Sir Robert Wilson and the L.L.L.

In the course of my researches, I have come across a number of interesting things about Wilson and the LLE. First of all, it appears that a good part of the Legion's rank and file consisted of Spaniards from across the frontier who had fled to Portugal to avoid conscription, only immediately to be pressed by the authorities as vagrants. And, second of all, there is Wilson's involvement in the extraordinary story of John Downie, the Scottish commissary in Wellington's army who eventually became a Spanish general via the formation of a force modelled on Wilson's called the Loyal Extremaduran Legion. If you would like to e-mail me - I am, of course, Charles Esdaile and am easy enough to find - I can send you a conference paper in which I tell the full tale.