to their owners. There were many in England who found fault with the whole proceeding, and even George III. seems to have been very much of their opinion. Speaking to the gentleman who had carried to the Crown Prince the message asking him to give up the fleet, the old king asked whether he found the prince upstairs or downstairs. "He was on the ground floor, please your Majesty," was the reply. "I am glad of it for your sake," said the king; "for if he had half my spirit, he would have kicked you downstairs." I. Napoleon and Spain. 1807-1808.--Napoleon had been gradually maturing designs against Spain. The king, Charles IV., was too witless to govern, and the queen was living in adultery with Godoy, an unprincipled favourite who ruled the kingdom. The heir to the throne, Ferdinand, despised his father and hated Godoy. Spain, indeed, had been most subservient to Napoleon, and had sacrificed her fleets to him at St. Vincent and Trafalgar, but even Godoy discovered that Spain received all the loss and none of the advantages of the alliance, and began to show signs of independence. Napoleon resolved to bring Spain entirely under his control, and in October 1807, in order to procure the entry of his troops into the country, signed a treaty with Spain, by which France and Spain 1808 THE SPANISH TROUBLES 263 were to make a joint attack on Portugal, and to cut it up into three parts, one of which was to be given to Godoy. Napoleon then stirred up Ferdinand against his parents, and on this Godoy, not knowing that Napoleon had a hand in the matter, obtained from the king a proclamation announcing that he intended to bring his son to justice. Napoleon, partly on the pretence of attacking Portugal, and partly on the pretence of protecting Ferdinand, sent 80,000 men into Spain, and in February 1808 placed Murat, his brother-in-law and his best cavalry officer, at their head. 2. The Dethronement of Charles IV. 1808.-On March 17 a Spanish mob rose against Godoy, and the old king, Charles IV., abdicated in favour of his son. Before long, however, he repented and declared his abdication invalid, whilst Ferdinand insisted that it was in full force. Napoleon, to whom both father and son appealed for support, invited them to Bayonne, where he forced them both to abdicate. In the meanwhile Murat had entered Madrid. On May 2 Madrid rose against him, but the insurrection was put down with great cruelty. Napoleon fancied that all resistance was at an end, but before the end of May the Spanish people, town by town and village by village, rose in a national insurrection against the French, without any one part of the country having previous communication with another. Except in his relations with England, Napoleon had hitherto had to deal with the resistance of governments and armies. He had now to deal with a people inspired with hatred of a foreign conquest. It is true that the Spaniards were ignorant and backward, and that they had no trustworthy military organisation; but for all that, they had what neither the Germans nor the Italians as yet had, the spirit of national resistance. 3. The Capitulation at Baylen. 1808. In June Napoleon got together a certain number of Spaniards at Bayonne who, by his directions, chose his brother Joseph, hitherto king of Naples, to be king of Spain, after which Napoleon sent Murat to replace Joseph at Naples. Napoleon also urged his generals to put down the resistance of the peasants. They pressed forwards victoriously, but one of them, Dupont, pushing on too far, was obliged, on July 19, to capitulate at Baylen in the Sierra Morena. Joseph had to fly from Madrid, and the whole French army retreated behind the Ebro. 4. Battle of Vimeiro and Convention of Cintra. 1808.-In the preceding winter a French army under Junot had invaded Portugal, and had occupied Lisbon, though the whole of the royal family escaped capture by sailing away to the great Portuguese colony of Brazil. Portugal and England were old allies, and partly in order to deliver Portugal, partly in order to support the resistance of Spain, the British ministry, urged on by Canning, sent an army to resist Junot. The British Government gave the charge of it to Sir Arthur Wellesley, the best soldier in their service, the victor of Assaye and Argaum (see p. 859). Indian service, however, was in those days little regarded, and two old officers of no distinction, Sir Henry Dalrymple and Sir Harry Burrard, were sent after Wellesley to take the command over him as soon as they could arrive in Portugal. Meanwhile, on August 1, Wellesley landed in Mondego Bay. On August 21 he completely defeated Junot at Vimeiro. Burrard, who arrived just as the battle was beginning, was enough of a gentleman to let Wellesley remain in command till it was fought out, but he superseded him as soon as it was over, and in spite of Wellesley's pleadings, refused to follow up the enemy. Junot got safely into Lisbon, and on August 30 was allowed by a convention signed at Cintra to return with all his army to France. 5. Sir John Moore's Expedition and the Battle of Corunna. 1808-1809. In November 1808 Napoleon entered Spain in person to stem the tide of disaster. The Spanish troops were patriotic, but they were ill-commanded and undisciplined. Napoleon drove them like sheep before him, and, on December 4, entered Madrid. The British army in Portugal was now commanded by Sir John Moore. The Convention of Cintra had been received with indignation in England as improperly lenient to the French, and Wellesley and his two official superiors had been recalled to give an account of their conduct in relation to it. Moore, who was an excellent general, had been ordered to advance to the assistance of the Spaniards, when Napoleon burst into the country. Deceived by false intelligence, and believing that the Spaniards would fight better than they did, Moore pushed on, reaching Sahagun on December 23. He there learnt that Napoleon was already hurrying back from Madrid to crush him. Moore was therefore forced to retreat, but he so skilfully availed himself of the obstacles on the route as to give Napoleon no opportunity of drawing him to a battle. On January 1, 1809, Napoleon, thinking Moore's destruc tion to be a mere matter of time, turned back, leaving the French army under the command of Soult. On January 16 Moore had to fight a battle at Corunna to secure the embarkation of his men. He was himself killed, but his army was completely victorious, and was brought away in safety to England. 1809 OVERTHROW OF AUSTRIA 865 6. Aspern and Wagram. 1809.-Napoleon had been recalled from Spain by news that Austria was arming against him. A war between France and Austria was the result, and after the indecisive battle of Aspern, fought on May 21 and 22, 1809, the French gained a victory at Wagram on July 6. On October 14 the Treaty of Vienna was signed, by which vast territories were cut off from the Austrian Empire. The treaty was followed by a marriage between Napoleon and the daughter of the Emperor Francis, Napoleon having divorced his wife Josephine on a flimsy pretext, his real motive being that she had borne him no children. The English Government were not idle spectators of this war. Canning had taken in hand the war in Spain. 7. Walcheren and Talavera. 1809. Whilst the result of the campaign in Austria was still uncertain, Castlereagh sent out an expedition to seize Antwerp, in the hope that, if it succeeded, it would compel Napoleon, who was still struggling on the Danube, to send part of his army back. Unfortunately, the command of the land forces sent out was given to Lord Chatham, the eldest son of the great Chatham, who had nothing but his birth to recommend him, and the command of the fleet to Sir Richard Strachan, an officer of no great distinction. Though the expedition did not sail til July 28, three weeks after the defeat of the Austrians at Wagram, there was still a chance that a successful blow at Antwerp might encourage the Emperor of Austria to prolong the struggle. The commanders, however, took Flushing and did no more. Time was frittered away in senseless disputes between the general and the admiral, and Antwerp was put in a good state of defence before they could resolve how to attack it. According to a popular epigram, The Earl of Chatham, with his sword drawn Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham. Whilst admiral and general were hesitating, the troops were left in the low isle of Walcheren, where a fever broke out which swept away thousands, and so weakened the constitutions of those who recovered that few were fit for active service again. When the news of failure reached England, Canning threw all the blame on Castlereagh. The two ministers both resigned office and then fought a duel. The Duke of Portland, the Prime Minister, broken in health, also resigned, and died shortly afterwards. He was succeeded by Perceval, a conscientious but narrow-minded X |