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Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War[1] was a military conflict between France and the allied powers of Spain,[2] the United
Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when
French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its ally,
Spain. The war lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814.
The conflict is regarded by some historians as one of the first national wars[3] and is also significant for the
emergence of large scale guerrilla warfare (guerrilla means "little war" in Spanish, from which the English language
borrowed the word).[4] The French occupation destroyed the Spanish administration, which fragmented into
quarrelling provincial juntas. In 1810, a reconstituted national government fortified itself in Cádiz and proved unable
to recruit, train, or equip effective armies due to being under siege. British and Portuguese forces secured Portugal,
using it as a secure position from which to launch campaigns against the French army while Spanish guerrilleros
bled the occupiers.[5] Combined, the regular and irregular allied forces prevented Napoleon's marshals from
subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces.[6] To the Spanish the war is known as the Guerra de la Independencia
Española, or Spanish War of Independence, but this name is not often used in English, as Spain had been
independent for a long time before the French invasion.
The many years of fighting in Spain gradually wore down France's famous Grande Armée. While the French armies
were often victorious in battle, their communications and supplies were severely tested and their units frequently cut
off, harassed, or overwhelmed by the partisans. The Spanish armies, though repeatedly beaten and driven to the
peripheries, could not be stamped out and continued to hound the French relentlessly.[7][8][9]
The constant threatening presence of a British force under Arthur Wellesley, which became the most experienced
and steady force in the British army, guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French in Spain alongside the
reformed Portuguese army. Allied to the British, the demoralized Portuguese army underwent extensive
reorganizing, retraining and refitting under the command of British General William Carr Beresford,[10] 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 Wellington.
In 1812, as Napoleon embarked upon an invasion of Russia which ended in disaster, a combined Allied army under
Arthur Wellesley pushed into Spain and took Madrid. Marshal Soult led the exhausted and demoralized French
forces in a fighting withdrawal across the Pyrenees and into France over the winter of 1813–14.
War and revolution against Napoleon's occupation led to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, later a cornerstone of
European liberalism.[11] 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.
1
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Background
In 1806, while in Berlin, Napoleon declared the Continental Blockade,
forbidding British imports into continental Europe.[12] Of the two
remaining neutral countries, Sweden and Portugal, the latter tried in vain
to avoid Napoleon's ultimatum (since 1373, it had had a treaty of alliance
with the English which became an alliance with the United Kingdom).
After the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, which cemented French dominance
over Central and Eastern Europe, Napoleon decided to capture the
Iberian ports.[13] The decision went against Napoleon's own advice
earlier in his career, once remarking that a conquest of Spain would be
"too hard a nut to crack"[14]
On 27 October 1807, Spain's Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy and
France signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau, agreeing that after Spain and
France had defeated Portugal, it would be split into three kingdoms: the
new Kingdom of Northern Lusitania, the Algarve (expanded to include
Alentejo), and a rump Kingdom of Portugal.[15] In November 1807, after
the refusal of Prince Regent John of Portugal to join the Continental
System, Napoleon sent an army into Spain under General Jean-Andoche
Junot with the task of invading Portugal. At the same time, General
Dupont was sent in the direction of Cádiz and Marshal Soult towards
Corunna.
Spain's Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy
Godoy initially requested Portugal's alliance against the incoming French
armies, but later secretly agreed with France that, in return for Spain's
cooperation, it would receive Portugal's territories. Spain's main ambition was the seizure of the Portuguese fleet,
and it sent two divisions to help French troops occupy Portugal.
The Portuguese army was positioned to defend the
ports and the coast from a French attack, and on 1
December Lisbon was captured with no military
opposition. The escape on 29 November of Maria I of
Portugal and Prince Regent John, together with the
administration and the Court (around 10,000 people
and 9,000 sailors aboard 23 Portuguese war ships and
31 merchant ships) was a major setback for Napoleon
and enabled the Prince Regent to continue to rule over
his overseas possessions, including Brazil. The
Portuguese Royal Family established itself at Rio de
Janeiro in Brazil for the next 13 years.
Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil
Pro-French sentiment
Amongst the liberal, republican and radical segments of the Spanish and Portuguese populations, there was much
support for a potential French invasion, despite Napoleon having by 1807 noticeably and explicitly abandoned many
liberal and republican ideals. Even before the invasion, the term "Afrancesado", literally "turned French" was used to
denote those who supported the Enlightenment and secular ideals and the French Revolution.[16] Napoleon was to
rely on the support of these "Afrancesados" both in the conduct of the war and administration of the country. But
while Napoleon – through his brother Joseph who he installed as King – made good on his promises to "sweep
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away" all feudal and clerical privileges, soon most Spanish liberals came to oppose the occupation for the violence
and brutality it brought.[17]
Course of the war
French Invasion by stealth and the Spanish uprising
Second of May 1808: the defenders of Monteleón make their last
stand.
Spanish General La Romana by
Vicente Lopez y Portaña
Under the pretext of reinforcing the Franco-Spanish army
occupying Portugal, French Imperial troops began filing
into Spain; the populace greeted them with enthusiasm in
spite of growing diplomatic unease. In February 1808
Napoleon ordered the French commanders to seize key
Spanish fortresses, and in doing so he had officially
turned on his ally.[18] A French column, disguised as a
convoy of wounded, took Barcelona on 29 February by
persuading the authorities to open the city's gates.[19]
Many commanders were not particularly concerned about
the fate of the ruling regime, nor were they in any
position to fight. (When Mariano Alvarez de Castro
garrisoned the Barcelona citadel against the French, his
own superiors ordered him to stand down.)
The Spanish Royal Army of 100,000 men found itself
paralysed: under-equipped,[20] frequently leaderless,
confused by the turmoil in Madrid and scattered from
Portugal to the Balearic Islands. Fifteen thousand of its
finest troops, (Pedro Caro, 3rd Marquis of la Romana's
Division of the North) had been lent to Napoleon in 1807
and remained stationed in Denmark under French
command. Only the peripheries contained armies of any
strength: Galicia, with Joaquín Blake y Joyes's troops,
and Andalusia, under Francisco Javier Castaños. The
French were consequently able to seize much of
northeastern Spain by coups de main, and any hope of
turning back the invasion was stillborn.
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To secure his gains Napoleon pursued a series of intrigues against the
Spanish royal family. A coup d'état instigated by the Spanish
aristocrats forced Charles IV from his throne and replaced him with his
son Ferdinand. Napoleon removed the royals to Bayonne and forced
them both to abdicate on 5 May, handing the throne to his brother
Joseph Bonaparte. A puppet Spanish council approved the new king,
but the usurpation provoked a popular uprising that eventually spread
throughout the country. The Spanish revolt was the first example of the
nationalism of another country being turned against Napoleon,
The Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya,
although it was led largely by priests and nobles who stood for the
showing Spanish resisters being executed by
conservative values of the old regime. On 2 May, the citizens of
Napoleon's troops during the Peninsular War.
Madrid rose up in rebellion against the French occupation, killing some
150 French soldiers, before the uprising was put down by Joachim
Murat's elite Imperial Guard and Mamluk cavalry, which crashed into the city, trampling the rioters.[21]
The next day, immortalized by Francisco Goya in his painting,
The Third of May 1808, the French army shot hundreds of
Madrid citizens in retaliation. Similar reprisals were repeated
in other cities and continued for days, with no military effect
but to strengthen the resistance; soon afterward bloody,
spontaneous fighting known as guerrilla ("little war") erupted
in much of Spain; the term "guerrilla" has been used ever
since to describe such combat.[22]
Agustina de Aragón fires a gun on the French invaders at
Saragossa.
José Moñino, Count of Floridablanca led Spain in the
resistance.
The tiny province of Asturias rose up in arms, cast out its
French governor on 25 May and "declared war on Napoleon at
the height of his greatness."[23] Within weeks, all the Spanish
provinces had followed its example.[24] Mobs butchered 338
French citizens in Valencia. Every French ship of the line
anchored at Cádiz was seized in the Capture of Rosily
Squadron.[25] Napoleon had unwittingly provoked a total war
against the Spaniards, a mistake from which the French
Empire would never truly recover.[26]
Peninsular War
The deteriorating strategic situation forced France to increase its
military commitments – in February, Napoleon had boasted that
12,000 men could conquer Spain;[27] by 1 June, over 65,000 troops
were rushing into the country in an effort to control the crisis.[28]
The main French army of 80,000 men held only a narrow strip of
central Spain stretching from Pamplona and San Sebastián in the
north through to Madrid and Toledo to the south. The French in
Madrid took shelter behind an additional 30,000 troops under
Marshal Bon Adrien Jeannot de Moncey. Jean-Andoche Junot's
corps stood stranded in Portugal, cut off by 300 mi (480 km) of
hostile territory.
5
Josep Bernat Flaugier's 1808 painting depicts Imperial
troops battling Catalan militia.
From Murat's optimistic reports, Napoleon believed the uprisings would die down and the country settle into order if
his brother held on to the throne in Madrid while French flying columns seized and pacified Spain's major cities. 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 Aragón and Old Castile with 25,000 men, aiming to capture Santander with one
hand and Saragossa with the other; Moncey marched toward Valencia with 29,350 men; and Guillaume Philibert
Duhesme marshalled 12,710 troops in Catalonia and moved against Gerona.[29] Historians have concluded that
Napoleon, having no respect for the "insolent" Spanish militias which everywhere opposed him,[30] tried to do too
much with too little.
The signs of trouble came quickly: Catalan militia (somatén)
virtually overran Barcelona, and French units attempting to break
the ring were turned back at the Battle of El Bruc with heavy
casualties. Gerona repulsed one attack, then resisted a second siege
as well.[31] At Saragossa, French overtures for an honorable
capitulation met with the laconic reply, "War to the knife."[32] José
de Palafox y Melzi and the Spaniards defied the French for three
months, fighting inch by inch, corp à corp in the streets; finally
they forced Charles, comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes to lift the siege
in August and limp away in defeat. Moncey's push toward the
Valencians prepare to resist the invaders in this 1884
coast ended in defeat outside the walls of Valencia, where 1,000
painting by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida.
French recruits fell trying to storm a city whipped into a frenzy by
the clergy. Making short work of Spanish counterattacks, Moncey
began a long retreat, harried at every step.[30] After storming and sacking Córdoba, Dupont, cowed by the mass
hostility of the Andalusians, broke off his offensive and retired to Andújar.
Only in the north did the French find a measure of success. In June, Antoine Lasalle's cavalry trampled Gregorio de
la Cuesta's small, improvised army at the Battle of Cabezón and unbarred the road to Valladolid. When Bessières'
march on Santander was checked by a string of partisan attacks in July, the French turned back and found Blake and
Cuesta with their combined army. In the Battle of Medina del Rio Seco the Spanish generals, at Cuesta's insistence,
were making a dash toward the vulnerable French supply lines at Valladolid. The two armies deployed on 14 July,
Cuesta unwisely leaving a gap between his troops and Blake's. The French poured into the hole and, after a sharp
fight against Cuesta, swept the motley Spanish army from the field, putting Old Castile firmly back in Napoleon's
hands.
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Bessières' victory salvaged the strategic
position of the French army in northern Spain.
The road to Madrid lay open to Joseph, and
the failures at Gerona, Valencia and Saragossa
were forgotten; all that remained was to
reinforce Dupont and allow him to force his
way south through Andalusia. A delighted
Napoleon asserted that "if Marshal Bessières
has been able to beat the Army of Galicia with
few casualties and small effort, General
Dupont will be able to overthrow everybody
he meets."[33] Just a few days later, Dupont
was sorely defeated at the Battle of Bailén and
surrendered his entire Army Corps to
Castaños.
The Spanish Army's shocking triumph at Bailén gave the French Empire its first
major defeat.
The catastrophe was total. With the loss of 24,000 troops, Napoleon's military machine in Spain abruptly collapsed.
Joseph and the French command panicked and ordered a general retreat to the Ebro, abandoning Madrid and undoing
all of Bessières' hard-fought gains. Europe cheered at 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.[34]
Retreat from Portugal (August 1808)
Before the Peninsular War, British military operations on mainland Europe had been limited to raids after several
early attempts to land and keep an army in action led to failure and ultimate withdrawal. The British could not field a
large enough force to operate on its own against the huge and experienced French army. On 18 June, the Portuguese
uprising broke out. The popular uprisings in Portugal and Spain encouraged the British to commit substantial forces
once again and British propaganda was quick to capture the novelty of the situation; for the first time, peoples, not
princes, were in rebellion against the "Great Disturber".
British intervention
Assault on Saragossa by January Suchodolski
In August 1808, British forces (including the King's German Legion)
landed in Portugal under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir
Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Wellesley checked
Delaborde's forces at Roliça on 17 August, while the Portuguese
Observation Army of Bernardino Freire contained Loison. On the 21
August, Wellesley, who was turned to the mouth of the Maceira river
to protect landing reinforcements, came under attack by Junot at
Vimeiro Hill. 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 superb defensive skills. Wellesley, despite his victories,
was considered too junior an officer to command the newly-reinforced
expedition to Portugal and was replaced by Harry Burrard, who
proceeded to grant Junot very favourable armistice terms, allowing for
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his unmolested evacuation from Portugal – courtesy of the Royal Navy — under the controversial Convention of
Sintra in August. The British commanders were ordered back to England for an inquiry into Sintra, leaving Sir John
Moore to head the 30,000-strong British force, supplied, convoyed, and protected by the Royal Navy.
In August, the British Baltic fleet and the Spanish officers of the Division of the North orchestrated the evacuation of
the La Romana Division. In this remarkable escape, 9,000 Spanish soldiers seized Danish ports and shipping in order
to make their way to a rendezvous with Admiral Richard Goodwin Keats' British squadron on Langeland island. The
soldiers were then transferred to Gothenburg, Sweden before setting sail for Santander, where they arrived in
October.[35] The presence of the Royal Navy along the coast 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 conspicuously involved in the Siege of Roses. Lord
Cochrane held a cliff-top fortress against the French for nearly a month, destroying it when the main citadel
capitulated to a superior French force.[36]
Napoleon's campaign (October 1808 – January 1809)
Bailén and the loss of Portugal convinced Napoleon of the peril he
faced in Spain. Deeply disturbed by news of Sintra, the Emperor
remarked,
Spanish officials surrender Madrid to Napoleon.
Antoine-Jean Gros, 1810.
“
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
[37]
working again.
”
The French, all but masters of Spain in June, stood with their backs to the Pyrenees, clutching at Navarre and
Catalonia. It was not known if even these two footholds could be maintained in the face of a Spanish attack.
However, no attack was forthcoming. The Spanish social fabric, shaken by the shock of rebellion, gave way to its
crippling social and political tensions; the patriots stood divided on every question and their nascent war effort
suffered accordingly. With the fall of the monarchy, constitutional power devolved to local juntas. These institutions
interfered with the army and the business of war, undermined the tentative central government taking shape in
Madrid,[38] and in some cases proved almost as dangerous to each other as to the French.[39] The British army in
Portugal, meanwhile, was itself immobilized by logistical problems and bogged down in administrative disputes, and
did not budge.
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Consequently, months of inaction passed at the front, the
revolution having "temporarily crippled Patriot Spain at the very
moment when decisive action could have changed the whole
course of the war."[40] While the allies inched forward, a vast
consolidation of bodies and bayonets 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.[41] With
his Armée d'Espagne of 278,670 men drawn up on the Ebro,
facing a scant 80,000 raw, disorganized Spanish troops, the
Emperor announced to the Spanish deputies:[42]
The Battle of Tudela by January Suchodolski. Oil on
canvas, 1895.
I am here with the soldiers who conquered at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Eylau. Who can withstand them? Certainly 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.
“
”
Napoleon led the French on a brilliant[43] offensive involving a massive double envelopment of the Spanish lines.
The attack began in November and has been described as "an avalanche of fire and steel."[44]
In the west, however, one Spanish wing slipped the noose when
Lefebvre-Desnouettes failed to encircle the Army of Galicia after a
premature and indecisive attack at the Battle of Pancorbo; Blake drew
his artillery back to safety and the bloodied Spanish infantry followed
in good order. Lefebvre and Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin offered a
careless chase that ended in humiliation at the Battle of Valmaseda
where their scattered troops were roughly handled by La Romana's
newly repatriated Spanish veterans and narrowly escaped to safety.
The campaign raced to a swift conclusion in the south, where
La bataille de Somosierra by Louis-François,
Napoleon's main army overran the unprotected Spanish centre in a
Baron Lejeune (1775–1848). Oil on canvas,
devastating attack near Burgos. The Spanish militias, untrained and
1810.
unable to form infantry squares, scattered in the face of massed French
cavalry, while the Spanish and Walloon Guards stood their ground in vain and were chewed up by Antoine Charles
Louis Lasalle and his sabreurs. Marshal Jean Lannes with a powerful force then smashed through the tottering
Spanish right wing at the Battle of Tudela on 23 November, routing Castaños and adding a new inscription to the
Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Finally, Blake's isolated army about-faced on 17 November and dug in at the Battle of Espinosa. His lines shook off
French attacks over a day and night of vicious fighting before cracking the next day. Blake again outmarched Soult
and escaped with a rump army to Santander, but the Spanish front had been torn apart and the Imperial armies raced
forward over undefended provinces. Napoleon flung 45,000 men south into the Sierra de Guadarrama which shielded
Madrid.
Peninsular War
Somosierra: Polish cavalry assail Spanish
gunners on a mountain pass.
9
The mountains hardly slowed Napoleon at all: at the Battle of
Somosierra on 30 November, 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 then gave way before the
relentless French infantry, while the Spanish royal artillerymen stuck
to their guns 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.
General Sir John Moore's small British army moved from Portugal into
northwestern Spain, surprising a body of French cavalry at Sahagún.
Moore remained in León for some time after he recognised that the
position of his army was perilous; this was a calculated attempt to draw
the attention of the French and give the Spanish forces time to rally
after their recent reverses. In this Moore was successful, alerted to his
whereabouts the Imperial army forced Moore into a harrowing retreat
marked by a breakdown in the discipline of many regiments. The
retreat was punctuated by stubborn rearguard actions at Benavente and
Cacabelos. Each time the British army turned to fight, the discipline of
Surrender of Madrid, 4 December 1808
the troops showed a marked, but temporary, improvement. La Romana
dutifully marched his tattered army to cover his ally's retreat, but was defeated by Soult at the Battle of Mansilla.
Meanwhile the British troops managed to escape to the sea at A Coruña after fending off a strong French attack at
the Battle of Corunna. Some 26,000 sickly troops eventually reached Britain, 7,000 men having been lost over the
course of the expedition.[45] Moore, killed while directing the defence of Coruña, remains buried in Spain under a
monument constructed by Soult.
In Catalonia, Napoleon fed his faltering army strong reinforcements as
early as October 1808, ordering Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr with
17,000 men to the relief of Duhesme in Barcelona. The successful
Siege of Roses opened the path south for Saint-Cyr, who bypassed
Gerona and, after a remarkable forced march, 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
beat the Spaniards under Conde de Caldagues and Theodor von
Reding, capturing 1,200 men at the Battle of Molins de Rey. In
February 1809, Reding led a reconstituted army against the French
right wing and, after vigorous marching and countermarching, took a
stand at the Battle of Valls only to be ridden down and fatally wounded
by French cavalry.
Only at Saragossa, still scarred from Lefebvre's bombardments that
summer, was the Imperial charge temporarily halted once again. The
French invested the city on 20 December. Lannes and Moncey
committed
two
army
corps
(45,000
men)
and
Saragossa: The assault on the Santa Engracia
monastery. Oil on canvas, 1827.
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considerable materiel to a second siege of the city, but their
numbers and guns made no impression on the Spanish
citizen-soldiers who, behind the walls of Saragossa, proved
unmovable.
Palafox's second epic defence brought the city enduring national
and international fame.[46][47] The Spaniards fought with a
determination which never faltered; street by street, building by
building, through pestilence and starvation; at times entrenching
themselves in convents, at others putting their own homes to the
torch. Nearly all who stood with Palafox met their deaths,[48] but
for two months, the Grande Armée did not set foot beyond the
Ebro's shore. On 20 February 1809, the French left behind
burnt-out ruins filled with 64,000 corpses.[49][50] After only a
little more than two months in Spain, Napoleon returned
command to his marshals and went back to France.
Spanish General José de Palafox by Francisco Goya
Portuguese frontier and Galicia (1809)
In March, Marshal Soult initiated the second invasion of
Portugal through the northern corridor. On 27 March, the
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 by the
Spanish advance. After the new turn of the situation, the Spanish
forces took the initiative, and most of the cities in the province
of Pontevedra were recaptured. In Portugal, the French were
initially repulsed in the Minho river by Portuguese militias,
Soult then captured Chaves, Braga and, on 29 March 1809,
Porto. However, the resistance of Silveira in Amarante and other
northern cities isolated Soult in Porto. William Carr Beresford,
in his capacity as commander-in-chief (he had been appointed
by the Portuguese Royal family), reorganised, rebuilt and
refitted the Portuguese army with the aid of senior Portuguese
generals, in particular Miguel Pereira Forjaz. In a first phase,
some 20,000 were called to the regular army and 30,000 to
French Marshall Michel Ney
militias.[51] Wellesley returned to Portugal in April 1809 to
command the Anglo-Portuguese forces. He strengthened the British army with the recently formed Portuguese
regiments trained by General Beresford and adapted to the British way of campaigning. These new forces turned
Soult out of Portugal at the Battle of Grijó (10–11 May) and the Second Battle of Porto (12 May). All other northern
cities were recaptured by General Silveira. On 7 June, the French army of Marshal Michel Ney
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was defeated at the Battle of Puente Sanpayo by the Spanish
forces commanded by Colonel Pablo Morillo, and Ney was
forced to retreat to Lugo on 9 June. The withdrawal was painful
because the French army was harassed by the Spanish
guerrillas. Ney's troops met in Lugo with those of Soult, who
had to leave Portugal, and they all 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, 23 July.
Cuesta, however, was reluctant to agree, and was only
persuaded to advance on the following day.[52] The delay
allowed the French to withdraw, but Cuesta sent his army
headlong after Victor, and found himself faced by almost the
entire French army in New Castile – Victor had been reinforced
by the Toledo and Madrid garrisons. The Spanish retreated
precipitously, necessitating two British divisions advancing to
cover their retreat.[53]
The next day, 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. Despite the victory and ignoring the views of General Cuesta to attack the
French, Wellesley, in view of the imminent arrival of Soult with his army and afraid of being cut off from his base in
Portugal, decided on a hasty retreat, leaving Talavera on 4 August. The British commander sent the Light Brigade on
a dash 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 for now, Wellesley considered joining
with Cuesta again, but the threat of French reinforcement (including the possible inclusion of Napoleon himself) in
the spring, and the considerable friction between the British and the Spanish, led to the British deciding to retreat
into Portugal, leaving the Spanish alone in the fight.
Marshall Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult
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12
Torres Vedras
Fearing a new French assault on Portugal, Wellesley[54] brought
into action his plan to create a powerful defensive position near
the Portuguese capital, to which he could fall back if necessary.
To protect Lisbon he ordered the construction of the Lines of
Torres Vedras under the supervision of Sir Richard Fletcher
comprising three strong lines of forts, blockhouses, redoubts and
ravelins with numerous fortified artillery positions. The various
parts of the lines communicated to each other by semaphore,
allowing immediate reaction to a threat. The work began in the
autumn of 1809 and the first line was finished one year later.
The areas immediately in front of the lines were subjected to a
scorched earth policy in which they were denuded of food,
forage and shelter to further hamper the enemy. Some 200,000
inhabitants of the neighbouring districts were relocated inside
the lines.
Stalemate (1810–1811)
Portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Francisco Goya
1812–14
Taking the Spanish fortified town of Ciudad Rodrigo after a
siege lasting from 26 April – 9 July 1810, the French duly reinvaded Portugal in July with an army of around 65,000
led by Marshal Masséna. The first significant clash on Portuguese soil was at the Battle of the Côa with the French
driving back Robert Crauford's heavily outnumbered Light Division. Masséna now moved to attack the strongly held
British position on the heights of Bussaco (a 10-mile long ridge), resulting in the Battle of Buçaco on 27 September.
Suffering high casualties, the French failed to dislodge the Anglo-Portuguese army. Masséna now maneuvered to
flank the position, at which point Wellesley fell back to the fortified Lines of Torres Vedras.
Spanish General Joaquín Blake y Joyes
The fortifications were so impressive that, after an attack by a
small force at Sobral on 14 October, a stalemate ensued. As
Charles Oman wrote, "On that misty 14 Octoberth morning, at
Sobral, the Napoleonic tide attained its highest watermark, then it
ebbed." The frontal zones of the lines having been subjected to a
scorched earth policy, the French were eventually forced to
withdraw due to sickness and lack of food and supplies. The
British suffered a setback just the next day in the Battle of
Fuengirola. On 15 October, a much smaller Polish garrison held
off British troops under Lord Blayney, who was subsequently
taken captive and held by the French until 1814. Amazingly the
French intelligence never knew that the fortifications were being
built, only when their scouts reached the walls did they know. It's
also rumoured that even the British government never knew about
it either because all the funds that were used to build it was paid
for by the Portuguese government and captured French equipment
and supplies.
The allies were reinforced by the arrival of fresh British troops in early 1811 and began an offensive. A French force
was beaten at Barrosa on 5 March as part of an unsuccessful manoeuvre to break up the siege of Cádiz, and Masséna
Peninsular War
13
was forced to withdraw from Portugal after an allied victory at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro (3–5 May). Masséna
had lost 25,000 men in the fighting in Portugal and was replaced by Auguste Marmont. Soult came from the South to
threaten Extremadura, and captured the fortress town of Badajoz before returning to Andalusia with most of his
army. 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, marched to try and retake the town; they laid siege to the
French garrison Soult had left behind, but Soult regathered his army and marched to relieve the siege. Beresford
moved his besieging army from Badajoz to intercept the marching French, and after the Battle of Albuera on 16
May, Soult was forced to retreat to Seville.
The war now fell into a temporary lull, the numerically superior French being unable to find an advantage and
coming under increasing pressure from Spanish guerrilla activity. The French had upwards of 350,000 soldiers in
L'Armée de l'Espagne, but the vast majority, over 200,000, were deployed to protect the French lines of supply,
rather than as substantial fighting units. Meanwhile, the Spaniards drafted the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812.
Turning of the tide (1812)
The Battle of Salamanca
The emperor wants me to take the offensive...but his Majesty does not realize that the smallest movement in these parts expends great
quantities of resources, especially of horses... To make a requisition on even the poorest village we have to send a detachment of 200 men and,
to be able to live, we have to scatter over great distances.
“
”
[55]
—Marshal August Marmont
In January 1812, Napoleon approved the full annexation of Catalonia into the French Empire. Its territory was
divided in départements (Ter, Sègre, Montserrat and Bouches-de-l'Èbre). Looking for the approval of the local
population, Catalan was declared the official language in those departments together with French. However, the
historical aversion that the Catalans had against the French insured that guerrilla activity continued in Catalonia.
Wellington renewed the allied advance into Spain just after New Year in 1812, besieging and capturing the fortified
towns of Ciudad Rodrigo on 19 January and, after a costly assault, Badajoz on 6 April. The allied army took
Salamanca on 17 June, just as Marmont approached – the two forces finally met on 22 July where Wellington
inflicted a severe defeat on the French in the Battle of Salamanca, during which Marshal Marmont himself was
severely wounded. Meanwhile the Spanish army defeated the French at Astorga and Guadalajara, and liberated
Seville, Córdoba and Granada from the French occupation. As the French regrouped, the allies entered Madrid on 6
August and advanced towards Burgos, before retreating all the way back to Portugal when renewed French
concentrations threatened to trap them. As a consequence of the Salamanca campaign the French were forced to end
their long and costly siege of Cádiz[56] and to permanently evacuate the provinces of Andalusia and Asturias.
Peninsular War
Allied victory (1813–1814)
French hopes of recovery were stricken by Napoleon's
disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. He had taken 30,000
soldiers from the hard-pressed Armée de l'Espagne, and,
starved of reinforcements and replacements, the French
position became increasingly unsustainable as the allies
renewed the offensive in May 1813.
In a strategic move, Wellington planned to move his supply
base from Lisbon to Santander. The British and Portuguese
British infantry attempt to scale the walls of Badajoz, 1812.
forces swept northwards in late May and seized Burgos;
they then outflanked the French army, forcing Joseph
Bonaparte into the valley of the River Zadorra. At the Battle of Vitoria, on 21 June, the 65,000 men of Joseph
Bonaparte's army were routed by 52,000 British, 28,000 Portuguese and 25,000 Spaniards.[57] The Spanish army of
Enrique José O'Donnell took Pancorbo on 3 July with the French troops capitulating.[58] Wellington, with 18,000
men, captured the French garrisoned city of San Sebastián under Brig-Gen Louis Rey after a siege that lasted from 7
July to 8 September 1813 with large losses for the British. The city was sacked and burnt to the ground by the
Anglo-Portuguese, an event that caused the fury of the Spaniards.[59]
The allies chased the retreating French, reaching the Pyrenees in early July. Soult was given command of the French
forces and began a counter-offensive, dealing the allied generals two sharp defeats at the Battle of Maya and the
Battle of Roncesvalles. Yet he was severely repulsed by the allies at the Battle of Sorauren, lost momentum, and was
defeated by the Spanish army of Galicia under General Manuel Freire at the Battle of San Marcial (31 August 1813).
On 7 October, after Wellington received news of the reopening of hostilities in Germany, the allies finally crossed
into France, fording the Bidasoa river. On 11 December, a beleaguered and desperate Napoleon 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.
The Peninsular War went on through the allied victories of Bera pass, the Battle of Nivelle, and the Battle of Nive
near Bayonne (10–14 December 1813), the Battle of Orthez (27 February 1814) and the Battle of Bayonne (14
April), the latter occurring after Napoleon's abdication.
14
Peninsular War
15
Guerrilla war
The Spanish War of Independence was one of the most successful partisan
wars in history and is the origin of the word guerrilla in the English
language (from the Spanish Guerra de guerrillas "War of little wars").
However, this guerrilla warfare was costly to both sides. Not only did the
so-called patriotic Spaniards trouble the French troops, they also petrified
their countrymen with a combination of forced conscription and looting.
Many of the partisans were, in fact, either fleeing the law or trying to get
rich, although later in the war the authorities tried to make the guerrillas
militarily reliable, and many of them formed regular army units, such as
Espoz y Mina's "Cazadores de Navarra", among others.
The idea of forming the guerrillas into an armed force had positive and
negative effects. On one hand, uniform and stronger military discipline
would stop men from running off into the streets and disappearing from the
Juan Martín Díez El Empecinado
band; however, the more disciplined the unit was, the easier it was for the
French troops to catch them when they sprang an ambush. Only a few
partisan leaders formed up with the authorities; most did so just to lay off criminal charges and to retain the effective
status of an officer in the Spanish army, so that their weaponry, clothes and food would be paid for.
The guerrilla style of fighting was the Spanish military's single most effective application. Most organized attempts
on the part of regular Spanish forces to take on the French led to their defeat; however, once the battle was lost and
the soldiers reverted to their guerrilla roles, they effectively tied down greater numbers of French troops over a wider
area with much less expenditure of men, energy, and supplies. Wellington's final success in the Peninsula is often
said to be largely due to the collapse and demoralization of the French military structure in Spain caused by the
guerrillas.
It 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 eventually the liberation of Portugal
and Spain.[60]
Mass resistance by the people of Spain prefigured the total wars of the 20th
century, and eventually inspired parallel struggles by the Russians and
Prussians. Tsar Alexander, when threatened with war, rebuked the French
ambassador:
El sometent del Bruc by Ramon Marti i
Alsina depicts Catalan guerrillas.
“
If the Emperor Napoleon decides to make war, it is possible, even probable, that we shall be defeated ... But ... the Spaniards have frequently
[61]
been defeated; and they are not beaten, nor have they surrendered.
”
Peninsular War
16
Role of intelligence
Intelligence played a crucial role in the successful prosecution of the war by the Allies after 1810. Spanish and
Portuguese guerrillas were asked to capture messages from French couriers. From 1811 onwards, these dispatches
were often either partially or wholly enciphered.
George Scovell of Wellington's General Staff was given the job of deciphering them. At first, the ciphers used were
fairly simple and he received help from other members of the General Staff. However, beginning in 1812, a much
stronger cipher, originally devised for diplomatic messages, came into use and Scovell was left to work on this
himself. He steadily broke it, and the knowledge of French troop movements and deployments was used to great
effect in most of the engagements described above. The French never realised that the code had been broken and
continued to use it until their code tables were captured at the Battle of Vitoria.
Consequences
Spain
King Joseph was cheered initially by Spanish afrancesados
("Frenchified"), who believed that collaboration with France would
bring modernisation and liberty. An example was the abolition of the
Spanish Inquisition. However, priesthood and patriots stirred up
agitation among the populace, which became widespread after the
French army's first examples of repression (Madrid, 1808) were
presented as fact to unite and enrage the people. The remaining
afrancesados were exiled to France following the departure of French
troops.
Francisco Goya: The Third of May 1808
The pro-independence side included both traditionalists and liberals.
After the war, they would clash in the Carlist Wars, as new king
Ferdinand VII, "the Desired One" (later "the Traitor king"), revoked all the changes made by the independent Cortes,
which were summoned in Cádiz acting on his behalf to coordinate the provincial Juntas and resist the French. 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, thus 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 was later nullified by the
king. In Spanish America, the Spanish and Criollo officials formed Juntas that swore allegiance to King Ferdinand.
This experience of self-government led the later Libertadores (Liberators) to promote the independence of the
Spanish–American colonies.
Peninsular War
17
French troops seized many of the extensive properties
of the Catholic Church. Churches and convents were
used as stables and barracks, and artworks were sent to
France, leading to an impoverished Spanish cultural
heritage. Allied armies also plundered Spanish towns
and the countryside. These pieces can be viewed at the
Duke's London home, Apsley House, and at his country
estate, Stratfield Saye House.
Another notable effect of the war was the severe
damage incurred by Spain's economy; devastated by
the war, it continued to suffer in the political turbulence
that followed.[62]
The Proclamation of the Constitution of 1812 by Salvador Viniegra
Portugal
The Peninsular War signified the traumatic entry of Portugal into the modern age. The Portuguese Court's transfer to
Rio de Janeiro initiated the process of Brazil's state-building that eventually produced its independence in 1822. The
skillful evacuation by the Portuguese Navy 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. The
Governors of Portugal nominated by the absent king had a scant impact because of the successive French invasions
and British occupation.
The role of the War Minister Miguel Pereira Forjaz was unique. Wellington held him as the ablest man in
Portugal.[63] Under Marshall Beresford he helped to build a regular army of 55,000 men and a further 50,000 as
national guard milicias and a variable number of home guard ordenanças, perhaps totalling more than 100,000. In an
1812 letter to Baron Stein, the Russian Court Minister, Forjaz recommended a "scorched earth" policy and the
trading of space for time as the only way to defeat a French invasion. Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, ordered his
generals to use Wellington's Portuguese strategy and avoid battles to starve Napoleon's Grande Armée.
The nation at arms had a similar impact on Portugal as the French Revolution on France. A new class, tried,
disciplined, and experienced by war against the French Empire, would assert Portuguese independence. Marshal
Beresford and 160 officers were retained after 1814 to lead Portugal's Army while the King was still in Brazil.
Portuguese politics hinged on the project of a Luso-Brazilian United Kingdom, with the African colonies supplying
slaves, Brazil manufacturing and Portugal the trade. By 1820, this became untenable: Portuguese Peninsular War
officers arranged the expelling of the British and began the liberal revolution at Porto on 24 August. Liberal
institutions were only consolidated after a civil war in 1828–34.
Peninsular War
Cultural
Goya's series of 82 prints The Disasters of War (1810–20) remains
the most famous and powerful depiction of the war and its effects
on the civilian population. The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by
Jan Potocki (1814) is narrated from the time of the Peninsular
War. Prosper Mérimée's Carmen (1845), on which Bizet's opera
(1875) was based, is set during the war. The Spanish zarzuela, La
Viejecita (1897) set in 1812, celebrates the entry of the joint forces
into Madrid. The C. S. Forester novel Death to the French (1932)
concerns a private in a British Rifle Regiment who is cut off from
his unit and joins a group of Portuguese guerrillas. The 1957
motion picture The Pride and the Passion, also set during the war,
was based on Forester's The Gun (1933). F. L. Lucas's novel The
English Agent – A Tale of the Peninsular War (1969), about the
Battle of Bailén and its aftermath, is the account of a British Army
officer who, gathering information before the first British
landings, buys a Frenchwoman at auction to save her from the
Spanish mob. Lucas's poem "Spain 1809" (in From Many Times
and Lands, 1953), the story of a Spanish village woman's courage
during the French occupation, was turned into the play A Kind of
French victories of the Peninsular War inscribed on the
Justice by Margaret Wood (1966). Curro Jiménez was a successful
Arc de Triomphe
Spanish TV series (1976–79) about a generous bandit fighting
against the French in the Sierra Morena. The Sharpe novels (1981–2007) by Bernard Cornwell were a series
likewise following the adventures of a British Army officer and set, partly, during the Peninsular War. They were
later made into a series of television movies featuring actor Sean Bean as Sharpe (see Sharpe (TV series)). A short
but dramatic episode from the war is given in Gary Jennings's Aztec Rage. A board wargame called Wellington – The
Peninsular War 1812–1814 was produced by GMT Games in 2005.[64]
The Peninsular War saw the first use of medal bars. Also known as "devices", these are clasps affixed to the ribbons
from which medals are suspended. The Peninsular Medal, more properly known as the Army Gold Medal, was
issued to senior officers in Wellington's army. Clasps were added, each giving the name of a major battle in which
the holder participated. When four clasps were earned a Peninsular Cross was awarded. Each arm was inscribed with
one of the battles named on an earned clasp. Subsequent clasps were then added to the ribbon. Wellington's
Peninsular Cross, featuring a unique nine clasps (thirteen battles), can be seen on his uniform in the basement of
Apsley House. In 1847, the surviving lower ranked officers and enlisted men received the Military General Service
Medal, with battle clasps, for service in this conflict.
18
Peninsular War
References and notes
[1] Nicknamed the Spanish Ulcer, and also known in French as Guerre d'Espagne et du Portugal (War in Spain and in Portugal), or otherwise
Spanish War of Independence — Guerra de la Independencia Española in Spanish. It is also known as Guerra del Francès ("the War of the
Frenchman") in Catalonia and Invasões Francesas ("French Invasions") in Portugal.
[2] Peña,Lorenzo. Un puente jurídico entre Iberoamérica y Europa:la Constitución española de 1812. Instituto de Filosofía del CSIC (http:/ /
digital. csic. es/ bitstream/ 10261/ 9858/ 1/ 1812Cadiz. pdf)
The first thing there is to understand is that in a good measure, the Courts of Cadiz created a new state,
the Spanish state.[...]there had never been a proclamation of a Kingdom of Spain, so that difficulties
always arose upon the legal value of the very frequent references to 'Spain' in the legal texts of the
sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Spanish sovereigns had always refused the advice
[...] in the sense of establishing a United Kingdom of Spain, preferring to see themselves as vertices of
converging scattered kingdoms, at least in theory. Even the Napoleonic Bayonne Constitution of 1808
did not proclaime a kingdom of Spain, but a 'Crown of Spain and the Indies'. On the other hand, 'Spain'
was merely a geographical name, a simple romance version of 'Hispania',whereby its use, in principle,
should not have to go beyond the designations ‘Galia’, ‘Germania’[...]
[3] Churchill, p. 258. "Nothing like this universal uprising of a numerous, ancient race and nation, all animated by one thought, had been seen
before...For the first time the forces unchained by the French Revolution, which Napoleon had disciplined and directed, met not kings or Old
World hierarchies, but a whole population inspired by the religion and patriotism which...Spain was to teach to Europe."
[4] Laqueur, p. 350. Laqueur notes that the war was "one of the first occasions when guerrilla warfare had been waged on a large scale in modern
times."
[5] Gates, pp. 33–34. Gates notes that much of the French army "was rendered unavailable for operations against Wellington because
innumerable Spanish contingents kept materialising all over the country. In 1810, for example, when Massena invaded Portugal, the Imperial
forces in the Peninsula totaled a massive 325,000 men, but only about one quarter of these could be spared for the offensive—the rest were
required to contain the Spanish insurgents and regulars. This was the greatest single contribution that the Spaniards were to make and, without
it, Wellington could not have maintained himself on the continent for long—let alone emerge victorious from the conflict."
[6] Chandler, The Art of Warfare on Land, p. 164
[7] Glover, p. 52. Glover notes that "the Spanish troops were no match for the French. They were ill-equipped and sketchily supplied. Their ranks
were filled with untrained recruits. Their generals bickered among themselves. They lost heavily but their armies were not destroyed. Time
and time again Spanish armies lost their artillery, their colours, their baggage. They suffered casualties on a scale that would have crippled a
French or a British army. They never disintegrated. They would retire to some inaccessible fastness, reorganise themselves and reappear to
plague the French as they had never been plagued before."
[8] Guerrero Acosta, José Manuel. "Ejército y pueblo durante la Guerra de la Independencia. Notas para el estudio de una simbiosis histórica",
Revista de historia militar. Núm. extr. 2 (2009), dedicado a "La Guerra de la Independencia: una visión militar", pp. 239–279
[9] Guerrero Acosta, José Manuel, "La Guerra de la Independencia en los archivos del Ejército de Tierra", Fuentes documentales para el estudio
de la Guerra de la Independencia. Congreso internacional: Pamplona, 1–3 de febrero de 2001, coord. Francisco Miranda Rubio, Pamplona:
Ediciones Eunate, 2002, pp. 203–212
[10] Fletcher, Ian (2003) The Lines of Torres Vedras 1809–11, Osprey Publishing
[11] Payne, Stanley G. (1973), A History of Spain and Portugal: Eighteenth Century to Franco (http:/ / libro. uca. edu/ payne2/ spainport2. htm),
2, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 432–433, ISBN 978-0-299-06270-5, , "The Spanish pattern of conspiracy and revolt by liberal
army officers ... was emulated in both Portugal and Italy. In the wake of Riego's successful rebellion, the first and only pronunciamiento in
Italian history was carried out by liberal officers in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The Spanish-style military conspiracy also helped to
inspire the beginning of the Russian revolutionary movement with the revolt of the Decembrist army officers in 1825. Italian liberalism in
1820–1821 relied on junior officers and the provincial middle classes, essentially the same social base as in Spain. It even used a Hispanized
political vocabulary, for it was led by giunte (juntas), appointed local capi politici (jefes políticos), used the terms of liberali and servili
(emulating the Spanish word serviles applied to supporters of absolutism), and in the end talked of resisting by means of a guerrilla. For both
Portuguese and Italian liberals of these years, the Spanish constitution of 1812 remained the standard document of reference."
[12] Esdaile, p. 2
[13] Gates, pp. 5–7 and Esdaile, pp. 2–5
[14] McLynn, Frank. "Napoleon: A biography", Pimlico, London, 1997. (p. 396)
[15] Esdaile, pp. 7–8 and Gates, p. 8
[16] McLynn, Frank. "Napoleon: A biography", Pimlico, London, 1997. (pp. 396–406)
[17] McLynn, Frank. "Napoleon: A biography", Pimlico, London, 1997. (p406)
[18] Esdaille, p. 166
[19] Chandler, p. 605
[20] Gates, p. 35. For example, the Army's 26 cavalry regiments of 15,000 men possessed only 9,000 horses.
[21] Chandler, p. 610
19
Peninsular War
[22] Esdaile, pp. 302–303. Rebel groups sprung up on a local basis and were unaware of the resistance being prepared elsewhere in Spain.
Esdaile asserts that the partisans were as committed to driving the ancien regime out of Spain as they were to fighting foreign armies, noting
that the Patriots had no scruples about liquidating officials skeptical of their revolutionary program.
[23] Churchill, p. 259
[24] Gates, p. 12
[25] Glover, p. 53
[26] Chandler, p. 608. Chandler notes that Napoleon "never appreciated how independent the Spanish people were of their government; he
misjudged the extent of their pride, of the tenacity of their religious faith and of their loyalty to Ferdinand. He anticipated that they would
accept the change of regime without demur; instead he soon found himself with a war of truly national proportions on his hands."
[27] Chandler, p. 611
[28] Gates, p. 162
[29] Chandler, p. 611. Gates, pp. 181–182
[30] Chandler, p. 614
[31] Gates, p. 61
[32] Gates, p. 77
[33] Chandler, p. 616
[34] Chandler, p. 617. "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 significantly of all, the Austrian war party began to secure the support of the Emperor Francis for a renewed challenge to
the French Empire.
[35] Oman (2010), I, pp. 367-375
[36] James, pp. 131–132
[37] Chandler, p. 620
[38] Chandler, p. 625. Chandler notes that "the particular interests of the provincial delegates made even the pretense of centralised government a
travesty."
[39] Chandler, p. 621. 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 patently unfair to the revolutionaries, "whom they despised for being Jacobins,
Catholics, and Spaniards, not necessarily in that order."
[40] Esdaille, pp. 304–305. Esdaille notes that the Junta of Seville declared itself the supreme government of Spain and tried to annex
neighbouring juntas by force.
[41] Gates, p. 487
[42] Glover, p. 55
[43] Chandler, p. 631
[44] Churchill, p. 262
[45] Gates, p. 114
[46] Glover, p. 89
[47] Gates, p. 128. Gates notes 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.
[48] Gates, p. 127. The military garrison of 44,000 left 8,000 survivors, 1,500 of them ill.
[49] Glover, p. 89. 10,000 of these were French.
[50] David A. Bell, Napoleon's Total War (http:/ / www. historynet. com/ wars_conflicts/ napoleonic_wars/ 6361907. html?page=2& c=y),
TheHistoryNet.com
[51] Later on, this number would grow to 50,000 in the army and another 50,000 in militias, in addition to 120,000 ordenanças and volunteer
units.
[52] Gates, p. 177
[53] P. Guedalla, p. 186
[54] The Lines of Torres Vedras: The Cornerstone of Wellington's Strategy in the Peninsular War 1809–1812, John Grehan, Spellmount
[55] Grant, p. 209
[56] "The Spanish Ulcer: Napoleon, Britain, and the Siege of Cádiz" (http:/ / www. neh. gov/ news/ humanities/ 2010-01/ Napoleon. html).
Humanities, January/February 2010, Volume 31/Number 1. . Retrieved 5 July 2010.
[57] Gates p. 521
[58] Arthur Wellesley, The dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington: Volume 13
[59] Sada, Javier; Sada, Asier (1995). Historia de San Sebastián. Editorial Txertoa. p. 73. ISBN 84-7148. Book in Spanish
[60] Glover, p. 10
[61] Chandler, p. 746
[62] Esdaile, pp. 505–507
[63] Oman (1908), Vol. III, p. 418
[64] GMT Games – Wellington (http:/ / www. gmtgames. com/ wellington/ main. html)
20
Peninsular War
Bibliography
• Chandler, David G. (1995), The Campaigns of Napoleon, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-02-523660-1
• Esdaile, Charles (2002), The Peninsular War, Penguin Books (published 2003), ISBN 0-14-027370-0
• Gates, David (1986), The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War, Pimlico (published 2002),
ISBN 0-7126-9730-6
• Glover, Michael (1974), The Peninsular War 1807–1814: A Concise Military History, Penguin Classic Military
History (published 2001), 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), The Duke, Hodder & Stoughton (published 1931), ISBN 0-340-17817-5
• James, William (1826), The Naval History of Great Britain (http://books.google.com/
?id=Am7WCEX4KekC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=cochrane+rosas), 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.
• Oman, Sir Charles (1908), A History of the Peninsular War: Volume III, September 1809 to December 1810,
Greenhill Books (published 2004), ISBN 1-85367-617-9
Further reading
• Esdaile, Charles J. Fighting Napoleon Yale University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-300-10112-0.
• Esdaile, Charles J. The Spanish Army in the Peninsular War Manchester University Press, 1988, ISBN
0-7190-2538-9.
• Fletcher, Ian Peninsular War; Aspects of the Struggle for the Iberian Peninsula Spellmount Publishers, 2003,
ISBN 1-873376-82-0.
• Fletcher, Ian (ed.) The Campaigns of Wellington, (3 vols), Vol 1. The Peninsular War 1808–1811; Vol. 2. The
Peninsular War 1812–1814, The Folio Society, 2007.
• Fraser, Ronald. Napoleon's Cursed War: Spanish Popular Resistance in the Peninsular War, 1808–1814
(Brooklyn Verso, 2008) 624pp ISBN 978-1-84467-082-6
• Goya, Francisco The Disasters of War Dover Publications, 1967, ISBN 0-486-21872-4.
• Griffith, Paddy A History of the Peninsular War: Modern Studies of the War in Spain and Portugal, 1808–14 v. 9
Greenhill Books, 1999, ISBN 1-85367-348-X.
• Lovett, Gabriel H. Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Spain New York UP, 1965, ISBN 0-8147-0267-8.
• Napier, William. The War in the Peninsula (6 vols), London: John Murray (Vol 1), and private (Vols 2–6),
1828–40.
• Oman, Charles. The History of the Peninsular War (7 vols), Oxford, 1903–30.
• Rathbone, Julian Wellington's War, Michael Joseph, 1984, ISBN 0-7181-2396-4
• Suchet, Marshal Duke D'Albufera Memoirs of the War in Spain Pete Kautz, 2007, 2 volumes: ISBN
1-85818-477-0 & ISBN 1-85818-476-2.
• Urban, Mark. Rifles: Six years with Wellington's legendary sharpshooters Pub Faber & Faber, 2003. ISBN
0-571-21681-1
• Urban, Mark. The Man who Broke Napoleon's Codes. Faber and Faber Ltd, London 2001. ISBN 0-571-20513-5
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Peninsular War
External links
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The Cruel War in Spain (http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/cruel_war_in_Spain.html)
Bicentenario de la Batalla de Talavera (http://www.talavera1809.es) (Spanish)
Bicentenario de la Batalla de Bailen (http://www.bicentenariobailen.com) (Spanish)
Peninsular War (http://www.peninsularwar.org/)
BBC video guide to the Peninsular War (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/wellington/)
List of British Peninsular War officer deaths (http://www.redcoat.info/memindex3.htm)
Royal Engineers Museum (http://www.remuseum.org.uk/campaign/rem_campaign_peninsular.htm) The
Engineers and the Peninsular War (1808–14)
Wellington's dispatches from the Peninsular War and Waterloo: 1808 – 1815 (http://www.wtj.com/archives/
wellington/)
The British Army in Portugal and Spain: Its Order-of-Battle (http://pwp.netcabo.pt/netmendo/gp documenta.
htm)
Napoleonic Wars in Girona 1808–1814 Group of Historical Recreation Girona 1809: Miquelets of Girona (http://
www.girona1809.com)
Sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo (http://ciudadrodrigo.ueuo.com)
Bicentenario de la Defensa de la Isla de León 1810–1812 (http://www.guardiasalinera.com) (Spanish)
• Peninsular War 200 (http://peninsularwar200.org)
22
Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
Peninsular War Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=513304246 Contributors: *Kat*, -Ilhador-, 121eLigne, 1exec1, 2002:1F16:8FE3:0:0:0:1F16:8FE3, 96T, Agema,
Ahoerstemeier, Ajsilver, Akendall, Alansohn, Alarob, Albrecht, Alex Coiro, Alexandru.demian, Alexius08, Algamarga, AllanBz, Amandajm, Angmering, Angusmclellan, Anne-theater,
Anotherclown, Aprogressivist, Ardfern, Ariaveeg, Asbjbo, Asterion, Attilios, Auntof6, Axaladl, BSflipsRus, Barryob, Batmanand, Bayardo, Bayowolf, Beetstra, Benea, Betacommand,
Bettymnz4, BigrTex, BillFlis, Binksternet, Bogomolov.PL, Brenont, BrokenSphere, Buonaparte69, CALR, CJLL Wright, Cambalachero, Carbonix, Carl Logan, Carnage visors, CarolGray, Carre,
Cattus, Cenedi, CenturionZ 1, Chaosdruid, Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry, Chiton magnificus, Choess, Chris the speller, ChrisHodgesUK, Chumchum7, Cjrother, Clarityfiend, Cmdrjameson,
Coemgenus, Colonies Chris, ColorOfSuffering, CommonsDelinker, Conscious, CopperMurdoch, Crisco 1492, Cyclopaedic, D-Rock, DITWIN GRIM, DJ Clayworth, Dabbler, Damoman,
Danceswithzerglings, Dardis10, Dawidbernard, Dawkeye, DePiep, Deeahbz, Deetdeet, Dellant, Derek Ross, Descendall, Deville, Dewritech, Dha, Diannaa, Dimadick, Divespluto, Diyetre,
Djmaschek, Djnjwd, Domino theory, Dpaajones, Dylan Lake, Eboracum, Edward321, ElBufon, Elapsed, Eregli bob, Ericoides, Error, Ethers, EurekaLott, EuroHistoryTeacher, Evanh2008,
Everyking, Excelsior Deo, Experiment 47, EyeSerene, Fadesga, Faedra, FayssalF, Firetrap9254, FredR, Funnyhat, GRuban, Gabr-el, Gaius Cornelius, Gaius Octavius Princeps, Gaylencrufts, Gdr,
George B Robinson, Glane23, GoingBatty, Gomm, Good Olfactory, GraemeLeggett, Greg Grahame, Grinner, Gryffindor, Haarajot, Halibutt, Hammersfan, Hangman's stone, Hantsheroes,
Hardouin, Headbomb, Henrygb, Hgilbert, History6969, Hlj, Hmains, Hmmst, Homonihilis, Huxley75, Hypochlorite, ISpinksy, Ian Pitchford, Icairns, Immunize, IronDuke83, Isladechiloe, Iñaki
LL, J heisenberg, J.delanoy, JaGa, Jackfork, JamesAM, Japanese Searobin, Jay Reay, Jdiazch, Jdorney, Jeff3000, Jeremy Bentham, Jmj713, JoJan, Jogurney, John K, JohnWheater, Johnbod,
JonMiller, Jorge Stolfi, Joseph Solis in Australia, Julia W, Kang768524, Kdau, Kirachinmoku, KirrVlad, Knowledgebycoop, Kungfuadam, Kurykh, Kznf, Lacrimosus, Laurips, Leandrod,
LeaveSleaves, Lightmouse, Lironcareto, Lisiate, Londo06, Lord Cornwallis, LouisDesaix, LucasEllerNYC, LuzoGraal, MER-C, MGRILLO, MJGR, Mackensen, Madmagic, Mafmafmaf,
Magus732, Mahdi1ray, Marc29th, MarcusBritish, Markwpowell64, Martin H., Mathiasrex, Mav, Mboverload, MeltBanana, Mervyn, Midnightblueowl, Mimihitam, Mindeye, Modernist,
Mouramoor, Mr Fibbles, MrChile, Nabla, Naddy, Najabufo, Nampak4472, Naominovik, Neddyseagoon, Neo139, Netmendo, Nick Number, Nihonjoe, Nk, Noclador, Numbo3, Nuno Tavares,
Oddzag, Ohconfucius, Olivier, Omnipaedista, Opera hat, Optimus82, Oranin22, Oxymoron83, PBS, Panda-man, Parhamr, PatrickFlaherty, Patstuart, Paul Barlow, Paxse, PedroPVZ,
Percommode, PeterHuntington, Phaedrus86, Phatom87, Pietje96, Pmmollet, Provocateur, Qqtacpn, R'n'B, R9tgokunks, RashersTierney, Raymond Palmer, Rbraunwa, Rednblu, Reenem,
Reid1867, Remuseum, Rich Farmbrough, Richard Harvey, Richard Weil, Rioseco, Rjccumbria, Rje, Rjensen, Rjwilmsi, Robert EA Harvey, Robert Prummel, Robsmyth40, Roksanna, Romanm,
Ronhjones, Roy da Vinci, RoyBoy, Rsabbatini, Rui Gabriel Correia, SKopp, Sakkura, Salvio giuliano, Sam Hocevar, Samuel Blanning, Sarah Strother King, Sc147, Scartboy, SchreiberBike,
Scoo, Scott Moore, SecretAgentMan00, Severo, Silverhorse, Sleigh, Small.christophski, SoLando, Sonance, Southofwatford, Spot87, Stan Shebs, Starcheerspeaksnewslostwars, Stbalbach,
Steve64, Svick, Swarm, Swedish fusilier, T Long, TRAJAN 117, Tannin, Tassarov, Technopat, That Asian Guy, The Anonymous One, The Catholic Knight, The Ogre, TheCrusader13,
ThePedanticPrick, TheTrojanHought, Thuresson, Tide rolls, Tim1357, Tnxman307, Tobby72, Torchwoodtwo, Tpbradbury, Trekphiler, TriniMuñoz, Trip Johnson, Troy 07, Tttom, Tugaworld,
TwoOneTwo, UberCryxic, Uhanu, Uhforja, Uhlan, Unyoyega, Urselius, Vaniac, Varlaam, VenomousConcept, Verne Equinox, Vigilius, Virtualdojo, Volker89, Voyager, Vrenator, Waldir,
Welsh, Wereon, Who, Whoop whoop pull up, Wiki-Ed, Will Beback, William Avery, Woohookitty, XPTO, Xnuala, Yuechenzhao, Zachsdh, Zarateman, 509 anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:El joven Manuel Godoy.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:El_joven_Manuel_Godoy.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Bukk,
Eldelcarro, Mutter Erde
File:Príncipe Regente de Portugal e toda a Família Real embarcando para Brasil no cais de Belém.jpg Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Príncipe_Regente_de_Portugal_e_toda_a_Família_Real_embarcando_para_Brasil_no_cais_de_Belém.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors:
Henry L'Évêque (1768-1845)
File:Defensa del Parque de Artillería de Monteleón.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Defensa_del_Parque_de_Artillería_de_Monteleón.jpg License: unknown
Contributors: Auntof6, Balbo, Gaeddal, HombreDHojalata, Ketamino, Kippelboy, P. S. Burton, Shakko, Valdavia, Warburg
File:Romana.PNG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Romana.PNG License: Public Domain Contributors: Bogomolov.PL, Ecummenic, Megapixie, Seges, Soerfm, Tm,
Umherirrender, Valdavia, 2 anonymous edits
File:Francisco de Goya y Lucientes - Los fusilamientos del tres de mayo - 1814.jpg Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_-_Los_fusilamientos_del_tres_de_mayo_-_1814.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: -Strogoff-,
Aavindraa, Ajraddatz, Alvaro qc, Anne97432, AxelBoldt, Balbo, Bukk, CommonsDelinkerHelper, Dcoetzee, Emijrp, Esetena, Fredericks, Jed, Kalki, Latebird, Man vyi, Mattes, Mogelzahn, Paris
16, Park4223, Piotrus, Rrburke, Sparkit, Ss181292, The art master, Tm, Tsui, Warburg, Óberon Weber, 6 anonymous edits
File:The Defence of Saragossa.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Defence_of_Saragossa.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Albrecht, Nehrams2020,
Soerfm
File:Count of Floridablanca.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Count_of_Floridablanca.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Beria, Ecummenic
File:Escena de la Guerra del Francès.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Escena_de_la_Guerra_del_Francès.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Josep Bernat
Flaugier (1760 - 1812)
File:El Crit del Palleter.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:El_Crit_del_Palleter.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (d. 1923)
File:Battle of Bailen.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Battle_of_Bailen.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: José Casado del Alisal
File:Saragossa.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Saragossa.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Balbo, Bogomolov.PL, BurgererSF, Ecelan, Interpretix,
Kilom691, Shalom Alechem
File:Rédition de Madrid 1808.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rédition_de_Madrid_1808.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Alexandrin, Anne97432,
Jimmy44, Kilom691, Man vyi, Soerfm, Tm, Zimmermann Paul, 1 anonymous edits
File:Bitwa pod Tudela.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bitwa_pod_Tudela.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Bogomolov.PL, BurgererSF, Krokodyl,
Shalom Alechem, 1 anonymous edits
File:Battle of Somosierra 1808.PNG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Battle_of_Somosierra_1808.PNG License: Public Domain Contributors: Mathiasrex
File:Szarza w wawozie Somosierry.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Szarza_w_wawozie_Somosierry.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Emax, Haukurth, Magog
the Ogre, Piotrus, 3 anonymous edits
File:Napoleon.Madrid.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Napoleon.Madrid.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Contributors: JoJan - artwork by Vernet
and Swebach
File:Assaut du monastère de San Engracia, 8 février 1809.jpeg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Assaut_du_monastère_de_San_Engracia,_8_février_1809.jpeg License:
Public Domain Contributors: -IlhadorFile:Palafox-goya.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Palafox-goya.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Ecelan, Ecummenic, Pitke, Shakko, Tsaag Valren, 3
anonymous edits
File:Marechal Ney.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Marechal_Ney.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Alexandru.demian, Ecummenic, Jimmy44, Pierpao,
Xhienne
File:Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Nicolas_Jean_de_Dieu_Soult.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Rudder Louis Henri de
(1807 - 1881)
File:Duke of Wellington 2.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Duke_of_Wellington_2.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Adam Faanes, AndreasPraefcke,
Ecummenic, Ham, Hohum, Madmedea, MarcusBritish, Rehman, Shakko, Soerfm, Sokolov
File:Joaquin Blake.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Joaquin_Blake.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Anne97432, Bashevis6920, Hohum, Man vyi, Zakynto
File:Battle of Salamanca.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Battle_of_Salamanca.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Illustration von J. Clarke, Koloriert von
M. Dubourg
File:Battle of Badajoz.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Battle_of_Badajoz.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Andynomite
File:El Empecinado de Goya.jpeg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:El_Empecinado_de_Goya.jpeg License: Public Domain Contributors: Anne97432, Balbo, Erfil,
InverseHypercube, Kilom691, Mattes, Queninosta, Red devil 666, Sanbec, Shakko, SnowFire, Soerfm, Zaqarbal, 5 anonymous edits
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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:Bataille de Bruc.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bataille_de_Bruc.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Tableau de Ramon Marti i Alsina
File:El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya, from Prado thin black margin.jpg Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:El_Tres_de_Mayo,_by_Francisco_de_Goya,_from_Prado_thin_black_margin.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors:
El_Tres_de_Mayo,_by_Francisco_de_Goya,_from_Prado_in_Google_Earth.jpg: Francisco de Goya derivative work: Papa Lima Whiskey 2
File:Cortes de cadiz.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cortes_de_cadiz.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Escarlati, Jimmy44, Jmabel, Kilom691, Saulo
Tarantino, Shakko, 11 anonymous edits
File:Arc de Triomphe mg 6835.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Arc_de_Triomphe_mg_6835.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.0
Contributors: Rama More information on how to use my images
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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