The Peninsular War, which raged in Portugal, Spain, and eventually southern France from 1808 to 1814, could be seen as a sideshow given the small size of the British army involved and the remote location of much of the action compared with the big battles of the Napoleonic Wars. But it graced almost every historic British regiment with its battle honours, and, more importantly, made the reputation of one of Britain’s greatest ever commanders: Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington.
If you want the definitive history, Jac Weller’s dedication to Sir Charles Oman ‘In humble acknowledgement of debt’ is a clear pointer, but Oman’s A History of the Peninsular War spans some 4,500 pages over seven volumes published between 1902 and 1930. Weller’s achievement is the publication of a classic single-volume history of the same conflict, which, together with companion volumes Wellington at Waterloo and Wellington in India, forms part of a highly regarded trilogy on the Iron Duke. The difference between Oman and Weller is best illustrated through their accounts of the French capture of Badajoz in 1811. In essence, the Spanish garrison was doing well until their energetic and able commander was killed during a sortie. His successor surrendered very promptly. Oman devotes six pages to the failures of this commander; Weller summarises the whole episode in just eight lines.
Look up Jac Weller and you will find a photograph of a big, burly-looking man in American football gear. This is not a mistake – Weller’s Wikipedia entry describes him as an ‘American football player, firearms expert, and military historian’. He is still remembered in the United States for his three years playing for Princeton University’s Princeton Tigers Team.
War Classics – Just and Unjust Wars