Attempt to release Charles IV?
I have recently come across an account, by a British frigate captain off Toulon in December 1809, of a supposed attempt to release Spain's deposed King, Charles IV, from his comfortable captivity at Marseilles, presumably in order to use him as a figurehead for the Spanish uprising. Apparently Collingwood was dubious about the bona fides of the plotters (as was the captain they had contacted), and nothing came of it. Does anyone know if this was a real attempt to 'free' the King, or was it a French ruse de guerre to obtain intelligence about the British fleet, as the naval officers seemed to suspect?
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It doesn't surprise me that Carlos might have preferred not being rescued.