The Battles of Roliça and Vimeiro

The first two battles of the Peninsular War were fought near the coast of Portugal within days of Wellesley and his troops arriving in the country.

At Roliça the French held the high ground - would you fancy a run up at him this steep and overgrown? I don't think the soldiers did, but they did it anyway.

Today we explore the dynamics of these two battles by looking at the terrain upon which they were fought, but first the beginning of the day.

Early Morning

The bed was really comfortable at the Hotel Vila d' Óbidos, but I still woke at 3.30am. I updated the blog and left it for Drew to check later.

Drew woke at 5.30am, but there are no tea/coffee facilities in this hotel so I couldn't make him one. He checked the blog while I completed the Parish Newsletter for this weekend and sent it to the people who put it on the webpage and print it. I also completed the antiphons, bidding prayers and other weekend paperwork and sent it to Dave Harris to print, thanks Dave.

I did my ablutions at 6am and Drew went in at 6.30am

Breakfast

Breakfast began at 7.30am and we were there as it opened. Drew began with bacon, pancake and bread with a cup of coffee.

While I had yogurt, nuts and seeds.

I then had a lovely wholemeal roll

and a selection of fruit.

Drew continued with sausages and bread

and finished with more bread and pancakes.

We left breakfast at 8am and completed out packing to have our cases downstairs by 8.20am, so they could be put in the bus ready for travel at 8.30am.

Background

French and Spanish forces invaded Portugal from the 19th to 30th of November 1807. The Franco-Spanish invasion force was led by General Jean-Andoche Junot, a close friend of Napoleon who earlier in Napoleon's carrer had been his 'aide-de-camp'. The Portuguese were under the nominal command of Prince Regent John, the future King John VI of Portugal due to the poor mental health of his mother, Queen Maria. French and Spanish troops swiftly occupied the country in the face of little resistance due to the poor state of the Portuguese military.

This concerned Britain, who had been allies of Portugal since the treaty of 1373. Trade between the two nations was profitable for both and Britain did not want to lose that connection. So sent a force to liberate Portugal. While the Portuguese royalty decided it was safer to rule their Empire from Brazil and left for South America on 27th of November 1807. John took 10,000 of his courtiers and advisors with him.

On the 1st of August 1808 Wellesley and his Expeditionary Force landed at Porto (Mondego Bay). It was the one part which had held out against the French, but it still meant the Royal Navy, protecting the troop ships, had to deliver the forces to a beach rather than to a dock or port.

The troops were made up of 9,000 men from Ireland. 3,000 men from Cadiz and were joined by 2,000 Portuguese who began to reform their army with British help.

Wellesley, a cautious general by nature. He has been told he has command of Britain's only army and that they (the Government) need it back.

So on marching from Porto towards Lisbon Wellesley gave strict orders to 'do not engage'. Junot marches from Lisbon to defend the country and sends one of his generals - Delaborde, with 4,500 men to defend the territory while another part of the army had time to come up in support.

First stop - Óbidos train station

We first stopped, after leaving the hotel, at the site where in in 15th August 1808 was the Óbidos train station. Here, through the enthusiasm of some leading troops a skirmish occured by some of Wellington's army and that of Delabourde.

History knows this as the Skirmish at Brilos (a small village a little further on) the Skirmish resulted in the death of the first British casualty, Lieutenant Bunbury of the 95th Rifles.

After our guide explained the history, he took us to a house, described in Rifleman Harris book about the Peninsular War, as a place where the dead and dying of both armies were being treated.

Roliça

We next travelled to Roliça, the place where on the 17th of August 1808, Wellesley engaged Delaborde in a more significant action. Delaborde was on top of the hill above Roliça and Wellesley's army was below. It was difficult terrain, with steep gullies being the only direct way up to the French position.

Wellesley was a master of strategy, well refined from difficult battles during his time in India. He ordered one contingent of his troops to go up a central gully to distract the French, and ensure the enemy attention was concentrated there, whilst two other contingents, made up of British and Portuguese troops, were sent east and west, to surround the French in a pincer movement.

Unfortunately, the central ‘distracting’ contingent, which was made up of the 29th Worcestershire Regiment of Foot was led by the 24 year old Colonel Lake, who looked on this battle as a point when he could enhance his career and make his father, General Lake, proud of him. He went way beyond Wellesley's orders and rushed up the gully, meeting the French head-on at the top of the ridge. Colonel Lake and 174 of his 240 men were killed. Lake's body is in the grave at the end of the selection of photos.

Lake's strategy may not have been successful for him but it let the two Anglo-Portuguese flanking forces to reach their destination unseen and the French were forced to undertake a fighting retreat, using Cavalry as a screen, as they were now outnumbered. This was Wellington's first victory in the Peninsular and strengthened the resolve of the British political class.

A bigger army

Wellington continued his march down the coast aware that the Royal Navy was soon to arrive in the next few days. Between the battle on the 15th and the follow-up one on the 21st. Two large cohorts of soldiers came in by sea.

The first arrived at Praia de Vale Pombas and the second at Praia Paimogo - we were able to get a good look at both.

The reality of ships being brought in to the coast and men being transferred to smaller boats for the run to the shore, especially when the Atlantic weather is normally bringing surfer appealing waves into these bays, which are remarkably calm today, makes for a real challenge and very wet troops. One ship load were in battle the day after they landed. The events are depicted in ceramic work in Vimeiro

Lunch

From the beaches we travel to Vimeiro and stop at 1.30pm at a restaurant called Braga for an amazing buffet lunch.

It appears all the village were there for lunch as well as the 24 of us, this place was full, but well managed, so lunch was a treat. With water (or wine for those who wanted it), Coke zero and coffee all included in the price of €12.50 each it was amazing.

My starters, it being Friday, were various fishy eggy dishes. A spinach quiche, prawn empanadas, cod balls and egg with bacholo through it were all available.

Drew took a more conservative approach with fried minced beef, cheese, meat and a cod roll, a bean salad and eggs

For mains I had a lovely bean and carrot stew with tempurard squid, potatoes cooked with, yes, you guessed it, cod

Drew, no photo I'm sorry, had a chorizo stew and other more meaty delights. And I finished with some pineapple and a delicious oven baked apple cooked with a cinnamon stick through its core - delicious and completely fresh with no syrup or other additions.

The sparkling water (Agua com gas in portugal!). Is bottled in Vimeiro, which is one of the largest water supplies in the country

Battle of Vimeiro

After lunch we went to three sites associated with the battle of Vimeiro. The first gave an overview of the battlefield from Wellesley's original position before he deployed his troops.

We then went to one of the sites of the most difficult fighting up on a ridge where Wellesley proved that using his troops in lines worked much better than the French approach of fighting in columns when engaging the enemy.

This battle is also noticeable as the first time that shrapnel was used, a horrible but effective device invented by a British Army officer, Lieutenant General Henry Shrapnel and in use right up to the present century.

Wellesley’s victory at Vimeiro marked the end of the first of the three French invasions of Portugal. The French sued for peace, and departed Portugal under the terms of a controversial agreement known as the Convention of Sintra, whereby their troops, weapons, and spoils, were repatriated courtesy of the Royal Navy.

The newspapers in London were not impressed and made fun of the outcome.

We finished the visits for today with a visit to the Interpretation Center of the Battle of Vimeiro which put everything in context. The exterior of the museum has memorials across the square.

Curia Palace Hotel

We left Vimeiro at 4.50pm and arrived at the Curia Palace Hotel in Coimbra at 7pm.

Dinner was served at 7.45pm. We started with Portuguese style gazpacho with croutons, which had all the flavour of the gazpacho common in a country near here, so what made it Portuguese, other than the ingredients, wasn't clear

The mains were a Sea Bass with broccoli and a mash of carrots, parsnip and potatoes. The fish was exquisite, the broccoli beautifully el dente, the other veg didn't have a distinctive flavour having been mashed together, but it is a common form of veg in Portugal.

It was served with a salad made up of lettuce and tomatoes, which had a delicious vinaigrette.

For dessert there was portuguese rice pudding with cinnamon and red wine poached pear slices. Drew managed mine and his with some pkleasure having missed out on double desserts for the holiday so far.