The British Soldier in the Peninsular War : Encounters with Spain and Portugal, 1808-1814

Combining military and cultural history, the book explores British soldiers' travels and cross-cultural encounters in Spain and Portugal, 1808-1814. It is the story of how soldiers interacted with the local environment and culture, of their attitudes and behaviour towards the inhabitants, and how they wrote about all this in letters and memoirs. "Combining military and cultural history this book offers a new perspective on the British soldier in the Peninsular War. For all the histories of the Peninsular War and its continuing romantic appeal in the British imagination, little attention has been paid to how young British officers and enlisted men wrote about and experienced the places and peoples of Spain and Portugal during the war against Napoleon. This book examines those travels and cross-cultural encounters between 1808 and 1814, revealing Spain and Portugal as seen through the eyes of British redcoats. It is the story of how British soldiers interacted with the local environment and culture, of their attitudes and behaviour towards the inhabitants, and of how they wrote about all this to their readers, both during and after the war, in letters and memoirs"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-15 To the Peninsula....Pages 16-45 First Contact: Lisbon....Pages 46-63 Landscape and Climate....Pages 64-90 Billets and Hospitality....Pages 91-121 Searching for Civilization....Pages 122-155 The Religious World....Pages 156-185 ‘Dark-Eyed Beauties’....Pages 186-210 Conclusion: Crossing to Civilization....Pages 211-218 Back Matter....Pages 219-302