War against Napoleon
Did you know
• In 1789, after the fall of the Bastille ignited the French Revolution,
the Whig opposition politician Charles James Fox, a passionate enemy of
George III, wrote: 'How much the greatest
event it is that ever happened in the world, and how much the best!' Oddly
enough for a radical, Fox was the great-great-grandson of Charles I, who
had been executed in 1649. His great-grandfather was the 1st duke of Lennox,
the son of Louise de Kerouaille, one of Charles II's mistresses.
• It is said that the French wars were 'won on the playing fields
of Eton', where Wellington was educated.
In fact, many British generals were not very good, and the wars actually
were won in the iron foundries of Wales and Scotland, the cotton factories
of Lancashire and the finance houses of the City of London. Economic power
gave Britain the edge.
• Britain was unprepared for war. In 1793, the army numbered 39,000;
by 1801, it had grown to 150,000 and, by 1815, to 264,000 (including colonial
troops). In 1793, the navy numbered 15,000 sailors; by 1810, this had
grown to 144,000. Such a spectacular increase in men under arms explains
the frequent appearance of soldiers in the novels of Jane Austen, especially
Pride and Prejudice (1813).
• To pay for the wars against France, the British government levied
income tax for the very first time in 1799. It was meant to be a desperate
wartime expedient, but has remained the standard way that governments
raise money. It helped that Britain, where an industrial revolution was
taking place, was growing in wealth and so could afford to fund a 22-year
conflict.
• The passions roused by the ideological controversy in Britain
about the French Revolution were intense (see 'The
war of ideas'). In May 1798, during a parliamentary debate about the
Navy Bill, the prime minister William Pitt the
Younger accused George Tierney, the opposition MP for Southwark, of
impeding national defence. Tierney challenged Pitt to a duel, and the
two men met with pistols on Putney Heath. Neither was hurt.
• The expression 'to turn a blind eye' comes from
the battle of Copenhagen in 1801, when Nelson
lifted his telescope to his blind eye so that he could say that he did
not see the signal from his commanding officer, Admiral Parker, which
instructed him to break off the action. In the event, the gamble paid
off and Nelson won the battle.
• No fewer than 11 attempts were made on Napoleon's
life. This became such a danger that he set up a police department, under
Joseph Fouché, to spy on his enemies. Fouché discovered
that a royal prince, the Duc d'Enghien, was plotting an invasion of France
from neutral Baden. In March 1804, a group of French dragoons kidnapped
him and brought him to France. After a quick court-martial, he was executed.
The plots against Napoleon dwindled.
• As Nelson's ships were sailing into battle at Trafalgar,
he sent his men a signal: 'England expects that every man will do his
duty.' This shows his mastery of the psychological side of military leadership
– he raised the spirits of his men at exactly the right moment. He
also used to write vivid letters encouraging his men and thanking them
for their efforts.
• Between 21 October 1805, when Nelson won the battle of Trafalgar,
and 31 May 1916, when Britain fought Germany during the battle of Jutland
in World War I, no nation could challenge British naval supremacy.
• After he crowned himself emperor, Napoleon started to address
European monarchs as 'mon frère' ('my brother'). George
III was distinctly unimpressed, and the British government always coldly
referred to the French emperor as 'General Bonaparte'.
• In Nelson's navy, a sailor who was condemned to a flogging was
seldom punished on the same day he was sentenced. Instead, he had to wait
while the bosun's mate cut up a rope to make a new 'cat o' nine tails'
– these were never used twice. The sight of this activity was intended
to act as a deterrent to others.
• The wake-up call on a British ship in harbour was: 'Show a leg!
Out and down! Show a leg!' If a smooth leg emerged from a hammock, it
meant that a woman was there and the couple were left in peace.
• In 1807, before Napoleon tried to destroy Britain's economy by
forbidding exports to Europe, his army marched into Poland in Northampton
boots and Yorkshire greatcoats. Such exports were an example of British
economic strength. No wonder Napoleon called Britain a 'nation of shopkeepers'.
• The zenith of Napoleon's career came in June 1807, when he decisively
beat the Russians and Prussians at the battle of Friedland. When he returned
to Paris on 27 July, after 10 months in the field, he got a hero's welcome,
with parades, fêtes and general adulation. Part of his booty was
the sword of Frederick the Great, the Prussian military leader. Only Britain
was left to defy the French emperor.
• In 1809, following the defeat of the expedition to Walcheren in
the Netherlands, conflicts between British politicians became increasingly
acrimonious. Foreign secretary George Canning and war secretary Robert
Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh fought a duel after the former tried to
blame the latter for the débâcle. Canning was wounded but
survived. Both men were relegated to the backbenches.
• Napoleon called the war in Spain 'his Spanish ulcer' – there,
the British held down 250,000 French troops that were needed for the emperor's
Russian campaign. Spanish irregular forces also helped by fighting dozens
of local 'little wars' (called guerrillas in Spanish). The term
'guerrillas' was soon applied to the bands of soldiers who harassed the
French before melting away into the mountains. The horrific atrocities
committed by both sides are documented in Francisco Goya's etchings The
Disasters of War.
• Wellington boots are named after the duke of Wellington, but there
is no evidence that the boot was invented for him. It may be that he just
adopted and popularised the style. The first wellington boots, made of
leather, were used at Waterloo in 1815. Rubber boots were patented in
1857 by a Mr Lochington and the first company to sell them started in
1865.
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War against the French
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