The Peninsular War. A New History

Charles Esdaile is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Liverpool and the author of THE WARS OF NAPOLEON.For centuries Spain had been the most feared and predatory power in Europe - it had the largest empire and one of the world's great navies to defend it. Nothing could have prepared the Spanish for the devastating implosion of 1805-14. Trafalgar destroyed its navy and the country degenerated into a brutalized shambles with French and British armies marching across it at will. The