Bretwalda Battles
The Peninsular War
The Battle of Vimeiro (1808)
by
Oliver Hayes
*****************
Published by Bretwalda Books
Website : Facebook : Twitter
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
First Published 2012
Copyright Bretwalda Books 2012
Oliver Hayes asserts his moral rights to be regarded as the author of this work.
ISBN 978-1-909099-47-0
*****************
Contents
- The Peninsular War
- The Commanders at Vimiero
- Weapons, Soldiers and Tactics
- The French Army
- The British Army
- The Battle of Vimeiro
- After Vimeiro
*****************
It was the Battle of Vimeiro that established the reputation of Sir Arthur Wellesley, later to be the Duke of Wellington. Until he fought the French on that remote hillside in Portugal, Wellesley was not especially well regarded in British military circles. After Vimeiro his name for beating the French was unsurpassed.
Wellesley had previously fought most of battles in India. That theatre of operations was generally considered to be very different to Europe. In India wars were determined as much by the ability of a general to keep his army supplied and to complete a march before the monsoons came as they were by actual fighting skills. In Europe it was the ability to fight that counted most. A general needed to be able to co-ordinate infantry, cavalry and artillery in a seamless whole that worked together to defeat an enemy as skilled and disciplined as himself.
At Vimeiro Wellesley was battling not only the French but a tradition of victory that had seen the hordes of Napoleon sweep aside Germans, Austrians, Italians, Russians and a host of smaller nations. The British had been defeated time and again by the men that Wellesley now had to face. Most people at the time - including Wellesley's opponent General Junot - believed Wellesley to be a poor commander and the British to be poor troops. Only the British had any confidence in themselves, and in their commander.
The battle was the first major engagement of British troops in the Peninsular War. It featured many aspects that would become familiar in the years that followed. Wellesley chose to defend a slope with his infantry and artillery, forcing the French to attack up hill. The British infantry formed up in line, the French in column. The British were co-operating with local allies who did not do what Wellesley expected them to do. The French had the superiority of numbers, especially of cavalry and artillery.
The Battle of Vimeiro set the pattern for what was to follow. Warfare would never be the same again.
*****************
The Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was but one part of the wider Napoleonic Wars that engulfed Europe in a series of wars and campaigns that lasted almost 20 years and stretched from the Atlantic to Moscow and reached overseas to India, the Caribbean and the Near East. But although the Peninsular War was a part of the wider conflict, it had some unique characteristics that made it a peculiarly savage and hard-fought conflict.
In the earlier stages of the Napoleonic Wars, Spain had remained neutral or actively taken the side of France against the various coalitions that sought to crush Napoleon, the self-proclaimed Emperor of the French. Spain saw the opportunity to make gains for herself, while the French had no ambitions south of the Pyrenees. The situation began to change in 1807. Napoleon stood triumphant in Europe having defeated Prussia, Austria and Russia on the battlefield and having cowed the smaller states into submission. His only remaining enemy was Britain, and there he had a problem.
In 1805 Britain's Admiral Nelson had crushed the combined fleets of France and Spain at the Battle of Trafalgar. As a result, Napoleon had no chance of invading Britain with his magnificent army. Instead he sought to bring Britain to peace talks by crippling her trade. By blocking every European port to British merchant ships, Napoleon believed, he would do so much damage to British wealth that peace on his terms would be inevitable. Not all the European countries wanted to join such a blockade, but one by one they succumbed to Napoleon's threats and bluster. By October 1807 only Portugal still refused to join this Continental System, as it was known.
In November, Napoleon agreed a treaty with the Spanish Prime Minister, Manuel de Godoy - who was also the lover of the Spanish Queen Maria Louisa. In return for French troops being allowed to march through Spain to invade Portugal, the Spanish would get the Portuguese fleet and various overseas colonies, and as an added inducement Portugal would be divided into three minor states under Spanish domination.
The Portuguese did not wait about to be destroyed. Queen Maria I fled from Lisbon on 29 November along with her family, the Portuguese fleet, most of the merchant ships and thousands of soldiers. She moved to the Portuguese colony of Brazil where she set up court along with her son and regent John. John, later King John VI, appealed to Britain for help. John left orders in Portugal that there should be no resistance to the French in order to avoid bloodshed. The royal flight was, he said, only temporary and soon all would be right.
The embarkation of the Portuguese Royal Family at Lisbon. Queen Maria and the Regent John fled in the face of overwhelming French force and headed to Brazil from where they appealed to Britain for help.
Napoleon, meanwhile, had become more ambitious. Rather than merely close the Iberian ports to British trade, he now wanted to gain complete control of the Peninsula by merging Portugal into Spain and making his own brother, Joseph, King of Spain. His moves were made slowly. First larger numbers of French soldiers marched into Spain, claiming to be on their way to Portugal to occupy that country. In February Napoleon ordered his men in Spain to seize key Spanish fortresses and military bases using the pretext that they were needed to safeguard the supply lines to the French troops in Portugal.
King Charles IV of Spain began to grow alarmed as the numbers of French troops in Spain and Portugal passed the 100,000 mark, and an ominous 80% of them were in Spain. At the same time Spain was suffering an economic crisis, caused largely by the loss of trade to the American colonies that had followed the Battle of Trafalgar. The populace and many nobles blamed Godoy for the pro-French policy that was causing such poverty and hardship. He was already unpopular, and the French troops entering Spain made him even more so.
In the spring of 1808 Charles, Maria Louisa and Godoy were staying in the small palace at the town of Aranjuez. The trio held discussions about the deteriorating situation, and decided to follow the lead of the Portuguese royal family. Messages were sent to Cadiz ordering the Spanish fleet there to prepare to carry the royal family and court to the Spanish colony of Spain. Spain at this date was at peace with Britain, so the Royal Navy would not intervene, and might even help.
