Editing Napoleon (section)

====Peninsular War and Erfurt====
{{Main|Peninsular War}}
[[File:Joseph-Bonaparte.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Joseph Bonaparte]]'' by [[François Gérard]], 1808. Napoleon's elder brother, as King of Spain]]

After Tilsit, Napoleon turned his attention to [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]], which was reluctant to strictly enforce the blockade against its traditional ally Britain.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=261-62}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Horne |first=Alistair |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dnI-yMnewzEC |title=How Far From Austerlitz? Napoleon 1805{{ndash}}1815 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-74328-540-4 |page=238 |author-link=Alistair Horne |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225135113/https://books.google.com/books?id=dnI-yMnewzEC |archive-date=25 February 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> On 17 October 1807, 24,000 French troops under General [[Jean-Andoche Junot]] [[Invasion of Portugal (1807)|crossed the Pyrenees]] with Spanish consent and headed towards Portugal to enforce the blockade.{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|p=197}} Junot occupied [[Lisbon]] in November; the Portuguese royal family had already fled to Brazil with the Portuguese fleet.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=262-63}}

In March 1808, a [[Tumult of Aranjuez|palace coup]] led to the abdication of the Spanish king [[Charles IV of Spain|Carlos IV]] in favour of his son [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|Fernando VII]].{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|pp=198–199}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=264}} The following month, Napoleon summoned Carlos and Fernando to Bayonne, where in May he forced them both [[Abdications of Bayonne|to relinquish their claims]] to the Spanish throne. Napoleon then made his brother Joseph King of Spain.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=269-70}} By then, there were 120,000 French troops garrisoned in the peninsula{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|p=199}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=267}} and widespread Spanish opposition to the occupation and the overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons. [[Dos de Mayo Uprising|On 2 May an uprising]] against the French broke out in [[Madrid]] and spread throughout Spain in the following weeks. In the face of brutal French repression, the uprising developed into a sustained conflict.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=271-72, 275}} Joseph travelled to Madrid where he was proclaimed King of Spain on 24 July. However, following news of a French defeat by regular Spanish forces at the [[Battle of Bailén]], Joseph fled Madrid several days later.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=276-78}} The following month, a British force landed in Portugal and on 21 August they defeated the French at the [[Battle of Vimeiro|Battle of Vimiero]]. Under the [[Convention of Cintra]], the French evacuated Portugal.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=296}}{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=218}}

The defeats at Bailén and Vimiero convinced Napoleon that he had to take command of the Iberian campaign. Before leaving for Spain, he attempted to strengthen the alliance with Russia and obtain a commitment from Alexander that Russia would declare war on Austria if she attacked France. At the [[Congress of Erfurt]] in October 1808, Napoleon and Alexander reached an agreement that recognized the Russian conquest of [[Grand Duchy of Finland|Finland]] and called upon Britain to cease its war against France.<ref>{{cite book |last=Engman |first=Max |title=Napoleon's Empire |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-349-56731-7 |editor-last=Planert |editor-first=Ute |pages=227–238 |chapter=Finland and the Napoleonic Empire |doi=10.1057/9781137455475_16 |via=Springer Link}}</ref> However, Alexander failed to provide a firm commitment to make war with Austria.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=286}}{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=118}}

[[File:Antoine-Jean Gros - Capitulation de Madrid, le 4 décembre 1808.jpg|thumb|''[[Napoleon Accepting the Surrender of Madrid]]'', 4 December 1808]]

On 6 November, Napoleon was in [[Vitoria-Gasteiz|Vitoria]] and took command of 240,000 French-led troops. After a series of victories over Anglo-Spanish forces, they retook Madrid on 4 December.{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|p=205}}{{Sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=296}} Napoleon then pursued a retreating British army which was eventually evacuated [[Battle of Corunna|at Corunna]] in January 1809. He left for France on 17 January, leaving Joseph in command.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hope |first1=John |last2=Baird |first2=D. |date=28 January 1809 |title=Battle of Corunna |volume=15 |pages=91–94 |publisher=Cobbett's political register |issue=4 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/7d8a427252d63486 |url-status=live |access-date=23 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029223019/https://www.proquest.com/openview/7d8a427252d63486 |archive-date=29 October 2021}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=296-300}} Napoleon never returned to Spain after the 1808 campaign. In April, the British sent another army to the peninsula under [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Arthur Wellesley]], the future [[Duke of Wellington (title)|Duke of Wellington]]. British, Portuguese and Spanish troops engaged the French in a protracted series of conflicts, while a brutal guerrilla war engulfed much of the Spanish countryside, a conflict in which atrocities were committed by both sides.<ref name="Chandler-1966b">{{harvp|Chandler|1966|pp=659–660}}</ref>{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=218}} Napoleon later called the Peninsular campaign, "the unlucky war [that] ruined me."{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=128}} It tied up some 300,000 French-led troops from 1808 to 1812. By 1814, the French had been driven from the peninsula, with over 150,000 casualties in the campaign.<ref name="Chandler-1966b" />{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=78-80}}