‘Such is Glorious War’: British Reflections on the Peninsular War in Spain (1808–1814)

Abstract

Recent studies on the incorporation of the War of Independence in Spanish literature have provided invaluable insights into the way Spanish writers integrated that terrible conflict into their work. However, another curious angle of the conflict has generally been passed over by students of literary and cultural studies: the view of the Peninsular War voiced by its English-speaking participants. Dozens of memoirs, diaries and histories have been published in multiple languages that attempt to reconstruct, remember, or justify the events of the War. Among the thousands of soldiers who ended up on the Peninsula was a young Irish lad named Robert Blakeney (1789–1858), whose memoir, A Boy in the Peninsular War, offers vivid details about his experiences as a soldier in major battles during the War of Independence. It provides us with an insider's view of a conflict that shook Europe, galvanized Spain, and wove itself into the fabric of Spanish history for more than two hundred years.