CARLOS IIII.
REY DE ESPAÑA.
[p. i]A HISTORY OF THE
PENINSULAR WAR
BY
CHARLES OMAN, M.A.
FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE
AND DEPUTY-PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY (CHICHELE)
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Vol. I
1807-1809
FROM THE TREATY OF FONTAINEBLEAU
TO THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA
WITH MAPS, PLANS AND PORTRAITS
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1902
[p. ii]HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH
NEW YORK
[p. iii]
PREFACE
Itis many years since an attempt has been made in Englandto deal with the general history of the Peninsular War. Severalinteresting and valuable diaries or memoirs of officers who took partin the great struggle have been published of late[1], but no writer of thepresent generation has dared to grapple with the details of the wholeof the seven years of campaigning that lie between the Dos Mayoand Toulouse. Napier’s splendid work has held the field for sixtyyears. Meanwhile an enormous bulk of valuable material has beenaccumulating in English, French, and Spanish, which has practicallyremained unutilized. Papers, public and private, are accessible whoseexistence was not suspected in the ’thirties; an infinite number ofautobiographies and reminiscences which have seen the light after fiftyor sixty years of repose in some forgotten drawer, have served to fillup many gaps in our knowledge. At least one formal history of the firstimportance, that of General Arteche y Moro, has been published. I fancythat its eleven volumes are practically unknown in England, yet it isalmost as valuable as Toreño’s Guerra de la Independencia in enablingus to understand the purely Spanis