The French were defeated in a general action fought on the 16th of January, when Sir John Moore fell mortally wounded. The army afterwards embarked and returned to England. Thus the British had intercepted the blow which was descending to crush Spain; time had been given to enable the patriots to re-organize their armies; and Bonaparte being recalled to France, by the news that Austria and Russia were arming to oppose him, the war was protracted in Spain. On the passage to England the Despatch transport, having on board Major the Hon. G. C. Cavendish, Captain G. Dukinfield, and Lieutenant the Hon. Edward Waldegrave, with one hundred and thirteen men, and forty-four horses, was wrecked near the Lizard, on the coast of Cornwall, and only seven men escaped.
After its arrival from Spain, the regiment was quartered at Guildford, from whence it proceeded to Weymouth; in May, 1810, it embarked at Liverpool for Ireland, and was stationed at Dublin, with detached troops at Athy and Carlow.
1811
1812
1813
In 1811 the head-quarters were removed to Dundalk, where they remained during the year 1812; and in 1813 the regiment embarked at Dublin for England.
Having landed at Liverpool, the regiment proceeded to London; it was stationed at Hyde Park barracks, Hampton Court, and Hounslow, and performed the king's duty during the absence of the household cavalry on foreign service.
The glorious victories gained by the allied army under Field Marshal the Marquis of Wellington had, in the mean time, accomplished the deliverance of Portugal, and of nearly all Spain, from the despotic sway of Bonaparte, and the Seventh Hussars were selected to take part in completing the overthrow of the tyrannical power of Napoleon. Eight troops, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel R. Hussey Vivian, embarked at Portsmouth on the 15th of August, and landed at Bilboa, the capital of Biscay, in Spain, on the 1st of September; and two additional troops joined from England in October. The regiment was formed in brigade with the Tenth and Fifteenth hussars, commanded by Major-General Lord Edward Somerset.
After the surrender of the castle of St. Sebastian the regiment advanced, and having joined the army, supported the infantry at the passage of the Bidassoa, and advanced as far as Vera on the borders of France. The Seventh Hussars subsequently retired through the Pyrenean mountains to the vicinity of Pampeluna, which fortress surrendered on the 31st of October.
Colonel Richard Hussey Vivian having been appointed to the command of a brigade of cavalry, the command of the regiment devolved on Lieut.-Colonel Edward Kerrison.
1814
After occupying village cantonments near Pampeluna for several weeks, the Seventh Hussars marched through the Pyrenees and joined the army in France. On the 18th of December they took the out-post duty at Cambo, a town eight miles from Bayonne, where the French army, under Marshal Soult, lay in a fortified camp. On the 31st of December, the regiment took the out-post duty on the road leading to St. Jean Pied de Port, where a French division was stationed. The weather becoming very severe, the regiment went into cantonments in the beginning of 1814, near Hasparan, in Gascony, thirteen miles from Bayonne: in these quarters forage was particularly scarce, and the horses suffered in condition from being fed on chopped gorse and about three pounds of oats a day. The foraging parties sent towards the French lines, had frequent skirmishes, and on one of these occasions, Captain Peter Augustus Heyliger was wounded.