X-Nico

14 unusual facts about Peninsular War


Assumpta Serna

She is known for her roles in I, The Worst of All portraying famous Mexican religious scholar Sor Juana, Nostradamus, The Craft, and Wild Orchid, although she may be most remembered for her role as Peninsular War guerrilla commander Teresa Moreno in the first four of the ITV Richard Sharpe series of films based on the novels of Bernard Cornwell.

Badminton, Gloucestershire

Field Marshal FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and later commander of all the British forces in the Crimean War was born, raised and buried in Badminton.

Battle of Villalar

This view started in the 1820s, as Juan Martín Díez "El Empecinado", a nationalistic liberal military leader during the Peninsular War, led an expedition to find and exhume the remains of the three Castilian leaders executed in 1521.

Clan Hope

Sir John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun had a notable military career, serving throughout the Peninsular War.

Field post office

The first British FPO was in 1808 during the Peninsular War and in 1840 the British Army used a FPO during the first Chinese War.

Francisco Taboada y Gil

Don Francisco Taboada y Gil was a Spanish military leader during the Peninsular War.

Hispanicisms in English

Some words have special historical significance, such as "guerrilla" (the word used by Napoleon's forces to describe the way the Spanish fought in the Peninsular War), or the term "fifth column" which as quinta columna was used by a Spanish Civil War general to label his covert supporters in Madrid as he laid siege to it.

José Canga-Argüelles

Observaciones sobre la guerra de la Peninsula (Observations on the Peninsular War), in which he endeavoured to show that his countrymen had taken a far more effective part in the national struggle against the French than English historians were willing to admit.

Luis González Torres de Navarra, Marquess of Campoverde

Don Luis González Torres de Navarra, Marquess of Campoverde, was a famous Spanish military leader during the Peninsular War.

Manuel Freire de Andrade

Manuel Alberto Freire de Andrade y Armijo (4 November 1767 – 7 March 1835) was a Spanish cavalry officer and general officer during the Peninsular War, and later Defense Minister.

Raul Hilberg

Hilberg was amazed by this highly educated, German-Jewish emigrant passing over the genocide of European Jews in order to expound on Napoleon and the occupation of Spain.

Siege of Roses

Siege of Roses (1808), the French took the port from the Spanish in the Peninsular War

Sir Frederick Currie, 1st Baronet

In 1842 a new Governor-General, Lord Ellenborough, began preparations for war and in 1844 his successor, Sir Henry Hardinge, a veteran of the Peninsular War under Sir Arthur Wellesley, accelerated these preparations.

Sir Thomas Picton School

He is chiefly remembered for his exploits under the Duke of Wellington in the Iberian Peninsular War and at the Battle of Waterloo, where he was mortally wounded while his division stopped d'Erlon's corps attack against the allied centre left, and so became the most senior officer to die at Waterloo.


Afonso de Albuquerque Square

In 1807, Queen Mary I, Prince John VI and the royal family fled Lisbon from this harbour to Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, to escape the Napoleonic troops which had invaded Portugal.

Anthony Donelan

His father was Colonel of the 48th Regiment, and his grandfather was killed in action at the Battle of Talavera in the Peninsular War.

Aretas William Young

After extensive military service in the Peninsular War and elsewhere, Young held a range of colonial government roles in the West Indies and Prince Edward Island, of which he was Lieutenant Governor.

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

Leighton assumes they will make for the Mediterranean, but Hornblower suggests that they mean to support Napoleon's campaign on the Iberian Peninsula.

Catherine Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington

Her brother, Edward "Ned" Pakenham, served under Wellesley throughout the Peninsular War and Wellesley's regard for him helped to smooth his relations with Kitty, until Ned Pakenham's death at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

Chaves Municipality, Portugal

French forces invaded and attacked in 1807, during the Siege of Chaves, part of the Peninsular Wars.

Constantí

During the Independence War, General Louis-Gabriel Suchet had managed from Constantí the siege of Tarragona in 1811.

Couper baronets

He was a Colonel in the Army and fought in the Peninsular War, served as Military Secretary to the Governor Generals of Canada, Sir James Kempt and Lord Durham, and was Comptroller of the Household and Equerry to Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent.

Cuéllar Castle

Also stands out figures as the painter Francisco Javier Parcerisa, or the writer José de Espronceda, the generals Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who set his garrison barracks in this castle during the Spanish War of Independence.

E H D Sewell

His grandfather was Sir William Henry Sewell (c1786–1862),who was aide-de-camp to William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, during the Peninsular War, and joined the Duke of Wellington’s army in Portugal in 1808.

El Bodón

During the Peninsular War, the village was the site of the Battle of El Bodón which was fought on 25 September 1811 between the French army and Anglo-Portuguese army under Thomas Picton.

Francisco Ballesteros

Following the French invasion of 1808, Ballasteros took command of a regiment from the Junta General del Principado de Asturias and attached himself to the Army of Galicia under Blake and Castaños.

François-André Baudin

In November 1809 Baudin was ordered to take the 80-gun ships of the line Robuste and Borée, the 74-gun Lion and the frigates Pauline and Pomone and escort a twenty ship convoy from Toulon to Barcelona to supply the Napoleonic forces fighting the Peninsular War.

Gabriel de Mendizábal Iraeta

Gabriel de Mendizábal Iraeta "Primer Conde de Cuadro de Alba de Tormes" (14 May 1765, Vergara, Guipúzcoa) - 1 September 1838, Madrid) was a Spanish general officer who fought in the Peninsular War.

Garleton Hills

The western spur is crowned by the Hopetoun Monument to John, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, who commanded the British Army in the Peninsular War, after the death of Sir John Moore at Corunna.

George Prévost

Prévost had also made himself unpopular among some of the Army officers under his command who were veterans of the Peninsular War (such as Manley Power, Thomas Brisbane, and Frederick Philipse Robinson) by his perceived over-caution, and his niggling insistence on correct dress and uniform.

Hercules Robert Pakenham

He was promoted to a majority in the 7th West India regiment 30 Aug. 1810, remained with the Peninsular army, and was assistant adjutant-general of Picton's division up to the fall of Badajos, where he was severely wounded and received the Gold Cross for Busaco, Fuentes d'Onoro and Ciudad Rodrigo, and Badajos).

Hew Dalrymple Ross

After seeing active service during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, he fought as a troop commander in many of the battles of the Peninsular War and the Hundred Days.

Jacques Lauriston

He occupied Venice and the Republic of Ragusa in 1806, was made governor-general of Venice in 1807, took part in the Erfurt negotiations of 1808, was ennobled as a count, and served with the emperor during the Peninsular War in Spain (1808–1809), where he commanded the division that besieged and won Pamplona.

José María Queipo de Llano, 7th Count of Toreno

He was present at Madrid when the city rose against the French occupation led by Marshal Murat on 2 May 1808, and took part in the struggle which was the beginning of the Peninsular War.

L'Alcúdia

The town took active participation in all the conflicts that shook Spain along the history: it was sacked during the "Revolta de les Germanies" in the beginning of the 16th century; in the 18th century, during the War of the Spanish Succession, the Bourbon troops plundered it again, and finally, during the Peninsular War it lodged a camp of French troops that looted everything from the villagers, leaving them in the red.

Larrun

The mountain was used by French troops as a defensive position towards the end of the Peninsular War, but Wellington's forces drove those of Marshal Soult off the mountain during the Battle of Nivelle on November 10, 1813, this action leaving France open for Wellington's successful march north to Paris.

Liga Federal

On May 13, 1810, the arrival of a British frigate in Montevideo confirmed the rumors circulating in Buenos Aires: France, led by Emperor Napoleon, had invaded Spain, capturing and overthrowing Ferdinand VII Bourbon, the Spanish King.

Louis Tirlet

The year 1810 found Tirlet commanding the II Corps artillery under Jean Reynier during André Masséna's invasion of Portugal in the Peninsular War.

Luis Rebolledo de Palafox y Melci, 1st marqués de Lazán

Luis Rebolledo de Palafox y Melci, 1st marqués de Lazán (June 2, 1772, Zaragoza – December 28, 1843, Madrid) was an Aragonese officer and general during the Spanish War of Independence.

Manley Power

He is chiefly remembered for leading a brigade of Portuguese troops under The Duke of Wellington in the Iberian Peninsular War.

Napier, Ontario

When a post office opened on November 6, 1851, the village was named Napier, probably after Sir Charles James Napier (1782–1853), a British General, or perhaps after his brother, Sir William Francis Patrick Napier (1785–1860), also a general and historian of the Peninsular War.

National Museum Soares dos Reis

During the Peninsular War, the Carrancas Palace was sequentially used as residence by General Soult, headquarters for the Duke of Wellington and residence for General Beresford.

Pedro González Llamas

Pedro González Llamas was a Spanish general in the Peninsular War and one of the deputies that signed the Spanish Constitution of 1812.

Sir Joseph de Courcy Laffan, 1st Baronet

Laffan treated troops in the Peninsular War, he was the personal physician (Physician-in-Ordinary) to Queen Victoria's father the Duke of Kent and also the Duke of York (an elder son of King George III).

Solís Uprising

Solís and his collaborators sought to reclaim the liberties and rights abolished by Narváez and sought a more just treatment for Galicia; the University of Santiago de Compostela reconstituted the Batallón Literario, the student battalion that had last confronted the forces of Napoleonic France in the Peninsular War, viewed in Galicia as throughout Spain as a war of Spanish independence.

William Henry Watson

He was educated at the Royal Military College, Marlow, and given a commission in the 1st Royal Dragoons by the Duke of York on 7 May 1812, serving with his regiment in the Spanish peninsula.