The Peninsular War

A New History

Charles Esdaile

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781403962317
• eBook ISBN: 9781466892361
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

A stunning look at Napoleon's early nineteenth-century campaign across the Iberian Peninsula from historian Charles Esdaile.
"Drawing on first-hand accounts of the conflict, Esdaile paints an indelible picture of the cruelties of Napoleonic warfare. His vigorous writing, comprehensive analysis and even-handed judgments make this an indispensable treatment of one of the watersheds of European history." — Publishers Weekly
At the end of the eighteenth century, Spain remained one of the world's most powerful empires. Thanks to a long period of enlightened absolutism, Portugal, too, was prosperous. But by 1808, everything had changed. Portugal was under occupation and ravaged by famine, disease, economic problems and political instability. Spain had imploded and worse was to come. For the next six years, the Iberian Peninsula, for three centuries a byword for religious and military aggression, became itself the helpless victim of others, suffering perhaps over a million deaths while troops from all over Europe tore it to pieces.
Charles Esdaile's brilliant new history of the Peninsular War makes plain the scope of the tragedy and its far-reaching effects, especially the poisonous legacy that produced the Spanish civil war of 1936-1939. Portugal suffered unparalleled disaster, with casualties that have no comparison in its history. For Britain, the Peninsular War became the arena in which the redcoats of first Moore and then Wellington created one of her great national epics. For Britain, it was also the war that established a dazzlingly powerful military machine that both never lost a battle and became the first invading army to set foot on the soil of Napoleonic France.
The Peninsular War tells this compelling, terrible story for a new generation with all the detail, color, and painstaking research for which Charles Esdaile has become famous. It is a monumental work of military history that has all the great military set pieces but never loses sight of the people of Spain and Portugal and the suffering they endured. This is a classic work of history that will set the standard for all that will come after it.
"I found myself consuming it like a devouring flame. It is brilliant, indispensable and challenging. I suspect this will become the standard work on the Peninsula War and it certainly deserves to be." —Bernard Cornwell
"Well written and featuring rational conclusions based on solid research, it is highly recommended." —Lt. Col. Charles M. Minyard, Library Journal

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Notice
• Dedication
• Preface
• List of Maps
• Maps
• 1. Lisbon: the Origins of the Peninsular War
• 2. Madrid: the Iberian Insurrections, May–June 1808
• 3. Bailén: the Summer Campaign of 1808
• 4. Vimeiro: the Liberation of Portugal, August 1808
• 5. Somosierra: Napoleon’s Revenge, November–December 1808
• 6. La Coruña: the Campaign of Sir John Moore, December 1808–January 1809
• 7. Oporto: Conquest Frustrated, January–June 1809
• 8. Talavera: the Fall of the Junta Central, July 1809–January 1810
• 9. Seville: the Bonaparte Kingdom of Spain 1808–1813
• 10. Pancorbo: the Emergence of Guerrilla War, 1808–1810
• 11. Cádiz: the Making of the Spanish Revolution, 1810–1812
• 12. Torres Vedras: the Defence of Portugal, July 1810–March 1811
• 13. Albuera: Stalemate on the Portuguese Frontier, March–December 1811
• 14. Badajoz: the Anglo-Portuguese Offensive of 1812
• 15. Burgos: the Autumn Campaign of 1812
• 16. Vitoria: the Defeat of King Joseph, January–June 1813
• 17. Pyrenees: the Invasion of France, July–November 1813
• 18. Báscara: Peace and Thereafter
• Glossary
• Notes
• Further Reading
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author
• Newsletter Sign-up
• Contents
• Copyright