigo. In September, Marmont repelled him and re-provisioned the fortress.[100] Sorties continued to be made out of Cádiz from April to August 1811,[164] and British naval gunboats destroyed French positions at St. Mary's.[165] An attempt by Victor to crush the small Anglo-Spanish garrison at Tarifa over the winter of 1811–1812 was frustrated by torrential rains and an obstinate defence, marking an end to French operations against the city's outer works. The war now fell into a temporary lull, with the superior French unable to find an advantage and coming under increasing pressure from Spanish guerrillas. The French had over 350,000 soldiers in L'Armée de l'Espagne, but over 200,000 were deployed to protect the French lines of supply, rather than as substantial fighting units.
Allied campaign in Spain, 1812[edit]
British infantry attempt to scale the walls of Badajoz, 1812
The Battle of Salamanca
The Proclamation of the Constitution of 1812 by Salvador Viniegra
The emperor wants me to take the offensive ... but his Majesty does not realize that the smallest movement in these parts expends quantities of resources and of horses ... To make a requisition on the poorest village we have to send a detachment of 200 men and, to be able to live, we have to scatter over distances.
—  Marshal August Marmont[166]
Wellington renewed the allied advance into Spain in early 1812, besieging and capturing the border fortress town of Ciudad Rodrigo by assault on 19 January and opening up the northern invasion corridor from Portugal into Spain. This also allowed Wellington to proceed to move to capture the southern fortress town of Badajoz, which would prove to be one of the bloodiest siege assaults of the Napoleonic Wars.[167] The town was stormed on 6 April, after a constant artillery barrage had breached the curtain wall in three places. Tenaciously defended, the final assault and the earlier skirmishes left the allies with some 4,800 casualties. These losses appalled Wellington who said of his troops in a letter, "I greatly hope that I shall never again be the instrument of putting them to such a test as that to which they were put last night."[168] The victorious troops massacred about 4,000 Spanish civilians.[169]
The allied army subsequently took Salamanca on 17 June, just as Marshal Marmont approached. The two forces met on 22 July, after weeks of maneuver, when Wellington soundly defeated the French at the Battle of Salamanca, during which Marmont was wounded. The battle established Wellington as an offensive general and it was said that he "defeated an army of 40,000 men in 40 minutes."[170]
Six days after the battle, French General Maximilien Sebastien Foy wrote in his diary,
This battle is the most cleverly fought, the largest in scale, the most important in results, of any that the English have won in recent times. It brings up Lord Wellington's reputation almost to the level of that of Marlborough. Up to this day we knew his prudence, his eye for choosing good positions, and the skill with which he used them. But at Salamanca he has shown himself a great and able master of manoeuvring. He kept his dispositions hidden nearly the whole day: he allowed us to develop our movement before he pronounced his own: he played a close game: he utilized the oblique order in the style of Frederick the Great."[171]
The Battle of Salamanca was a damaging defeat for the French in Spain, and while they regrouped, Anglo-Portuguese forces moved on Madrid, which surrendered on 14 August. 20,000 muskets, 180 cannon and two French Imperial Eagles were captured.[172]
French autumn counterattack, 1812[edit]
After the allied victory at Salamanca on 22 July 1812, King Joseph Bonaparte abandoned Madrid on 11 August.[173] Because Suchet had a secure base at Valencia, Joseph and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan retreated there. Soult, realising he would soon be cut off from his supplies, ordered a retreat from Cádiz set for 24 August; the French were forced to end the two-and-a-half-year-long siege.[4] After a long artillery barrage, the French placed together the muzzles of over 600 cannons to render them unusable to the Spanish and British. Although the cannons were useless, the Allied forces captured 30 gunboats and a large quantity of stores.[174] The French were forced to abandon Andalusia for fear of being cut off by the allied armies.[175] Marshals Suchet and Soult joined Joseph and Jourdan at Valencia. Spanish armies defeated the French garrisons at Astorga and Guadalajara.
As the French regrouped, the allies advanced towards Burgos. Wellington besieged Burgos between 19 September and 21 October, but failed to capture it. Together, Joseph and the three marshals planned to recapture Madrid and drive Wellington from central Spain. The French counteroffensive caused Wellington to lift the Siege of Burgos and retreat to Portugal in the autumn of 1812,[176] pursued by the French and losing several thousand men.[100] Napier wrote that about 1,000 allied troops were killed, wounded and missing in action, and that Hill lost 400 between the Tagus and the Tormes, and another 100 in the defence of Alba de Tormes. 300 were killed and wounded at the Huebra where many stragglers died in woodland, and 3,520 allied prisoners were taken to Salamanca up to 20 November. Napier estimated that the double retreat cost the allies around 9,000, including the loss in the siege, and said French writers said 10,000 were taken between the Tormes and the Agueda. But Joseph's dispatches said the whole loss was 12,000, including the garrison of Chinchilla, whereas English authors mostly reduced the British loss to hundreds.[177] As a consequence of the Salamanca campaign, the French were forced to evacuate the provinces of Andalusia and Asturias. For Napoleon, losing in Spain in 1812 or 1813 would have meant little if a decisive victory had occurred in Germany or Russia.[100]
Defeat of King Joseph, 1813[edit]
By the end of 1812, the Grande Armée that had invaded the Russian Empire had ceased to exist. Unable to resist the oncoming Russians, the French had to evacuate East Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. With both the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia joining his opponents, Napoleon withdrew more troops from Spain,[178] including some foreign units and three battalions of sailors sent to assist with the Siege of Cádiz. 20,000 men were withdrawn; the numbers were not overwhelming, but the occupying forces were left in a difficult position. In much of the area under French control—the Basque provinces, Navarre, Aragon, Old Castile, La Mancha, the Levante, and parts of Catalonia and León—their presence was a few scattered garrisons. Trying to hold a front line in an arc from Bilbao to Valencia, they were still vulnerable to assault, and had abandoned hopes of victory. According to Esdaile, the best policy would have been to have fallen back to the Ebro, but the political situation in 1813 made this impossible; Napoleon wanted to avoid being seen as weak in the face of German princes watching the advancing Russians and wondering whether they should change sides.[179] French prestige suffered another blow when on 17 March el rey intruso (the Intrusive King, a nickname many Spanish had for King Joseph) left Madrid in the company of another vast caravan of refugees.[179]
The following year, Wellington marched 121,000 troops (53,749 British, 39,608 Spanish, and 27,569 Portuguese)[180] from northern Portugal across the mountains of northern Spain and the Esla River, skirting Jourdan's army of 68,000 strung out between the Douro and the Tagus. Wellington shortened his communications by shifting his base of operations to the northern Spanish coast and the Anglo-Portuguese forces swept northwards in late May and seized Burgos, outflanking the French army and forcing Joseph Bonaparte into the Zadorra valley.
Map of the battle
At the Battle of Vitoria on 21 June, Joseph's 65,000-man army were decisively defeated by Wellington's army of 57,000 British, 16,000 Portuguese and 8,000 Spanish.[180] Wellington split his army into four attacking "columns" and attacked the French defensive position from south, west and north while the last column cut down across the French rear. The French were forced back from their prepared positions, and despite attempts to reform and hold were driven into a rout. This led to the abandonment of all of the French artillery as well as King Joseph's extensive baggage train and personal belongings. The latter led to many Anglo-Allied soldiers halting the pursuit to loot the wagons; as a result they could not complete the pursuit and this, along with the French managing to hold the east road out of Vitoria towards Salvatierra, allowed the French to partially recover. The Allies chased the retreating French, reaching the Pyrenees in early July, and began operations against San Sebastian and Pamplona. On 11 July Soult was given command of all French troops in Spain and in consequence Wellington decided to halt his army to regroup at the Pyrenees.
The war was not over. Although Bonapartist Spain had effectively collapsed, most of France's troops had escaped and fresh troops were soon gathering beyond the Pyrenees. By themselves, such forces were unlikely to score more than a few local victories, but French troop losses elsewhere in Europe could not be taken for granted. Napoleon might yet inflict defeats on Austria, Russia and Prussia, and with the divisions between the allies there was no guarantee that one power would not make a separate peace. It was a major victory and gave Britain more credibility on the continent, but the thought of Napoleon descending on the Pyrenees with the grande armée was not regarded with equanimity.[181]
End of the war in Spain, 1813–1814[edit]
Campaign in the eastern Atlantic region[edit]
In August 1813, British headquarters still had misgivings about the eastern powers. Austria had now joined the Allies, but the Allied armies had suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of Dresden. They had recovered somewhat, but the situation was still precarious. Wellington's brother-in-law Edward Pakenham wrote, "I should think that much must depend upon proceedings in the north: I begin to apprehend ... that Boney may avail himself of the jealousy of the Allies to the material injury of the cause."[182] But the defeat or defection of Austria, Russia and Prussia was not the only danger. It was also uncertain that Wellington could continue to count on Spanish support.[183]
The summer of 1813 in the Basque provinces and Navarre was a wet one, and with the army drenched by incessant rain and the decision to strip the men of their greatcoats was looking unwise. Sickness was widespread—at one point a third of Wellington's British troops were hors de combat—and fears about the army's discipline and general reliability grew. By 9 July, Wellington reported that 12,500 men were absent without leave, while plundering was rife. Major General Sir Frederick Robinson wrote, "We paint the conduct of the French in this country in very ... harsh colours, but be assured we injure the people much more than they do ... Wherever we move devastation marks our steps".[184] With the army established on the borders of France, desertion had become a problem. The Chasseurs Britanniques—recruited mainly from French deserters—lost 150 men in a single night. Wellington wrote, "The desertion is terrible, and is unaccountable among the British troops. I am not astonished that the foreigners should go ... but, unless they entice away the British soldiers, there is no accounting for their going away in such numbers as they do."[185] Spain's "ragged and ill-fed soldiers" were also suffering with the onset of winter, the fear that they would likely "fall on the populace with the utmost savagery"[186] in revenge attacks and looting was a growing concern to Wellington as the Allied forces pushed to the French border.
Battle of the Pyrenees, 25 July 1813
Marshal Soult began a counter-offensive (the Battle of the Pyrenees) and defeated the Allies at the Battle of Maya and the Battle of Roncesvalles (25 July). Pushing on into Spain, by 27 July the Roncesvalles wing of Soult's army was within ten miles of Pamplona but found its way blocked by a substantial allied force posted on a high ridge in between the villages of Sorauren and Zabaldica, lost momentum, and was repulsed by the Allies at the Battle of Sorauren (28 and 30 July)[187] Reille's right wing suffered further losses at Yanzi (1 August); and the Echallar and Ivantelly (2 August) during its retreat into France.[188][189][190] Total losses during this counter-offensive being about 7,000 for the Allies and 10,000 for the French.[188]
With 18,000 men, Wellington captured the French-garrisoned city of San Sebastián under Brigadier-General Louis Emmanuel Rey after two sieges that lasted from 7 July to 25 July (While Wellington departed with sufficient forces to deal with Marshal Soult's counter-offensive, he left General Graham in command of sufficient forces to prevent sorties from the city and any relief getting in); and from 22 August to 31 August 1813. The British incurred heavy losses during assaults. The city in turn was sacked and burnt to the ground by the Anglo-Portuguese: see Siege of San Sebastián. Meanwhile, the French garrison retreated into the Citadel, which after a heavy bombardment their governor surrendered on 8 September, with the garrison marching out the next day with full military honours.[191] Upon the day that San Sebastián fell Soult attempted to relieve it, but in the battles of Vera and San Marcial was repulsed[188] by the Spanish Army of Galicia under General Manuel Freire.[192] The Citadel surrendered on 9 September, the losses in the entire siege having been about—Allies 4,000, French 2,000. Wellington next determined to throw his left across the river Bidassoa to strengthen his own position, and secure the port of Fuenterrabia.[188]
The Battle of the Bidassoa, 1813
At daylight on 7 October 1813 Wellington crossed the Bidassoa in seven columns, attacked the entire French position, which stretched in two heavily entrenched lines from north of the Irun-Bayonne road, along mountain spurs to the Great Rhune 2,800 feet (850 m) high.[193] The decisive movement was a passage in strength near Fuenterrabia to the astonishment of the enemy, who in view of the width of the river and the shifting sands, had thought the crossing impossible at that point. The French right was then rolled back, and Soult was unable to reinforce his right in time to retrieve the day. His works fell in succession after hard fighting, and he withdrew towards the river Nivelle. The losses were about—Allies, 1,600; French, 1,400.[contradictory] The passage of the Bidassoa "was a general's not a soldier's battle".[194][195]
On 31 October Pamplona surrendered, and Wellington was now anxious to drive Suchet from Catalonia before invading France. The British government, however, in the interests of the continental powers, urged an immediate advance over the northern Pyrennes into south-eastern France.[188] Napoleon had just suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Leipzig on 19 October and was in retreat,[citation needed] so Wellington left the clearance of Catalonia to others.[188]
Campaign in the northern Mediterranean region[edit]
In the northern Mediterranean region of Spain (Catalonia) Suchet had defeated Elio's Murcians at Yecla and Villena (11 April 1813), but was subsequently routed by Lieutenant General Sir John Murray[196] at the battle of Castalla (13 April), who then besieged Tarragona. The siege was abandoned after a time, but was later on renewed by Lieutenant General Lord William Bentinck. Suchet, after the Battle of Vitoria, evacuated Tarragona (17 August) but defeated Bentinck in the battle of Ordal (13 September).[195]
Early in 1814 at the Battle of Molins de Rey (16 January) Sir William Clinton attacked Suchet and then blockaded Barcelona on 7 February. The French posts of Lerida, Mequinenza and Monzon had also been yielded up, and Suchet, on 2 March 1814, crossed the Pyrenees into France.[197]
Invasion of France[edit]
[show]
Peninsular War
Vitoria and the Pyrenees, 1813–1814
Morales
San Millan
Vitoria
Tolosa
1st San Sebastián
Pyrenees
Maya
Roncesvalles
Lizasso
Sorauren
Buenza
2nd San Sebastián
San Marcial
Bidassoa
Pamplona
Nivelle
Nive
Garris
Orthez
Toulouse
Bayonne
See also: 1814 campaign in north-east France
Battle of the Nivelle, November 1813[edit]
On the night of 9 November 1813 Wellington brought up his right from the Pyrenean passes to the northward of Maya and towards the Nivelle. Marshal Soult's army (about 79,000), in three entrenched lines, stretched from the sea in front of Saint-Jean-de-Luz along commanding ground to Amotz and thence, behind the river, to Mont Mondarrain near the Nive.[195]
The Battle of Nivelle
Each army had with it about 100 guns; and, during a heavy cannonade, Wellington on 10 November 1813 attacked this extended position of 16 miles (26 km) in five columns, these being so directed that after carrying Soult's advanced works a mass of about 50,000 men converged towards the French centre near Amotz, where, after hard fighting, it swept away the 18,000 of the second line there opposed to it, cutting Soult's army in two. The French right then fell back to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the left towards points on the Nive. It was now late and the Allies, after moving a few miles down both banks of the Nivelle, bivouacked, while Soult, taking advantage of the respite, withdrew in the night to Bayonne. The allied loss during the Battle of Nivelle was about 2,700; that of the French 4,000, 51 guns, and all their magazines. The next day Wellington closed in upon Bayonne from the sea to the left bank of the Nive.[195]
Battles of the Nive, December 1813[edit]
After this there was a period of comparative inaction, though during it the French were driven from the bridges at Urdains[i] and Cambo-les-Bains.[j] The weather had become bad, and the Nive unfordable; but there were additional and serious causes of delay. The Portuguese and Spanish authorities were neglecting the payment and supply of their troops. Wellington had also difficulties of a similar kind with his own government, and also the Spanish soldiers, in revenge for many French outrages, had become guilty of grave excesses in France, so that Wellington took the extreme step of sending 25,000 of them back to Spain and resigning the command of their army (though his resignation was subsequently withdrawn). So great was the tension at this crisis that a rupture with Spain seemed possible, but this did not happen.[195][k]
Wellington, who in his cramped position between the sea and the Nive could not use his cavalry or artillery effectively, or interfere with the French supplies coming through Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, determined to occupy the right as well as the left bank of the Nive. He could not pass to that bank with his whole force while Soult held Bayonne, without exposing his own communications through Irun. Therefore, on 9 December 1813, after making a demonstration elsewhere, he effected the passage with a portion of his force only under Rowland Hill and Beresford, Ustaritz and Cambo-les-Bains, his loss being slight, and thence pushed down the river towards Villefranque, where Soult barred his way across the road to Bayonne. The allied army was now divided into two portions by the Nive; and Soult from Bayonne at once took advantage of his central position to attack it with all his available force, first on the left bank and then on the right.[195]
Battle of St Jean de Luz, 10 December 1813 by Thomas Sutherland.
On the morning of 10 December with 60,000 men and 40 guns, he attacked Hope, who with 30,000 men and 24 guns held a position from the sea 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Biarritz on a ridge behind two lakes (or tanks) through Arcangues towards the Nive. Desperate fighting now ensued, but fortunately for the British, owing to the intersected ground, Soult was compelled to advance slowly, and in the end, Wellington coming up with Beresford from the right bank, the French retired baffled.[195]
On 11 and 12 December there were engagements of a less severe character, and finally on 13 December Soult with 35,000 men made a vehement attack up the right bank of the Nive against Hill, who with about 14,000 men occupied some heights from Villefranque past Saint-Pierre (Lostenia) to Vieux Mouguerre.[l] The conflict about Saint-Pierre (Lostenia) was one of the most bloody of the war; but for hours Hill maintained his ground, and finally repulsed the French before Wellington, delayed by his pontoon bridge over the Nive having been swept away, arrived to his aid. The losses in the four days' fighting in the battles before Bayonne (or battles of the Nive) were-Allies about 5,000, French about 7,000.[195][m]
Battle of Garris, February 1814[edit]
When operations recommenced in February 1814 the French line extended from Bayonne up the north bank of the Adour to the Pau, thence bending south along the Bidouze to Saint-Palais, with advanced posts on the Joyeuse and at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. Wellington's left, under Hope, watched Bayonne, while Beresford, with Hill, observed the Adour and the Joyeuse, the right trending back until it reached Urcuray on the Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port road.[195]
Exclusive of the garrison of Bayonne and other places, the available field force of Soult numbered about 41,000, while that of the Allies, deducting Hope's force observing Bayonne, was of much the same strength. It had now become Wellington's object to draw Soult away from Bayonne so that the allied army, with fewer losses, might cross the Adour and lay siege to the place on both banks of the river.[195]
At its mouth the Adour was about 500 yards (460 m) wide, and its entrance from the sea by small vessels, except in the finest weather, was a perilous undertaking, owing to the shifting sands and a dangerous bar. On the other hand, the deep sandy soil near its banks made the transport of bridging matériel by land laborious, and almost certain of discovery. Wellington, convinced that no effort to bridge below Bayonne would be expected, decided to attempt it there, and collected at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and Passages a large number of country vessels (termed chasse-marées) Then, leaving Hope with 30,000 men to watch Bayonne, he began an enveloping movement round Soult's left. Hill on 14 and 15 February, after a battle of Garris, drove the French posts beyond the Joyeuse; and Wellington then pressed these troops back over the Bidouze and Gave de Mauleon to the Gave d'Oloron.[n] Wellington's object in this was at once attained, for Soult, leaving only 10,000 men in Bayonne, came out and concentrated at Orthez on the Pau. Then Wellington (19 February) proceeded to Saint-Jean-de-Luz to superintend the despatch of boats to the Adour. Unfavourable weather, however, compelled him to leave this to Sir John Hope and Admiral Penrose, so returning to the Gave d'Oloron he crossed it, and faced Soult on the Pau (25 February).[195][o]
Passage of the Adour, February 1814[edit]
Hope in the meantime, after feints higher up the Adour, succeeded (22 and 23 February) in passing 600 men across the river in boats. The nature of the ground, and there being no suspicion of an attempt at this point, led to the French coming out very tardily to oppose them; and when they did, some Congreve Rockets (then a novelty) threw them into confusion, so that the right bank was held until, on the morning of 24 February, the flotilla of chasse-marées appeared from Saint-Jean-de-Luz, preceded by men-of-war boats. Several men and vessels were lost in crossing the bar, but by noon on 26 February the bridge of 26 vessels had been thrown and secured, batteries and a boom placed to protect it, 8,000 troops passed over, and the enemy's gunboats driven up the river. Bayonne was then invested on both banks as a preliminary to the siege.[200]
Battle of Orthez, February 1814[edit]
On 27 February, Wellington, having with little loss effected the passage of the Pau below Orthez, attacked Soult. At the Battle of Orthez the Allies and French were of about equal strength (37,000): the former having 48 guns, the latter 40. Soult held a strong position behind Orthez on heights commanding the roads to Dax and Saint-Sever. Beresford was directed to turn his right, if possible cutting him off from Dax, and Hill his left towards the Saint-Sever road. Beresford's attack, after hard fighting over difficult ground, was repulsed, when Wellington, perceiving that the pursuing French had left a central part of the heights unoccupied, thrust up the Light Division into it, between Soult's right and centre. At the same time Hill, having found a ford above Orthez, was turning the French left, when Soult retreated just in time to save being cut off, withdrawing towards Saint-Sever, which he reached on 28 February. The allied loss was about 2,000; the French 4,000 and 6 guns.[197]
Action at Tarbes, March 1814[edit]
From Saint-Sever Soult turned eastwards to Aire-sur-l'Adour, where he covered the roads to Bordeaux and Toulouse. Beresford, with 12,000 men, was now sent to Bordeaux, which opened its gates as promised to the Allies. Driven by Hill from Aire-sur-l'Adour on 2 March 1814, Soult retired by Vic-en-Bigorre, where there was a combat (19 March), and Tarbes, where there was a severe action (20 March), to Toulouse behind the Garonne. He endeavoured also to rouse the French peasantry against the Allies, but in vain, for Wellington's justice and moderation afforded them no grievances.[197][201]
Wellington wished to pass the Garonne above Toulouse in order to attack the city from the south—its weakest side—and interpose between Soult and Suchet. But finding it impracticable to operate in that direction, he left Hill on the west side and crossed at Grenade below Toulouse (3 April).[197]
Battle of Toulouse, April 1814[edit]
The sortie from the besieged city of Bayonne, on 14 April 1814
When Beresford, who had now rejoined Wellington, had passed over, the bridge was swept away, which left him isolated on the right bank. But Soult did not attack, and the bridge as restored on 8 April, Wellington crossed the Garonne and the Hers-Mort,[p] and attacked Soult on 10 April. In the battle of Toulouse the French numbered about 40,000 (exclusive of the local National Guards) with 80 guns; the Allies under 52,000 with 64 guns. Soult's position to the north and east of the city was exceedingly strong, consisting of the Canal du Midi, some fortified suburbs, and (to the extreme east) the commanding ridge of Mont Rave (Heights of Calvinet), which crowned the redoubts and earthworks. Wellington's columns, under Beresford, were now called upon to make a flank march of some two miles, under artillery, and occasionally musketry, fire, being threatened also by cavalry, and then, while the Spanish troops assaulted the north of the ridge, to wheel up, mount the eastern slope, and carry the works. The Spaniards were repulsed, but Beresford's forces took Mont Rave and Soult fell back behind the canal.[197]
On 12 April Wellington advanced to invade Toulouse from the south, but Soult on the night of 11 April had retreated towards Villefranque, and Wellington then entered the city. The allied loss was about 5,000, the French 3,000. Thus, in the last great battle of the war, the courage and resolution of the soldiers of the Peninsular army were conspicuously illustrated.[197]
On 13 April 1814 officers arrived with the announcement to both armies of the capture of Paris, the abdication of Napoleon, and the practical conclusion of peace; and on 18 April a convention, which included Suchet's force, was entered into between Wellington and Soult.[197]
Unfortunately, after Toulouse had fallen, the Allies and French, in a sortie from Bayonne on 14 April, each lost about 1,000 men, so that some 10,000 men fell after peace had virtually been made.[197] The Peace of Paris was formally signed at Paris on 30 May 1814.[197]
Aftermath[edit]
Francisco de Goya's painting, Tres de Mayo (1814), which depicts French soldiers executing civilians defending Madrid, would help make the uprising of May 2–3, 1808, a touchstone event of the Peninsular War. Notice how the painting emphasizes the man in white striking a Christ-like pose.[4]
French victories of the Peninsular War inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
See also: Mid-nineteenth century Spain
At the end of the Peninsular War, British troops were partly sent to England, and partly embarked at Bordeaux for America for service in the final months of the American War of 1812. The Portuguese and Spanish recrossed the Pyrenees and the French army dispersed throughout France. Louis XVIII was restored to the French throne; and Napoleon was permitted to reside on the island of Elba, the sovereignty of which had been conceded to him by the allied powers. For the campaign Wellington was created Marquess of Douro and Duke of Wellington, and peerages were conferred upon Beresford, Graham and Hill.[197]
In the opinion of Charles Esdaile, the Peninsular War was of far greater significance in Spain and Portugal than it was in the Napoleonic Wars.[202] Although Esdaile notes that this is not recognized in the classic tradition,[203] as Napoleon said of the conflict, "It was [the Spanish war] that overthrew me. All my disasters can be traced back to this fatal knot".[204] By intervening in Spain and Portugal, Napoleon involved himself in a struggle that would have been difficult to win at the best of times: so intense was the national spirit of these two countries, the French armies were confronted by a veritable people's war.[205] The Grande Armée that campaigned in Russia in 1812 was not short of troops. Rather, what was lacking was the ability to make use of troops, the communications, transport and supply arrangements of the army all proving desperately short for the needs even of the numbers that Napoleon did take with him.[206] Two years later, heartened by French difficulties in Spain, both Russia and Prussia considered going to war against Napoleon; in Prussia leaders of the reform movement such as August von Gneisenau added to the pressure by painting pictures of people's war a la español.[207] Once he had been beaten in Germany in 1813, Napoleon's only hope of survival—other than accepting the compromise peace that at this point was on offer—was to mobilise France for total war in the hope that resistance might be prolonged long enough for the divisions between the Allies to undermine its commitment to their common cause.[208]
King Joseph had been welcomed by Spanish afrancesados (Francophiles), who believed that collaboration with France would bring modernisation and liberty; an example was the abolition of the Spanish Inquisition. Priests and patriots stirred up agitation, which became widespread after the French army's first examples of repression (such as that in Madrid in 1808) were used as anti-French propaganda to unite and enrage the people. The remaining afrancesados were exiled to France following the departure of French troops.
After the Peninsular War, the pro-independence traditionalists and liberals clashed in the Carlist Wars, as King Ferdinand VII ("the Desired One"; later "the Traitor King") revoked all the changes made by the independent Cortes in Cádiz. He restored absolute monarchy, prosecuted and put to death everyone suspected of liberalism, and altered the laws of royal succession in favour of his daughter Isabella II, starting a century of civil wars against the supporters of the former legal heir to the throne. The liberal Cortes had approved the first Spanish Constitution on 19 March 1812, which King Ferdinand later nullified. In Spanish America, Spanish and Criollo officials formed Juntas that swore allegiance to King Ferdinand. This experience in self-government led the later Libertadores (Liberators) to promote the independence of Spain’s American colonies.
The whole country had been pillaged, and society subjected to destabilising change, even anarchy.[209] The Peninsular War gave birth to the violence and popular antagonism that, along with military intervention in politics, were to be nineteenth-century Spain's most pronounced characteristics. Portugal's position was more favorable than Spain's. Revolt had not spread to Brazil, there was no colonial struggle and there had been no attempt at political revolution.[210]
Exposing the limitations of eighteenth-century enlightened absolutism, the war dealt a blow to both the Church and the nobility. The Church had suffered great losses—one third of the clergy may have died in the struggle—and it had also been stripped of much of its property, and desamortización, hostility to the tithes and the demands of the French and the Patriots for funds had left it without resources.[211]
The Peninsular War signified Portugal's traumatic entry into the modern age. The Governors of Portugal nominated by the absent king had scant influence because of the successive French invasions and British occupation. The Portuguese Court's transfer to Rio de Janeiro initiated Brazil's state-building that produced its independence in 1822. The Portuguese Navy's skillful evacuation of more than 15,000 people from the court, administration, and army was a bonus for Brazil and a blessing in disguise for Portugal, as it liberated the energies of the country.
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Some accounts mark the Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal as the beginning of the war (Glover 2001, p. 45).
Jump up ^ Denotes the date of the general armistice between France and the Sixth Coalition (Glover 2001, p. 335).
Jump up ^ Other names:
Basque: Iberiar Penintsulako Gerra ("Iberian Peninsular War") or Espainiako Independentzia Gerra ("Spanish War of Independence")
Catalan: Guerra del Francès ("War of the Frenchman")
French: Guerre d'Espagne et du Portugal ("War in Spain and in Portugal") or Campagne d'Espagne ("Spanish Campaign")
Galician: Guerra da Independencia española ("War of Spanish Independence")
Portuguese: Invasões Francesas ("French Invasions") or Guerra Peninsular ("Peninsular War")
Spanish: Many names, including the la Francesada, Guerra de la Independencia ("Independence War"), Guerra Peninsular ("Peninsular War"), Guerra de España ("War of Spain"), Guerra del Francés ("War of the French"), Guerra de los Seis Años ("Six Years' War"), Levantamiento y revolución de los españoles ("Rising and Revolution of the Spaniards")
Jump up ^ The young class who styled themselves with French fashion and manners
Jump up ^ John Lawrence Tone has questioned this assessment of the Spanish juntas on the grounds that it relies too much on the accounts of British officers and elites; these sources being unfair to the revolutionaries, "whom they despised for being Jacobins, Catholics, and Spaniards, not in that order".[60]
Jump up ^ Esdaille notes that the Junta of Seville declared itself the supreme government of Spain and tried to annex neighbouring juntas by force (Esdaile 2003a, pp. 304–305).
Jump up ^ "This was an historic occasion; news of it spread like wildfire throughout Spain and all Europe. It was the first time since 1801 that a sizable French force had laid down its arms, and the legend of French invincibility underwent a severe shaking. Everywhere anti-French elements drew fresh inspiration from the tidings. The Pope published an open denunciation of Napoleon; Prussian patriots were heartened; and, most of all, the Austrian war party began to secure the support of the Emperor Francis for a renewed challenge to the French Empire".[49]
Jump up ^ Neale shows that correspondence from both Berthier, in a letter on 10 December 1808, and Moore in a dispatch on 28 December, indicate that both sides were aware that the allies were defeated and that the British were prepared to retreat. Berthier worte "...everything inclines us to think that they [the British] are in full retreat..." (Neale 1809, Appendix—XXXV p. 100), and Moore that "I had no time to lose to secure my retreat" (Neale 1809, Appendix—XXXVI p. 102).
Jump up ^ The bridge crosses the Urdains brook (a tributary of the Nive) just north of the Château d'Urdain.
Jump up ^ George Bell, then a junior British officer in the 34th Foot recounted in his biography that the period of inaction in this area of an "Irish sentry who was found with a French and an English musket on his two shoulders, guarding a bridge over a brook on behalf of both armies. For he explained to the officer going the rounds that his French neighbour had gone off on his behalf, with his last precious half-dollar, to buy brandy for both, and had left his musket in pledge till his return. The French officer going his rounds on the other side of the brook then turned up, and explained that he had caught his sentry, without arms and carrying two bottles, a long way to the rear. If either of them reported what had happened to their colonels, both sentries would be court-martialled and shot. Wherefore both subalterns agreed to hush up the matter".[198]
Jump up ^ On 11 December, Napoleon, beleaguered and desperate, agreed to a separate peace with Spain under the Treaty of Valençay, under which he would release and recognize Ferdinand in exchange for a complete cessation of hostilities. But the Spanish had no intention of trusting Napoleon and the fighting continued.[citation needed]
Jump up ^ "Vieux Mouguerre" is spelt "Vieux Moguerre" in some sources.[195]
Jump up ^ On the evening of 10 December, some 1,400 troops from three German battalions deserted in response to a secret message from the Duke of Nassau—one of the many German rulers who had surrendered following the Battle of Leipzig—ordering them to surrender to the Allies. In addition, Soult and Suchet lost the rest of their German units—another 3,000 men—as it was felt that they became unreliable. This left the Adour's defenders much depleted and incapable of further offensive action.[199]
Jump up ^ "Gave" in the Pyrenees means a mountain stream or torrent.[195]
Jump up ^ in some sources Orthez is spelt Orthes.[195]
Jump up ^ Contemporary British military sources and some secondary sources call this river the "Ers" (Robinson 1911, p. 97).
^ Jump up to: a b Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015. p. 157.
Jump up ^ Chandler, David. The Art of Warfare on Land. p. 164. [full citation needed]
Jump up ^ Fletcher 2003a, p. [page needed].
^ Jump up to: a b c d Hindley 2010.
Jump up ^ (Ellis 2014, p. 100) cites Owen Connelly (ed), "peninsular War", Historical dictionary, p. 387.
Jump up ^ Payne 1973, pp. 432–433.
Jump up ^ Chandler (1966), 588
Jump up ^ Chandler (1966), 596
Jump up ^ Chandler (1966), 597
^ Jump up to: a b Oman (2010), I, 7
^ Jump up to: a b Oman (2010), I, 8
Jump up ^ Oman (2010), I, 9
Jump up ^ Oman (2010), I, 26
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 22.
Jump up ^ Gates (2002), 6-7
Jump up ^ Oman (2010), I, 367
Jump up ^ Oman (2010), I, 27
^ Jump up to: a b Oman (2010), I, 28
Jump up ^ Oman (2010), I, 30
Jump up ^ Chandler (1966), 599
Jump up ^ Oman (2010), I, 29
^ Jump up to: a b c Oman (2010), I, 31
^ Jump up to: a b Oman (2010), I, 32
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 37.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 38.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 610.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, pp. 302–303.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 40.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 41.
Jump up ^ Churchill 1958, p. 257.
Jump up ^ Gates 2009, p. 12.
Jump up ^ Palafox 1994, p. 54.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 53.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 611.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 162.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 62.
^ Jump up to: a b Chandler 1995, p. 614.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 63.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 611; Gates 2002, pp. 181–182.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 61.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 67.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 77.
^ Jump up to: a b Esdaile 2003, p. 73.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 74.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 616.
Jump up ^ Glover 2001, p. 53.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 77.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 84.
^ Jump up to: a b Chandler 1995, p. 617.
Jump up ^ Thomas Moore, Memoirs of the life of the Right Honorable Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: H.C. Carey and I. Lea, 1825), p. 425.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 87.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 88.
Jump up ^ Rodríguez 1956, p. 222.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 89.
^ Jump up to: a b Richardson 1920, p. 343.
Jump up ^ Gay 1903, p. 231.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 106.
Jump up ^ Oman 1902, pp. 367–375.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 625.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 621.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 628.
Jump up ^ Oman 1902, pp. 647–648.
Jump up ^ "Documents of the Junta Era" (in Spanish). Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 620.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 487.
Jump up ^ Glover 2001, p. 55.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 631.
Jump up ^ Churchill 1958, p. 260.
^ Jump up to: a b c Martínez 1999, p. [page needed].
Jump up ^ James 1826, pp. 131–132.
Jump up ^ Oman 1902, p. 492.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 143.
Jump up ^ Haythornthwaite 2001, p. 27.
Jump up ^ Oman 1902, p. 598.
Jump up ^ Moore, John. Major General Sir J.F. Maurice, ed. The Diary of Sir John Moore. II. London. p. 358.
Jump up ^ Fortescue 1915, pp. 326–327.
Jump up ^ Fremont-Barnes 2002, p. 35.
Jump up ^ Neale quotes Moore (letter to Lord Castlereigh, 31 December 1808) "I have made the movement against Soult; as a diversion it has answered, but as there is nothing to take advantage of it, I have risked the loss of my army for no purpose" (Neale 1809, Appendix, p. 104)
Jump up ^ Haythornthwaite 2001, p. 45.
Jump up ^ Hamilton, p. 385; Neale et al. gives: 28,900 men (2450 cavalry) and 50 guns (Neale et al. 1828, p. 171)
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 108.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 648.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 146.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 148.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 150.
Jump up ^ Fletcher 1999, p. 97.
Jump up ^ Moore, Richard. "Plunket's Shot: A reconstruction of a famous exploit in the history of the 95th Rifles". Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b Gates 2002, p. 114.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 155.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 156.
^ Jump up to: a b Glover 2001, p. 89.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 128.
Jump up ^ Bell, David A. "Napoleon's Total War". TheHistoryNet.com. [permanent dead link]
Jump up ^ Gates 2009, p. 138.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 164.
Jump up ^ Gates 2001, p. 138.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 178.
Jump up ^ Gates 2001, p. 142.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 179.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Nuñez, A.; Smith, G.A. (7 December 2009). "The Cruel War in Spain: Napoleonic Wars: Peninsula Campaign: Wellington". Napolun.com. Retrieved 9 February 2013. [unreliable source]
Jump up ^ Gates 2009, p. 123.
Jump up ^ Hall, Corcubión, pp. 13–17 passim .[full citation needed]
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 177.
Jump up ^ Guedalla 2005, p. 186.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 213.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 214.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 94.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, pp. 194–196.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 494.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 196.
Jump up ^ Smith 1998, pp. 333–334
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, pp. 197–199.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 199.
Jump up ^ Oman 1908, pp. 97–98.
Jump up ^ Smith 1998, p. 336
Jump up ^ Oman 1908, p. 98.
^ Jump up to: a b Oman 1908, p. 99.
Jump up ^ Gates 2002, p. 204.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 217.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 220.
^ Jump up to: a b Esdaile 2003, p. 226.
Jump up ^ Proclamation of the Conde de Montarco, 25 March 1812, BN CGI R60016–14.
Jump up ^ Brandt 1999, p. 87.
^ Jump up to: a b McLynn 1997, pp. 396–406.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 239.
Jump up ^ Laqueur 1975, pp. [page needed].
Jump up ^ Glover 2001, p. 10.
Jump up ^ Chandler 1995, p. 746.
Jump up ^ Blaze 1995, p. 277.
Jump up ^ Bigarré 1893, p. 277.
Jump up ^ Rocca & Rocca 1815, p. [page needed].
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 270.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 271.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 280.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 282.
Jump up ^ Donaldson, Recollections, pp. 71–7.[full citation needed]
Jump up ^ Galiano 2009, p. 292.
^ Jump up to: a b Esdaile 2003, p. 283.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 284.
Jump up ^ Argüelles 1970, p. 90.
Jump up ^ Grehan, John. The Lines of Torres Vedras: The Cornerstone of Wellington's Strategy in the Peninsular War 1809–1812. Spellmount[full citation needed]
Jump up ^ Gurwood 1852, p. 583.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 313.
Jump up ^ Oman 1908, p. 418.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 326.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 327.
Jump up ^ Weller 1962, pp. 141–142.
Jump up ^ Weller 1962, p. 144.
Jump up ^ Gates 2001, pp. 32–33.
Jump up ^ Gurwood 1852b, p. 54.
Jump up ^ Weller 1962, pp. 145–146.
Jump up ^ Oman 1911, p. 4.
^ Jump up to: a b Southey 1837, p. 165.
Jump up ^ Southey 1837, pp. 165, 170.
Jump up ^ Southey 1837, pp. 172–180.
Jump up ^ Gates 2001, p. 248.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 340.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 341.
Jump up ^ Southey 1837, p. 241.
Jump up ^ Glover 2001, p. 156.
Jump up ^ Napier 1867, p. 155.
Jump up ^ Rousset 1892, p. 21.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 360.
Jump up ^ Anonymous 1825, p. 172.
Jump up ^ Anonymous 1825, p. 174.
Jump up ^ Grant 2005, p. 209.
Jump up ^ Weller p 204
Jump up ^ Fletcher p 81
Jump up ^ "Siege of Badajoz". Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Jump up ^ Military General Service Medal, with bars for Roleia, Vimiera, Busaco, Salamanca, Vittoria & St Sebastian, inscribed to Pvt. Joseph Weller, 1848
Jump up ^ Oman p 58
Jump up ^ Porter 1889, p. [page needed].
Jump up ^ Glover 2001, pp. 207–208.
Jump up ^ Southey 1837b, p. 68.
Jump up ^ Moore, Richard (1999). "Cadiz 5 February 1810 – 24 August 1812". Napoleonic Guide. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
Jump up ^ Glover 2001, pp. 210–212.
Jump up ^ Sir William Francis Patrick Napier (1864). History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France: from A. D. 1807 to A.D. 1814. W. J. Widdleton. p. 155. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 428.
^ Jump up to: a b Esdaile 2003, p. 429.
^ Jump up to: a b Gates 2002, p. 521.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 454.
Jump up ^ Pakenham, Edward Michael; Pakenham Longford, Thomas (2009). Pakenham Letters: 1800–1815. Ken Trotman Publishing. p. 221.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 455.
Jump up ^ Robinson 1956, p. 165.
Jump up ^ Wellington to Bathurst, 18 August 1813, WD, vol. VI, p. 690.
Jump up ^ The Peninsular War: A New History by Charles Esdaile, pg 457
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 462.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Robinson 1911, p. 95.
Jump up ^ COS staff (November 2014), Battle Name:Yanzi, clash-of-steel.com .[better source needed]
Jump up ^ Napier 1879, pp. 321–325.
Jump up ^ Napier 1879, pp. 334–343.
Jump up ^ Glover 2001, pp. 280–287.
Jump up ^ Robinson 1911, pp. 95–96.
Jump up ^ Napier 1879, p. 367.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Robinson 1911, p. 96.
Jump up ^ Commander of a British expedition from the Mediterranean islands (Robinson 1911, p. 96).
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Robinson 1911, p. 97.
Jump up ^ (Oman 1930, p. 295) cites Memoirs of Sir George Bell', i. p 133
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 481.
Jump up ^ Robinson 1911, pp. 96–97.
Jump up ^ Simmons & Verner 2012, p. 340.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 499.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 499-500.
Jump up ^ Las Cases, Mémorial de Sainte Héléne, vol. I, p. 584.[full citation needed]
Jump up ^ Wilson, Diary of St. Helena, p. 104.[full citation needed]
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 502.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 503.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 504.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 505.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 507.
Jump up ^ Esdaile 2003, p. 508.
References[edit]
Anonymous, ed. (1825). The Annual Register, for the year 1810 (2nd ed.). London. pp. 169–174.
Argüelles, A. (1970). J. Longares, ed. Examen Histórico de la Reforma Constitucional que Hicieron las Cortes Generates y Extraordinarias Desde que se Instalaron en la Isla de León el Dia 24 de Septiembre de 1810 Hasta que Cerraron en Cadiz sus Sesiones en 14 del Propio Mes de 1813 (in Spanish). Madrid. p. 90. published under the title La Reforma Constitucional de Cádiz
Blaze, Elzéar (1995). Haythornthwaite, Philip J., ed. Life in Napoleon's army: the memoirs of Captain Elzéar Blaze. Greenhill Books. p. 102. ISBN 1853671967.
Bigarré, Auguste Julien (1893). Mémoires du General Bigarré, aide de camp du roi Joseph: 1775–1813. p. 277.
Brandt, Heinrich von (1 November 1999). North, Jonathan, ed. In the legions of Napoleon: the memoirs of a Polish officer in Spain and Russia, 1808–1813. Greenhill Books. p. 87. ISBN 9781853673801.
Chandler, David G. (1995) [1966]. The Campaigns of Napoleon. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-02-523660-1.
Chandler, David G. (1974). The Art of Warfare on Land. Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0600301370.
Churchill, Winston (1958). A History of the English-speaking Peoples: The age of revolution. 3. Dodd, Mead. pp. 257, 260.
Ellis, Geoffrey (2014). Napoleon: Profiles In Power. Routledge. p. 100. ISBN 9781317874706.
Esdaile, Charles (2003) [2002]. The Peninsular War. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-6231-6.
Esdaile, Charles (2003a) [2002]. The Peninsular War. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-140-27370-0.
Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2002). The Napoleonic Wars: The Peninsular War 1807–1814. Osprey. ISBN 1841763705.
Fletcher, Ian (1999). Galloping at Everything: The British Cavalry in the Peninsula and at Waterloo 1808–15. Staplehurst: Spellmount. ISBN 1-86227-016-3.
Fletcher, Ian (2003a). The Lines of Torres Vedras 1809–11. Osprey Publishing.
Fortescue, J. W. (1915). A History of The British Army. Vol IV 1807–1809. MacMillan. OCLC 312880647.
Galiano, Antonio Alcalá (2009). Memorias de D, Antonio Alcalá Galiano. I. Editorial Visión Libros. p. 292.
Gates, David (29 October 2001). The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-7867-4732-0.
Gates, David (2002) [1986]. The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War. Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-9730-6.
Gates, David (2009) [1986]. The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780786747320.
Gay, Susan E. (1903). Old Falmouth. London. p. 231.
Glover, Michael (2001) [1974]. The Peninsular War 1807–1814: A Concise Military History. Penguin Classic Military History. ISBN 0-14-139041-7.
Grant, Reg (2005). Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0-7566-1360-4.
Guedalla, Philip (2005) [1931]. The Duke. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-17817-5.
Gurwood, J., ed. (1852). "Wellington to Liverpool, 14 November 1809". The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, K. G. During His Various Campaigns in India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, the Low Countries, and France: France and the Low Countries, 1814–1815. III. London. p. 583.
Gurwood, J., ed. (1852b). "Wellington to Liverpool, 21 December 1810". The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington during his various Campaigns in India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, the Low Countries and France from 1789 to 1815. VII. London. p. 54.
Haythornthwaite, Philip (2001). Corunna 1809. Campaign 83. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1 85532 968 9.
Hindley, Meredith (2010). "The Spanish Ulcer: Napoleon, Britain, and the Siege of Cádiz". 'Humanities. National Endowment for the Humanities. 31 (January/February 2010 Number 1). Retrieved 2 August 2013.
James, William (1826) [1826]. "The Naval History of Great Britain". V. Harding, Lepard and Co. Retrieved 11 January 2008.
Laqueur, Walter (July 1975). "The Origins of Guerrilla Doctrine". Journal of Contemporary History. Society for Military History. 10 (3): 341–382. doi:10.1177/002200947501000301.
Martínez, Ángel de Velasco (1999). Historia de España: La España de Fernando VII. Barcelona: Espasa. ISBN 84-239-9723-5.
McLynn, Frank (1997). Napoleon: A Biography. London: Pimlico. pp. 396–406.
Napier, Sir William Francis Patrick (1867). History of the War in the Peninsula, and in the South of France: From the Year 1807 to the Year 1814. [T.and W.] Boone. p. 155.
Napier, Sir William Francis Patrick (1879). English battles and sieges in the Peninsula. London: J. Murray. pp. 321–325.
Neale, Adam (1809). "Appendix". Letters from Portugal and Spain: An Account of the Operations of the Armies .. London: Richard Philips. pp. 100, 102.
Neale, Adam; Hopetoun, John Hope (4th earl); Malcolm, John; Rocca, Albert Jean Michel (1828). Memorials of the Late War. I. Edinburgh. OCLC 9981233.
Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1902). A History of the Peninsular War: 1807–1809. I. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1908). A History of the Peninsular War: Sep. 1809 – Dec. 1810. III. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1911). A History of the Peninsular War: Dec. 1810 – Dec. 1811. IV. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1930). A History of the Peninsular War: August 1813 – April 14, 1814. VII. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Palafox, J. de (1994). H. Lafoz, ed. Memorias. Zaragoza. p. 54.
Porter, Maj Gen Whitworth (1889). History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol I. Chatham: The Institution of Royal Engineers.
Southey, Robert (1837). "Chapters 33–41". History of the Peninsular War. V (New, in 6 volumes ed.). London: John Murray.
Southey, Robert (1837b). "Chapters 41 (continued)–46". History of the Peninsular War. VI (New, in 6 volumes ed.). London: John Murray.
Payne, Stanley G. (1973). A History of Spain and Portugal: Eighteenth Century to Franco. 2. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 432–433. ISBN 978-0-299-06270-5.
Richardson, Hubert N.B. (1920). A dictionary of Napoleon and his times. New York. OCLC 154001.
Robinson, Sir F. P. (1956). Atkinson, Christopher Thomas, ed. A Peninsular brigadier: letters of Major General Sir F. P. Robinson, K.C.B., dealing with the campaign of 1813. London?: Army Historical Research. p. 165. OCLC 725885384.
Rocca, Albert Jean Michel; Rocca, M. de (1815). Callcott, Lady Maria, ed. Memoirs of the War of the French in Spain.
Rodríguez, Alicia Lastra (1956). "Buscando a mi general: el periplo asturiano de Andrew Leith Hay en 1808". Archivum (in Spanish). Universidad de Oviedo. pp. 219–247. GGKEY:T6X2X3HZ2PQ.
Rousset, Camille (1892). Recollections of Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum. II. London: Nabu Press. p. 21. ISBN 1277402965.
Simmons, George; Verner, William Willoughby Cole (2012). A British Rifle Man: The Journals and Correspondence of Major George Simmons, Rifle Brigade, During the Peninsular War and the Campaign of Waterloo. Cambridge University Press. p. 340. ISBN 978-1-108-05409-6.
Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.
Weller, Jac (1962). Wellington in the Peninsula. Nicholas Vane.
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Robinson, Charles Walker (1911). "Peninsular War". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 90–98.
Further reading[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spanish War of Independence.
Esdaile, Charles J. (1988). The Spanish Army in the Peninsular War. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-2538-9.
Esdaile, Charles J. (2004). Fighting Napoleon: Guerrillas, Bandits & Adventurers in Spain, 1808–1814. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10112-0.
Fletcher, Ian (2003). Peninsular War; Aspects of the Struggle for the Iberian Peninsula. Spellmount Publishers. ISBN 1-873376-82-0.
Fletcher, Ian, ed. (2007). The Campaigns of Wellington, (3 vols) Vol 1. The Peninsular War 1808–1811; Vol. 2. The Peninsular War 1812–1814. The Folio Society.
Fraser, Ronald (2008). Napoleon's Cursed War: Spanish Popular Resistance in the Peninsular War, 1808–1814. Brooklyn: Verso Books. p. 624. ISBN 978-1-84467-082-6.
Goya, Francisco (1967). The Disasters of War. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-21872-4.
Griffith, Paddy (1999). A History of the Peninsular War: Modern Studies of the War in Spain and Portugal, 1808–14. 9. Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-348-X.
Henty, G.A. (1898). With Moore at Corunna: A Tale of the Peninsular War. – historical fiction
Lachouque, Henry; Mallender, Janet S.; Clements, John R. (1994) Napoleon's War in Spain: The French Peninsular Campaigns, 1807–1814
Lovett, Gabriel H. (1965). Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Spain. New York: UP. ISBN 0-8147-0267-8.
Messenger, Charles, ed. (2013) [2001]. Reader's Guide to Military History (reprint ed.). Routledge. pp. 417–20. ; evaluation of the major books
Morgan, John (2009). "War Feeding War? The Impact of Logistics on the Napoleonic Occupation of Catalonia". Journal of Military History. 73 (1): 83–116. doi:10.1353/jmh.0.0183.
Napier, William (1828–40). The War in the Peninsula (6 vols). London: John Murray (Vol 1), and private (Vols 2–6).
Muir, Rory (1996). Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1807–1815. (excerpt)
Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1903). A History of the Peninsular War: Jan. – Sep. 1809. II. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1914). A History of the Peninsular War: Oct. 1811 – Aug. 31 1812. V. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1922). A History of the Peninsular War: Sep. 1 1812 – 5 Aug. 1813. VI. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1930). A History of the Peninsular War: August 1813 – April 14, 1814. VII. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rathbone, Julian (1984). Wellington's War. Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-2396-4.
Suchet, Marshal Duke D'Albufera (2007). Memoirs of the War in Spain (2 volumes). Pete Kautz. ISBN 1-85818-477-0.
Urban, Mark (2003). Rifles: Six years with Wellington's legendary sharpshooters. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-21681-1.
Urban, Mark (2001). The Man who Broke Napoleon's Codes. London: Faber and Faber Ltd. ISBN 0-571-20513-5.
Other media[edit]
Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, Cary Grant (1957). The Pride and the Passion (film). Spain: United Artists. — retrieval of fictional cannon during Peninsular Campaign
[show]
v
t
e
Napoleonic Wars
Third Coalition
Fourth Coalition
Peninsular War
Fifth Coalition
French Invasion of Russia
Sixth Coalition
Seventh Coalition
Belli-
gerents
France,
client states
and allies
France
Polish Legions
Italy
Holland
Etruria
Swiss Confederation
Naples
Confederation of the Rhine
Bavaria
Saxony
Westphalia
Württemberg
Denmark–Norway
Ottoman Empire
Persia
Spain
Coalition
forces
United Kingdom
Austria
Russia
Prussia
Spain
Portugal
Sicily
Papal States
Ottoman Empire
Persia
Sardinia
Sweden
Netherlands
Brunswick
Hanover
Nassau
French Royalists
Major
battles
Prelude
French Revolution
First Coalition
Second Coalition
18 Brumaire
Planned invasion of the United Kingdom
Duc d'Enghien Execution
Coronation of Napoleon
1805
Diamond Rock
Cape Finisterre
Wertingen
Günzburg
Haslach-Jungingen
Elchingen
Ulm
Verona
Trafalgar
Caldiero
Cape Ortegal
Amstetten
Dürenstein
Schöngrabern
Austerlitz
1806
Gaeta
Campo Tenese
Maida
Schleiz
Saalfeld
Jena–Auerstedt
Erfurt
Halle
Magdeburg
Prenzlau
Pasewalk
Stettin
Waren-Nossentin
Lübeck
Greater Poland Uprising
Hameln
Czarnowo
Golymin
Pułtusk
1807
Mohrungen
Stralsund
Eylau
Ostrołęka
Kolberg
Danzig
Mileto
Guttstadt-Deppen
Heilsberg
Friedland
Copenhagen
Invasion of Portugal
1808
Dos de Mayo
Bruch
Rosily Squadron
Cabezón
1st Zaragoza
Valencia
Medina de Rioseco
Bailén
Roliça
Vimeiro
Pancorbo
Valmaseda
Burgos
Espinosa
Tudela
Somosierra
2nd Zaragoza
Sahagún
Benavente
1809
Castellón
Uclés
Corunna
Valls
Tyrolean Rebellion
Villafranca
Yevenes/Yébenes
Ciudad Real
1st Porto
Medellín
Bergisel
Sacile
Teugen-Hausen
Raszyn
Abensberg
Landshut
Eckmühl
Ratisbon
Neumarkt-Sankt Veit
Dalmatian Campaign
Ebelsberg
Gerona
Piave River
Grijó
2nd Porto
Wörgl
Tarvis
Aspern-Essling
Alcañiz
Sankt Michael
Stralsund
Raab
María
Graz
Wagram
Korneuburg
Stockerau
Gefrees
Hollabrunn
Schöngrabern
Armistice of Znaim
Talavera
Walcheren Campaign
Ölper
Almonacid
Tamames
Ocaña
Alba de Tormes
1810
Cádiz
Astorga
Ciudad Rodrigo
Barquilla
Côa
Almeida
Bussaco
1811
Gebora
Barrosa
Pombal
Redinha
Casal Novo
Campo Maior
Sabugal
Almeida
Fuentes de Oñoro
Tarragona
Albuera
Usagre
Saguntum
Arroyo dos Molinos
Valencia
1812
Ciudad Rodrigo
Badajoz
Villagarcia
Almaraz
Maguilla
Mir
Salamanca
García Hernández
Saltanovka
Ostrovno
Vitebsk
Klyastitsy
Majadahonda
Smolensk
1st Polotsk
Valutino
Mesoten
Borodino
Burgos
Tarutino
2nd Polotsk
Venta del Pozo
Maloyaroslavets
Chashniki
Vyazma
Smoliani
Krasnoi
Berezina
1813
Castalla
Lützen
Bautzen
Tarragona
Luckau
Vitoria
San Sebastián
Pyrenees
Sorauren
Großbeeren
Katzbach
Dresden
1st Kulm
San Marcial
Dennewitz
2nd Kulm
Göhrde
Bidassoa
Leipzig
Hanau
Nivelle
Bornhöved
Sehested
1814
Brienne
La Rothière
Mincio River
Champaubert
Montmirail
Château-Thierry
Vauchamps
Garris
Mormant
Montereau
Orthez
Bar-sur-Aube
Laon
Reims
Craonne
Arcis-sur-Aube
Fère-Champenoise
Saint-Dizier
Montmartre
Paris
Toulouse
Bayonne
1815
Panaro
Occhiobello
Carpi
Casaglia
Ronco
Cesenatico
Pesaro
Scapezzano
Tolentino
Ancona
Castel di Sangro
San Germano
Gaeta
Quatre Bras
Ligny
Waterloo
Wavre
Rocheserviere
La Suffel
Rocquencourt
Issy
Info
French and ally
military and
political leaders
Napoleon
Louis-Alexandre Berthier
Joachim Murat
Louis-Nicolas Davout
Jean Lannes
Auguste de Marmont
André Masséna
Michel Ney
Jean-de-Dieu Soult
Marshal Victor
Jean-Baptiste Bessières
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Joseph I
Louis Bonaparte
Jérôme Bonaparte
Prince Poniatowski
Prince Eugène
Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
Frederick I of Württemberg
Frederick VI of Denmark
Coalition
military and
political leaders
Duke of Wellington
Rowland Hill
John Moore
Horatio Nelson
Thomas Cochrane
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
Manuel Lapeña
Archduke Charles
Prince von Schwarzenberg
Archduke John of Austria
Alexander I of Russia
Mikhail Kutuzov
Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly
Count Bennigsen
Pyotr Bagration
Frederick William III of Prussia
Gebhard von Blücher
Duke of Brunswick
Prince of Hohenlohe
Ferdinand VII of Spain
Miguel de Álava
Maria I of Portugal
Prince Regent John of Portugal
Count of Feira
William, Prince of Orange
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden
Prince Charles John of Sweden
Louis XVIII of France
Related
conflicts
Anglo-Spanish War
English Wars
Gunboat War
Dano-Swedish War
Pomeranian War (Franco-Swedish War)
Russo-Persian War
Russo-Turkish War
Finnish War
Anglo-Turkish War
Anglo-Russian War
Anglo-Swedish War
War of 1812
Swedish–Norwegian War
Treaties
Campo Formio
Lunéville
Amiens
Artlenburg
Pressburg
Finckenstein
Tilsit
Cintra
Schönbrunn
Paris (1810)
Tauroggen
Ried
Chaumont
Kiel
Mantua
Casalanza
Paris (1815)
Miscellaneous
Bibliography
Continental System
England expects that every man will do his duty
Casualties
Grande Armée
Longwood House
Bourbon Restoration
Portal
Military History
definition
media
quotes
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peninsular_War&oldid=813947782"
Categories:
Peninsular War
19th century in Portugal
19th century in Spain
Conflicts in 1807
Conflicts in 1808
Conflicts in 1809
Conflicts in 1810
Conflicts in 1811
Conflicts in 1812
Conflicts in 1813
Conflicts in 1814
France–Portugal relations
France–Spain relations
France–United Kingdom relations
Guerrilla wars
King's German Legion
Napoleonic Wars
Portugal–Spain relations
Portugal–United Kingdom relations
Wars involving France
Wars involving Portugal
Wars involving Spain
Wars involving the United Kingdom
Wars of independence
Hidden categories:
Articles containing Basque-language text
Articles containing Catalan-language text
Articles containing French-language text
Articles containing Galician-language text
Articles containing Portuguese-language text
All articles with unsourced statements
Articles with unsourced statements from December 2014
Articles needing more detailed references
Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from February 2014
CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
All articles with dead external links
Articles with dead external links from December 2017
Articles with permanently dead external links
All articles lacking reliable references
Articles lacking reliable references from December 2014
Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from September 2015
Articles lacking reliable references from November 2014
Wikipedia pending changes protected pages (level 1)
Articles that may be too long from February 2015
Use British English from August 2013
Use dmy dates from August 2013
Pages using deprecated image syntax
Articles with unsourced statements from June 2012
Articles contradicting other articles
Articles with unsourced statements from May 2015
Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
Use dmy dates from January 2013
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Wikisource
Languages
العربية
Aragonés
Bân-lâm-gú
Беларуская (тарашкевіца)
Български
Brezhoneg
Català
Čeština
Cymraeg
Deutsch
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Gaeilge
Galego
한국어
हिन्दी
Hrvatski
Ido
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
ქართული
Magyar
मराठी
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk
Norsk nynorsk
Occitan
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Scots
Slovenščina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
吴语
粵語
中文
Edit links
This page was last edited on 6 December 2017, at 02:32.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

values: Page protected with pending changes level 1

values: All edits by unregistered and new users are subject to review prior to becoming visible to unregistered users

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

attrs: class src alt title

values: Changes must be reviewed before being displayed on this page.

attrs: id class src style alt

attrs: class href

attrs: id style class

values: flaggedrevs_short flaggedrevs_stable_synced plainlinks noprint nomobile

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

attrs: role class

values:
note
hatnote navigation-not-searchable

values: plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-style ambox-very_long

values: El dos de mayo de 1808 en Madrid rdit.jpg

values:
/wiki/Francisco_de_Goya
mw-redirect
Francisco de Goya

values:
/wiki/Bourbon_Spain
mw-redirect
Bourbon Spain

values:
/wiki/Kingdom_of_Spain_(Napoleonic)
mw-redirect
Kingdom of Spain (Napoleonic)

values: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

values: William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford

values: font-family:'Times New Roman','Old English Text MT',serif

values: Francisco Javier Castaños, 1st Duke of Bailén

values: José de Palafox y Melzi, Duke of Saragossa

values:
/wiki/Bernardino_Freire
mw-redirect
Bernardino Freire

values:
/wiki/Miguel_Pereira_Forjaz
mw-redirect
Miguel Pereira Forjaz

values:
/wiki/Francisco_da_Silveira
mw-redirect
Francisco da Silveira

values:
/wiki/Jean_de_Dieu_Soult
mw-redirect
Jean de Dieu Soult

values:
/wiki/Louis_Gabriel_Suchet
mw-redirect
Louis Gabriel Suchet

values:
/wiki/Claude_Victor-Perrin
mw-redirect
Claude Victor-Perrin

values: Template talk:Campaignbox Peninsular War

values:
/wiki/Combat_of_El_Bruch
mw-redirect
Combat of El Bruch

values: Action of Valdepeñas (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Cardadeu
mw-redirect
Battle of Cardadeu

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Molins_de_Rey
mw-redirect
Battle of Molins de Rey

values: Battle of Amarante (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Vigo (1809) (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Santiago (1809) (page does not exist)

values: Action of Torralba (page does not exist)

values: French expedition to Murcia (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Castelló d'Empúries (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Monzón (1809) (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Third_Siege_of_Gerona
mw-redirect
Third Siege of Gerona

values: Siege of Hostalrich (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Vich
mw-redirect
Battle of Vich

values:
/wiki/Siege_of_L%C3%A9rida_(1810)
mw-redirect
Siege of Lérida (1810)

values: Battle of San Quintín (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Siege_of_Tortosa_(1810)
mw-redirect
Siege of Tortosa (1810)

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Pla_(1811)
mw-redirect
Battle of Pla (1811)

values: Action of Massanet de Cabrenys (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Alicante (1812) (page does not exist)

values: Capture of Santa Engracia fortress (page does not exist)

values: Capture of Zaragoza (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_the_C%C3%B4a
mw-redirect
Battle of the Côa

values: Battle of Condeixa (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Foz d'Arunce (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Montellano (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Benavides (1811) (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Riego de Ambrós (page does not exist)

values: Battle of the Orbigo (page does not exist)

values: Spanish raid into France (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Rocaforte (1812) (page does not exist)

values: Battle of Sangüesa (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Garcia_Hernandez
mw-redirect
Battle of Garcia Hernandez

values: Action of 16 August (1812) (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Villodrigo
mw-redirect
Battle of Villodrigo

values: Battle of Pancorbo (1813) (page does not exist)

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values: Template talk:Campaignbox Napoleonic Wars

values:
/wiki/German_campaign_(Napoleonic_Wars)
mw-redirect
German campaign (Napoleonic Wars)

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

values:
/wiki/Marshal_of_France#French_Empire
mw-redirect
Marshal of France

values:
/wiki/William_Carr_Beresford
mw-redirect
William Carr Beresford

values: Print shows men in early 19th century military uniforms. The grenadier and sapper at the left belonging to the Princesa Line Infantry wear blue coats with fur hats. The officer and enlisted man at the right from the Catalonia Light Infantry wear green hussar-style jackets.

values:
/wiki/General_of_Division
mw-redirect
General of Division

values:
/wiki/Kingdom_of_Spain
mw-redirect
Kingdom of Spain

values:
/wiki/Charles_Louis_of_Etruria
mw-redirect
Charles Louis of Etruria

values:
/wiki/Captain_General
mw-redirect
Captain General

values:
/wiki/Elvas_Municipality
mw-redirect
Elvas Municipality

values:
/wiki/Elvas_Castle
mw-redirect
Elvas Castle

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Jena-Auerstedt
mw-redirect
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt

values: Painting shows crowds of people dressed in early 1800s clothing getting off horse-drawn carriages near the sea.

values: Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil

values:
/wiki/Abrantes_Municipality
mw-redirect
Abrantes Municipality

values: Edit section: Iberian insurrections, 1808

values:
/wiki/Ancien_regime
mw-redirect
Ancien regime

values:
/wiki/Military_region
mw-redirect
Military region

values:
/wiki/Commandant_general
mw-redirect
Commandant general

values: Pedro de Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo, 13th Duke of the Infantado

values: José Rebolledo de Palafox, 1st Duke of Saragossa

values:
/wiki/Bon_Adrien_Jeannot_de_Moncey
mw-redirect
Bon Adrien Jeannot de Moncey

values:
/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_Sorolla_y_Bastida
mw-redirect
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida

values:
/wiki/Santander,_Cantabria
mw-redirect
Santander, Cantabria

values:
/wiki/Battles_of_the_Bruch
mw-redirect
Battles of the Bruch

values:
/wiki/Catalan_people
mw-redirect
Catalan people

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Medina_del_Rio_Seco
mw-redirect
Battle of Medina del Rio Seco

values:
/wiki/Siege_of_Gerona_(1808)
mw-redirect
Siege of Gerona (1808)

values: Edit section: British intervention, 1808

values:
/wiki/British_army
mw-redirect
British army

values: William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland

values: Secretary of State for War and the Colonies

values: Sir Harry Burrard, 1st Baronet, of Lymington

values: Sir Hew Dalrymple, 1st Baronet, of High Mark

values:
/wiki/Convention_of_Sintra
mw-redirect
Convention of Sintra

values:
/wiki/Joseph_O%27Donnell_(general)
mw-redirect
Joseph O'Donnell (general)

values: Edit section: Napoleon's invasion of Spain, 1808

values: Supreme Central and Governing Junta of the Kingdom

values: José Moñino y Redondo, conde de Floridablanca

values: List of titles and honours of the Spanish Crown

values:
/wiki/Marshal_of_France
mw-redirect
Marshal of France

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Jena
mw-redirect
Battle of Jena

values:
/wiki/Double_envelopment
mw-redirect
Double envelopment

values:
/wiki/Antoine_Charles_Louis_Lasalle
mw-redirect
Antoine Charles Louis Lasalle

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Espinosa
mw-redirect
Battle of Espinosa

values:
/wiki/Laurent_Gouvion_Saint-Cyr
mw-redirect
Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr

values: Edit section: Corunna Campaign, 1808–1809

values:
/wiki/Siege_of_Saragossa_(1809)
mw-redirect
Siege of Saragossa (1809)

values:
/wiki/Auguste-Marie-Francois_Colbert
mw-redirect
Auguste-Marie-Francois Colbert

values: Edit section: Second Portuguese campaign, 1808–1809

values:
/wiki/Claude_Victor
mw-redirect
Claude Victor

values:
/wiki/Gregorio_de_la_Cuesta
mw-redirect
Gregorio de la Cuesta

values:
/wiki/Viscount_Wellington
mw-redirect
Viscount Wellington

values:
/wiki/Lord_Castlereagh
mw-redirect
Lord Castlereagh

values: Diego de Cañas y Portocarrero, Duke del Parque

values:
/wiki/Duero_River
mw-redirect
Duero River

values: Proclamation of the Conde de Montarco (page does not exist)

values: Edit section: Emergence of the guerrilla

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (June 2012)

values:
noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact
white-space:nowrap;

values:
/wiki/Francisco_Saavedra
mw-redirect
Francisco Saavedra

values: Miguel de Lardizábal (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Bishop_of_Orense
mw-redirect
Bishop of Orense

values:
/wiki/Luz_de_Am%C3%A9rica
mw-redirect
Luz de América

values: Edit section: Third Portuguese campaign, 1810–1811

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Chiclana
mw-redirect
Battle of Chiclana

values:
/wiki/Minister_of_War
mw-redirect
Minister of War

values:
/wiki/Miguel_de_Pereira_Forjaz
mw-redirect
Miguel de Pereira Forjaz

values:
/wiki/Andre_Mass%C3%A9na
mw-redirect
Andre Masséna

values:
/wiki/Robert_Crauford
mw-redirect
Robert Crauford

values:
/wiki/Light_Division
mw-redirect
Light Division

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Bu%C3%A7aco
mw-redirect
Battle of Buçaco

values:
/wiki/Craufurd%27s_Light_Division
mw-redirect
Craufurd's Light Division

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Badajoz_(1812)
mw-redirect
Battle of Badajoz (1812)

values:
/wiki/Manuel_La_Pe%C3%B1a
mw-redirect
Manuel La Peña

values:
/wiki/Siege_of_Girona
mw-redirect
Siege of Girona

values:
/wiki/Siege_of_Zaragoza
mw-redirect
Siege of Zaragoza

values:
/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_Blake_y_Joyes
mw-redirect
Joaquín Blake y Joyes

values:
/wiki/Siege_artillery
mw-redirect
Siege artillery

values:
/wiki/Henry_Wellesley
mw-redirect
Henry Wellesley

values: William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford

values:
/wiki/Auguste_Marmont
mw-redirect
Auguste Marmont

values:
/wiki/Marshal_Macdonald
mw-redirect
Marshal Macdonald

values:
/wiki/General_Suchet
mw-redirect
General Suchet

values: Edit section: Allied campaign in Spain, 1812

values:
/wiki/Maximilien_Sebastien_Foy
mw-redirect
Maximilien Sebastien Foy

values: Edit section: French autumn counterattack, 1812

values: Edit section: Defeat of King Joseph, 1813

values:
/wiki/Grand_Duchy_of_Warsaw
mw-redirect
Grand Duchy of Warsaw

values: Edit section: End of the war in Spain, 1813–1814

values: Edit section: Campaign in the eastern Atlantic region

values: Action at Echallar and Ivantelly (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Vera
mw-redirect
Battle of Vera

values: This text contradicts material at the article 'Battle of the Bidassoa'. (July 2015)

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (May 2015)

values: Edit section: Campaign in the northern Mediterranean region

values: Battle of Molins de Rey (1814) (page does not exist)

values: Edit section: Battle of the Nivelle, November 1813

values:
/wiki/Maya,_Baztan
mw-redirect
Maya, Baztan

values:
/wiki/Marshal_Soult
mw-redirect
Marshal Soult

values: Edit section: Battles of the Nive, December 1813

values: Battle of St Jean de Luz (page does not exist)

values: Thomas Sutherland (artist) (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Battles_of_the_Nive
mw-redirect
Battles of the Nive

values: Edit section: Battle of Garris, February 1814

values:
/wiki/Gave_de_Mauleon
mw-redirect
Gave de Mauleon

values: Edit section: Passage of the Adour, February 1814

values:
/wiki/Congreve_Rocket
mw-redirect
Congreve Rocket

values: Edit section: Battle of Orthez, February 1814

values: Edit section: Action at Tarbes, March 1814

values: Edit section: Battle of Toulouse, April 1814

values:
/wiki/Tres_de_Mayo
mw-redirect
Tres de Mayo

values:
/wiki/Mid-nineteenth_century_Spain
mw-redirect
Mid-nineteenth century Spain

values:
/wiki/American_War_of_1812
mw-redirect
American War of 1812

values:
/wiki/Louis_XVIII
mw-redirect
Louis XVIII

values:
/wiki/August_von_Gneisenau
mw-redirect
August von Gneisenau

values:
/wiki/Carlist_War
mw-redirect
Carlist War

values:
/wiki/Ferdinand_VII
mw-redirect
Ferdinand VII

values:
/wiki/Isabella_II
mw-redirect
Isabella II

values:
/wiki/Spanish_America
mw-redirect
Spanish America

values:
/wiki/Spanish_Criollo_peoples
mw-redirect
Spanish Criollo peoples

values:
/wiki/Sixth_Coalition
mw-redirect
Sixth Coalition

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (December 2014)

values:
/wiki/Duke_of_Nassau
mw-redirect
Duke of Nassau

values: A more detailed citation is required. (February 2014)

values: This citation requires a reference to the specific page or range of pages in which the material appears. (February 2014)

values:
/wiki/Lord_Castlereigh
mw-redirect
Lord Castlereigh

values: The material near this tag relies on an unreliable source. (December 2014)

values: A more detailed citation is required. (September 2015)

values: This citation requires a reference to the specific page or range of pages in which the material appears. (September 2015)

values: This claim needs references to better sources. (November 2014)

values: noprint Inline-Template noprint noexcerpt Template-Fact

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.worldcat.org/oclc/312880647

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.worldcat.org/oclc/9981233

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.worldcat.org/oclc/154001

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.worldcat.org/oclc/725885384

values: wikisource:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Peninsular War

values: Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition

values: commons:Category:Spanish War of Independence

values:
nofollow
external text
//doi.org/10.1353%2Fjmh.0.0183

values: Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom

values:
/wiki/Greater_Poland_Uprising_(1806)
mw-redirect
Greater Poland Uprising (1806)

values:
/wiki/Siege_of_Hameln
mw-redirect
Siege of Hameln

values:
/wiki/Battle_of_Montmartre
mw-redirect
Battle of Montmartre

values: Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

values: Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen

values: England expects that every man will do his duty

attrs: alt src title width height srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values: Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Napoleonic era task force

values: wikiquote:Special:Search/Napoleon I of France

values: Category:Wars involving the United Kingdom

values: Category:Articles containing Basque-language text

values: Category:Articles containing Catalan-language text

values: Category:Articles containing French-language text

values: Category:Articles containing Galician-language text

values: Category:Articles containing Portuguese-language text

values: Category:All articles with unsourced statements

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from December 2014

values: Category:Articles needing more detailed references

values: Category:Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from February 2014

values: Category:CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)

values: Category:All articles with dead external links

values: Category:Articles with dead external links from December 2017

values: Category:Articles with permanently dead external links

values: Category:All articles lacking reliable references

values: Category:Articles lacking reliable references from December 2014

values: Category:Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from September 2015

values: Category:Articles lacking reliable references from November 2014

values: Category:Wikipedia pending changes protected pages (level 1)

values: Category:Articles that may be too long from February 2015

values: Category:Use British English from August 2013

values: Category:Pages using deprecated image syntax

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from June 2012

values: Category:Articles contradicting other articles

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from May 2015

values: Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference

values: Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

values: Category:Use dmy dates from January 2013

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Peninsular_War
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values:
uls-settings-trigger
Language settings
0
button
true

values: حرب الاستقلال الإسبانية – Arabic

values: Вайна на Пірэнэйскім паўвостраве – Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)

values: Полуостровна война – Bulgarian

values: Napoleonische Kriege auf der Iberischen Halbinsel – German

values: Πόλεμος της Ιβηρικής Χερσονήσου – Greek

values: Guerra de la Independencia Española – Spanish

values: Milito de Hispana Sendependiĝo – Esperanto

values: جنگ شبه‌جزیره – Persian

values: Guerre d'indépendance espagnole – French

values: Guerra da Independencia española – Galician

values: स्पेन का स्वतंत्रता संग्राम – Hindi

values: Milito pri la nedependo di Hispania – Ido

values: Guerra d'indipendenza spagnola – Italian

values: מלחמת חצי האי – Hebrew

values: ნახევარკუნძულის ომი – Georgian

values: द्वीपकल्पीय युद्ध – Marathi

values: Spaanse Onafhankelijkheidsoorlog – Dutch

values: Den spanske selvstendighetskrigen – Norwegian

values: Den spanske sjølvstendekrigen – Norwegian Nynorsk

values: Пиренейские войны – Russian

values: Španska vojna za neodvisnost – Slovenian

values: Шпански рат за независност – Serbian

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-sr badge-Q17437798 badge-goodarticle

values: Španski rat za nezavisnost – Serbo-Croatian

values: Spanska självständighetskriget – Swedish

values: สงครามคาบสมุทร – Thai

values: Іспансько-французька війна – Ukrainian

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Peninsular_War rootpage-Peninsular_War skin-vector action-view