RISING OF THE SPANISH NATION, ETC.
It has been seen that a compact had been entered into between Napoleon and the Spanish court for a division of Portugal, when the conquest of that country should be made. Napoleon, however, never intended that Spain should share in the spoils of his conquests. Contrary to the treaty, the Spaniards were almost wholly excluded from the occupation of the country; and added to this, French troops suddenly marched by different routes into the very heart of the Spanish kingdom. The Spaniards saw their soil in the hands of a foreigner, and their proud hearts beat high with indignation at the outrage committed. Godoy, the “Prince of Peace,” saw that he had been overreached, and that his empire, as well as that of his master, was at an end. He advised the royal family to take refuge in flight; but the people seeing that this was determined upon, resolved upon a desperate resistance. One voice alone was heard throughout the provinces, and that one voice loudly accused Godoy of imbecility or treason. A terrible sedition broke out at Aranguez, in March of the present year. Summoned to arms by Ferdinand, the Prince of Austria, an avowed foe to Godoy, the whole population rose, stormed the palace in which the favourite dwelt, abused him, and would have murdered him, but for the intercession of the queen. Covered with wounds, he was, however, conducted to prison, and then they compelled the king to resign, and placed the sceptre of power in the hands of his son Ferdinand, who had incited the revolt. Ferdinand entered Madrid in the character of King of the two Spains; but the French troops, under Murat, entered that city on the next day, and the newly-created king soon discovered who was to be master. Murat refused to acknowledge the Prince of Austria as king, and announced the near arrival of Napoleon in Madrid. He was advised to go to meet Napoleon, in order to secure his favour; but when he met him at Bayonne, he was informed that the French emperor’s determination was to remove the Bourbon house from the Spanish throne. He was compelled to declare the unconditional restoration of the crown to his father, who was called to Bayonne for the purpose of receiving it; and then the old monarch ceded to Napoleon by treaty all his rights to the throne of Spain and India, with the single condition, that the prince whom the emperor intended to place thereon should be independent, and that the Roman Catholic religion should continue to be the only religion in Spain. The king, the queen the royal family, and Godoy received in return an assured abode in France, with certain pensions; and the whole court went immediately to the castle of Compeigne, which the conqueror allotted them. Napoleon now gave the throne of Spain to his brother Joseph, who reigned at Naples, giving the latter throne to Joachim Murat, Grand Duke of Bergand Cleves. The members of the national junta were now convoked to Bayonne from all parts of the kingdom, and anew constitution was formed, after which Joseph set out for his kingdom in Spain. Napoleon thought his work consummated; but events proved that it was only now commenced. The royal house of the Bourbons had vanished, but the nation still lived. The news of what had passed at Bayonne filled all Spain with fury: the national pride revolted against the yoke of the foreigner, and a contest was roused, the flames of which raged over all the provinces of the kingdom. In the very day that Napoleon declared his brother King of Spain, the junta of Seville proclaimed war against the oppressor; and on the day of the entrance of King-Joseph into Madrid, the French were repulsed from Saragossa, and compelled to lay down their arms at Baylen, to the number of 26,000 men. So furious was the storm of war which Napoleon had thus called up throughout the whole country, that his brother Joseph was obliged to quit Madrid one week after his entry therein. In every part the population rose to arms and massacred the French: the very clergy aiding the people and the army to root them from their soil. From this time for six long years Spain fought against the formidable forces of the world’s tyrant; and, as will be seen in a future page, she came off victorious. At the very first onset, indeed, by the capitulation at Baylen, the charm of French invincibility was broken, and the star of Napoleon was covered with an opaque cloud. It was this battle, fought in July, which induced England to assist the Spaniards. Money, arms, munitions of every sort, and troops were sent to both Spain and Portugal; and, as regards the latter country, their power was soon rendered effective.
GEORGE III. 1807—1809
AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL. CONFEDERATION OF FRANCE AND RUSSIA.
Upon receiving the intelligence of these reverses, Napoleon assembled a far more powerful army, and resolved to crush the insurrection of Spain at least in person. Other dangers, however, awaited him. Alarmed at the treaty of Tilsit, and invigorated by its consequences, Austria had increased her regular force, and organized a militia; and the French reverses in Spain and Portugal gave a new impulse to her evident preparations for war. Napoleon saw this with alarm, and he resolved at once to menace and insult that country, by arranging the co-operation of Russia and the confederated states of the Rhine against the Emperor of Austria, should he attempt to take advantage of the Spanish war. A meeting between Napoleon and Alexander of Russia took place at Erfurt in September and October; and although the sovereigns of the confederation of the Rhine were permitted to pay their court there, Austria was excluded as a secondary power. Thus insulted afresh, the Emperor of Austria resolved in the course of the next year to renew the struggle with France, though he should find himself opposed to Russia likewise. A mysterious veil covered for a time the transactions of Erfurt; but what transpired in relation to them and what ensued justified the conjecture that they confirmed the conventions of the treaty of Tilsit; and that the new dynasty in Spain was acknowledged by Russia for permitting her to aggrandize herself in the north and the east. From Erfurt the two emperors directed a common proposal of peace to the King of England, accompanied by the declaration, that this step was the consequence of the most intimate connexion of the two greatest monarchs of the continent for war as well as for peace; but this proposal was without effect. They were answered that, however desirous both the government and the people might be to put an end to the miseries of war, they were prepared to endure any extremity before they sacrificed the interest of their allies by negociating a separate peace, and leaving Sicily, Sweden, Portugal, and Spain to the tender mercies of Napoleoa. “The hideous presence of the British leopards” was still to prove a terror to Frenchmen.
OPERATIONS IN SPAIN.
Having strengthened his alliance with the Emperor of Russia, Napoleon recalled his legions from the banks of the Niémen, the Spree, the Elbe, and the Danube, in order to reduce Spain. Placing himself at the head of them, he crossed the Pyrenees early in November, and the battles of Burgos, Espinosa, and Tudela, fought under his auspices, once more placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain. Napoleon, accompanied by Joseph, again occupied Madrid; and he now sought to appease the fury of its inhabitants and of the people in the provinces by conciliatory measures. The promises made to the Spanish people were ample; but he spoke to men who had no ears for his offers, On every hand the population flew to arms, and all vowed to drive him from their land. Even conflicting parties agreed to shake off their natural enmity to each other, in order to effect this triumph. A guerilla warfare was now pursued: agile bands of men appeared, and having cut off some of their enemies, retired with equal rapidity. In the meantime a British army, under General Moore, was marching to their aid from Portugal. When this army had arrived at Salamanca, however, the Spaniards had already experienced successive defeats, so that when Napoleon advanced against him, General Moore deemed it prudent to retreat. The French emperor expressed his joy aloud at seeing the “British leopards” fly before him; but while pursuing them he received fresh accounts of the preparation of Austria, and suddenly turning his horse, he returned to Burgos, and from thence hurried to Paris. Soult was left to combat with the English; and that general, overtaking them at Corunna, was defeated by them, though inferior in numbers. The greatest loss on the side of the English was that of their commander, Sir John Moore, who was mortally wounded by a cannon-ball. So great was the bravery displayed by General Moore on this occasion, that his very antagonists erected a monument to his memory. After his death the command of the army devolved on Sir John Hope, who pursued a plan devised by General Moore, that of embarkation during the night, and who carried this plan into effect with complete success. The British quitted Spain in January, 1800, leaving the Spaniards to struggle with the French by their own prowess.