Episode 3 of my podcast The #Napoleonicist is live. It marks the recent anniversary of the siege of Badajoz, and is entitled 'The Curious Case of Badajoz: The aftermath of British sieges in the Peninsular War'. It discusses the looting, murder and rape of one of the most controversial events of the war, and explores the previously unasked question 'what was actually done about it?' https://anchor.fm/the-napoleonicist/episodes/The-Curious-Case-of-Badajoz-The-aftermath-of-British-sieges-in-the-Peninsular-War-ecqaj8 Remember that you can join the discussion, ask questions and have your say by posting below. Please share with anyone you think might be interested.
Another great episode Zack.
Thanks Rob - glad you liked it!
Very interesting, you put forward a lot of very good points to consider leaving not a lot to discuss - other to express an opinion.
For me it would be interesting to know how long those regiments, taking part in the sack, already served and how long in Spain.
I would agree, that most of the soldiers, as you put forward had the impression it was their right to plunder after taking the fortress by assault - and having then the intention to make the best out of it.
So - after 4 years of suffering, it is pay time - now.
British troops were certainly no better nor worse than those of other nations under similar circumstances throughout history.
I'd agree with much of what you say here. Many had been in the country for a while, but to be honest, they filled their pockets as they went. There is an interesting parallel with Vittoria, where some who plundered the baggage had their bags searched and loot confiscated - much to their fury. Plunder as reward was definitely a phenomenon, but it inevitably led to a blurring of lines.
We should not forget that looting a stormed place resp. town was a common law (Gewohnheitsrecht) for centuries and was considered by the storming party as the loan for all their sufferings in the trenches resp. the dangers of the storm... This view was changed as late as the end of the 19th century, when the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 (Haager Landkriegsordnung) banned the looting at all...
Best regards, Thomas
Hi Thomas, thanks for this. This is part of what Gavin Lewis is writing about, and I don't want to steal his thunder, but there are a couple of things to mention here: 1) the basis of that convention is pretty shaky 2) the situation is different given the town belonged to Britain's allies Equally, if this was all to be expected, and was the troops' right, why the fury from Wellington over it, and the disgust in soldiers memoirs? The two don't quite add up, and I think the convention argument has been used all too often as a convenient way of explaining things, without looking at the inconsistencies.
It is adding up in my view, soldiers weren't soldiers, they were individuals nevertheless, like when a Swiss regiment in French service enters a town - in Spain, could be Cordoba, a young nun makes anti "French" gestures, in whatever kind, a Suiss soldier shots her, his fellow comrade is shocked and despises his comrade.
There was a great dispute if Cordoba, which was sacked as well, was assaulted or just surrendered.
Despite it was the right of soldiers to sack a town or fortress after a successful assault (when it refused to surrender - after a certain amount of time) - it left the officers, especially the higher ranks with uneasy feelings, the units got out of control and discipline, or lets say the fabric of civilization was ripped apart.
This could lead to bad consequences, as you already mention in your pot cast. How would those troops behave in the future?
Could they be disciplined in the same way as before or did they suffer from an incurable disease?
Was Badajoz allied to the British? In case you have two perspectives, it was the enemy, and the enemy believed they were the defender of the established Kingdom of Spain, so under "French" rule, despite being Spanish, the enemy for the Brits.
Hi Hans-Karl, Badajoz was obviously a Spanish town, and the British were fighting a war of liberation, alongside Portuguese and Spanish troops. The town was occupied by a French garrison, nominally there to support Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte, who had been installed as King of Spain, as was Napoleon's way when it came to making his friends/family royalty. We keep coming back to this notion of 'right'. This is a Chinese whispers situation. What was a given was that a garrison could be put to the sword if it was captured by assault after a practicable breach had been made. But that's it. The looting thing has just tagged on over the years, and become part of the myth (possibly, perhaps, because people look back and see that it happened anyway?). The documentary evidence of it being a right is slim to non-existent. Cordoba is a different situation though, as the Swiss troops were part of Napoleon's occupying army. As for executing the nun, I haven't heard about that one before. It sounds like there are all kinds of potential factors at play, so would like to read more before I comment, if you can point me in the right direction.
I wish I could point you in a more specific direction, I once read all what I could find in Swiss memoires about the Bailen campaign, to see what they had to say - and yes a lot of accusations against Dupont proved to be rubbish, but I cannot remember in what memoires I read the incident about the nun, it could be even before Cordoba, in case memory serves me right - it was in German, it could be Landolt (Erinnerungen des Obersten Landolt) or those of Muralt.
My good friend Steven Smith compiled once quite a few links, about Swiss memoires - which I attach here, but those are in French.
Soldats suisses au service étranger. 8 Vols. 1908-1916 :
Vol 1 (1908): http://bks9.books.google.com/books?id=NxgbAAAAYAAJ http://bks3.books.google.com/books?id=jJApAAAAYAAJ Contient: F.-J.-L. RILLIET. Journal D'un Sous-lieutenant DE CUIRASSIERS 17 F.-A. CRAMER. Souvenirs D'un Garde D'honneur 213 Introduction Par Ed.-jean Lafond 243 P.-L. MAYER. Mémoires Inédits D'un Soldat Prisonnier En Russie 249 Composition Du IVe Corps D'armée ..... 377 Etat Nominatif Des Officiers Du 35° Régiment D'infanterie De Ligne 380 Toponymie Et Chronologie Du Récit De Pierre-Louis Mayer 383
Vol 2 (1909): http://books.google.com/books?id=tClHAAAAIAAJ http://bks5.books.google.com/books?id=339KAAAAYAAJ CONTIENT: BEGOS. SOUVENIRS DE SES CAMPAGNES (PORTUGAL. 1807, RUSSIE. 1812). PAGES 111 A 234; MAILLEFER. UN VAUDOIS A L'ARMEE D'ESPAGNE (1808-1809). PAGES 235 A 298; BURNAND AUGUSTE. LE COLONEL HENRY BOUQUET, VAINQUEUR DES PEAUX-ROUGES DE L'OHIO (1764-1769). PAGES 1 A 110.
Vol 3 (1910): http://bks1.books.google.com/books?id=EIBKAAAAYAAJ Mémoires de Jean-Louis SABON 1792-1862 ou l'apprenti horloger de Genève devenu musicien et chef de musique dans le 69e Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne de la Grande Armée de Napoléon; Mémoires de Jean-Louis RIEU (1808-1814) né en 1788; Mémoires de Frédéric RILLIET 1794-1856, les Cent-Jours en Belgique et en France.
Vols NOT yet available:
Vol 4 (1912): Mémoires de Amédée MASSE 1785-1864 lettres et journal d'un Garde d'Honneur sur la campagne d'Allemagne de 1813; Souvenirs de guerre de Chrétien GATTLEN 1777-1866.
Vol 7 (1916): Contient: Mémoires de Siméon LAMON souvenirs d'un Chasseur de Vieille Garde, Wagram-campagne, d'Espagne; Mémoires de L.RILLIET Saint-Germain 1814 et 1846; Mémoires de J.R. de STURLER lettres d'un lieutenant de la Garde prussienne à sa famille; et extraits du journal du Conseiller de Stürler.
Vol 8 (1916): Mémoires de Pictet et de Dubois-Cattin.
Of possible interest:
Guillon, Edouard Louis Maxime. Napoléon et la Suisse, 1803-1815: d'après les documents inédits des affaires étrangerès. 1910. 370pages:
http://books.google.com/books?id=oOsNAAAAYAAJ
For those who may/can download
Soldats suisses au service étranger
Volume 3
http://books.google.fr/books?id=EIBKAAAAYAAJ
Volume 4
http://books.google.fr/books?id=eYRKAAAAYAAJ
I found it - it is in
Maag, Dr. Albert : Geschichte der Schweizertruppen im Kriege Napoleons I., in Spanien und Portugal 1807 - 1814, Erster Band (volume one), Biel, 1892, page 303, according to a soldier from Zürich, at Cordoba.
It is available for down load.
Dear Zack and Hans-Karl,
Of course, there are many arguments pro & cons. I think, the anxiety that the troops got out of control for 2-3 days was Wellington's main concern (wasn't one of the marshals - Soult?? - approaching?).
The "convention" is not a myth, rather bitter reality, see for example the "Sack of Magedburg by Tilly's troops in 1631 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Magdeburg ).
Best regards, Thomas
Thomas, I agree, I just also wanted to point at Magdeburg of 30 YW fame.
But I just see more than a short term concern, in case troops get out of hand, those indiscipline could derive into a habit - I don't know if the Brits came to that point as in the French Army were soldiers were at the brink to kill officers who wanted to discipline them.
Thanks Thomas, as you say, many arguments either way, but interestingly Magdeburg is precisely the sort of example that I find being used in the convention argument (ditto Drogheda), yet which I am not convinced by - the examples tend to be drawn from the 17th century, and this downplays the impact of the enlightenment on military thinking in the intervening 200 years. Wellington was angry on many levels after Badajoz, but as the orders which I quoted show, he was fuming about the plunder itself. Best Z
You also have to bear in mind the political and strategic damage instances such as this could cause. British politics was by no means stable during this period, and the government could not afford a scandal. Equally Wellington knew that he could not afford for the Spanish to turn on his troops, as many had on the French. He knew the guerillas had made life difficult for the French and he couldn't afford for the same to happen to his army. Keeping the men in check and not alienating the locals was therefore vital.
There was trouble already in 1810 when retreating from Bussaco to the Lines as we can learn from the GO 3rd October 1810, HQ at Leiria:
Also, Beresford included an Ordem do Dia from Leiria, on the same date, referring the same serious issue of plundering on the retreat, defining the respective punishment.
Strangely enough, there is no record or references to "pilhagem" (plunder/pillage) in the Ordens do Dia of 1812, signed from Badajoz.
Thanks Rui - glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing these - very interesting. Wellington had an ongoing fight to keep the men in check, didn't he? The first major outburst that I know of from Wellington is post-Oporto, but Moore issued a censure in late 1808. I am VERY intrigued that there is nothing in Ordem do Dia. Was there anything in them around the times of Ciudad Rodrigo or Vittoria.
That's very kind Rui - thank you! Sadly my Portuguese is non-existent, but I appreciate the offer. I have colleague who might be able to help though if you do manage to find anything.