A history of England

by Charles Oman

The Capitulation at Baylen.

Bonaparte's notion that Spain could be annexed by a proclamation, and held down by 80,000 men, was destined to receive a rude shock. Almost simultaneously, two disasters fell upon his armies. A corps had been sent southwards to conquer Andalusia, where the insurrection was at its strongest. Its leader, General Dupont, allowed himself to be surrounded by superior numbers of Spanish levies at Baylen, and after some grossly mismanaged fighting, laid down his arms with his whole force of 15,000 men (July 20, 1808).

Battle of Vimiero.—The Convention of Cintra.

Junot, in Portugal, suffered almost the same fate. The English began to land in Portugal a few days after the capitulation of Baylen. When their leading divisions were ashore, headed by Sir Arthur Wellesley, the victor of Assaye and Argaum, Junot marched against them to drive them into the sea. Finding Wellesley on the hillside of Vimiero, he attacked him recklessly (Aug. 21), for the French had not yet learnt to appreciate the worth of the British infantry. He received a crushing defeat, and his army would have been destroyed if Wellesley had been allowed to pursue him. But on the night of the battle, more troops arrived from England, and with them Sir Hew Dalrymple, who was in command of the whole expedition. The cautious veteran refused Wellesley permission to follow up the flying enemy, and Junot escaped to Lisbon. But the Frenchman had been so badly beaten, that by an agreement called the "Convention of Cintra" he gave up Lisbon and all Portugal in return for being granted a safe passage back to France. English public opinion was disappointed that Junot's whole army had not been captured, and Dalrymple and Wellesley were put on trial for not taking Lisbon by force. The former, the responsible person, was deprived of his command; the latter was acquitted and sent back to Portugal to repeat his triumph of Vimiero on larger fields of battle. Meanwhile, while he was being tried in England, Sir John Moore, an able and experienced general, received the command of the English army in the Peninsula.

Napoleon in Spain.—Sir John Moore's campaign.

The news of Baylen and Vimiero had roused Napoleon to fury, which grew still greater when he heard that his brother Joseph had evacuated Madrid and fallen back behind the Ebro. He determined to march in person against Spain with the "Grande Armée," nearly 250,000 veterans, the victors of Austerlitz and Jena. Proclaiming that he was "about to carry his victorious eagles to the Pillars of Hercules, and drive the British leopard into the sea," he hurried over the Pyrenees, and fell upon the raw Spanish levies who had now advanced to the line of the Ebro. With a few crushing blows, he scattered them to right and left, and entered Madrid (Dec. 4, 1808). All northern and central Spain were overrun, and Napoleon might have accomplished his boast, and advanced to Cadiz and Lisbon, but for the daring diversion made by Sir John Moore and his 25,000 English. When that able officer heard that the Emperor had passed southward and taken Madrid, he fell upon his line of communication, and threatened to cut off his connection with France. He knew that this act would bring overwhelming numbers against him, but he also knew that it would save Southern Spain for a space. When Napoleon learnt that Moore was in his rear, he hurriedly left Madrid and directed 100,000 men to chase the much-daring general. But Moore, satisfied to have drawn off the French, continually retreated before them in the most skilful manner, always offering battle to the French van, and retreating when their main body appeared. He thus drew Napoleon up into the extreme north-western corner of Spain, among the rugged hills of Galicia. While engaged in this pursuit the Emperor received unwelcome news which drew him hastily back to Paris.

Napoleon leaves Spain.—Battle of Corunna.

The English government had not been idle during the autumn of 1808, and had formed a new coalition with Austria, who in three years had begun to recover the disaster of Austerlitz, and to chafe against Napoleon's dictatorial ways and the inconveniences of the Continental System. Seeing the Emperor entangled in the Spanish war, Austria thought the opportunity of attacking him too good to be missed, and was preparing to send her armies into South Germany while Napoleon was chasing Moore into Galicia. The Emperor was forced to leave the greater part of his army in Spain, and to hurry off to the Danube with his guards and picked troops. Marshal Soult, whom he sent in pursuit of Moore, followed him as far as the sea, where an English fleet was waiting at Corunna to pick up the way-worn and jaded troops. To secure a safe embarkation, Moore turned sharply on the head of Soult's army, and drove it back at the battle of Corunna (Jan. 16, 1809). He fell in the moment of victory, but his efforts had not been in vain: his troops sailed away in safety, and the French invasion of Spain had been checked for four months by his bold stroke.