Wellington's army in the Peninsula, 1808-1814

About this book

During the eighteenth century there was no love lost between Britain and her army. Edmund Burke had laid down that 'an armed and disciplined body is, in its essence, dangerous to liberty.' Admitting, without enthusiasm, that they had to have some kind of army, it was provided with a system of control ostensibly designed to ensure that it could not menace civil liberty -- a complex system which led to Wellington's victory over the French because he was able to manage the administrative hydra in England. His self-set task was 'to do the best I can with the instruments that have been sent to assist me.' Michael Glover unravels the web of complexity over which the commander and his forces won a notable victory -- as well as the French. He describes the recruiting of officers and other ranks, the achievement of advance by purchase, all the services, and how these component parts worked in together. He demonstrates how this machine operated in action and rounds off his account with a portrait of Wellington himself.