British intervention in Portugal, 1793–1808

Abstract

Abstract In the summer of 1808 a British army was dispatched to Portugal with orders to expel French troops from Lisbon and then to defend the country against further attacks. Thus commenced a six-year commitment to the region. The history of British involvement in the Peninsular War is familiar to many through the works of William Napier, Charles Oman and Sir John Fortescue. However, a point often overlooked is that although the operation began with limited aims, it evolved into a major, long-term financial and military commitment, which was not typical of wider British strategy in this period or of traditional British intervention in Portuguese affairs. It is the intention here to examine the period 1793–1808, when a succession of both tory and whig governments intervened in Portugal with aims that were defensive, limited in scope and characterized by the use of maritime-based expeditionary forces.