“Unto” implies an action or going forward. As I considered this quote and why it was resonating so powerfully in my mind that it touched my soul, several things occurred to me. In Henry V, King Henry gives a speech to encourage his soldiers as they launch an attack on a breach in the wall. There’s no doubt that this is a war analogy. “Once more unto the breach, my friends.” I thought it was a Winston Churchill quote but…it’s Shakespeare! To be fair, Churchill was a Shakespeare/ Henry V fan and his greatest inspirational speeches are traced back to this theme: in the face of overwhelming odds don’t give up, keep fighting, have courage. I searched many quotations looking for the right words and couldn’t find what I was looking for until these words popped into my head one Saturday morning as I watched The Crown with my sick husband. For some time, I have felt called to reach out to mothers of teens to speak encouragement, breathe life and bolster courage in their hearts, and mine. CiRCE Fall Conference - The Face of God.The Four Elements of Classical Education.A Brief Introduction to Classical Education.The Gathering Place (Apprentices & Mentors).Unable to get sufficient support from a weakened Napoleon, Marshal Soult led his exhausted and demoralised forces in a withdrawal across the Pyrenees and back into France, fighting battles at the Bidassoa (7 October), Nivelle (10 November) and the Nive (9-13 December). Finally, the French garrison of Pamplona was starved into submission in October 1813. The town was subsequently ransacked, and many civilians killed. Wellington took San Sebastian in September 1813 after a two-month siege. Soult abandoned the offensive on 30 July and withdrew toward France, having failed to relieve either garrison. But on 25 July, Marshal Soult launched a large-scale counter-attack, hoping to relieve French garrisons at Pamplona and San Sebastian, which been surrounded by Wellington’s soldiers during their initial advance.įollowing early success in the passes of Maya and Roncesvalles, the offensive ground to a halt in the face of increased resistance, including at the Battle of Sorauren (28 July), where the Anglo-Portuguese held off Soult’s drive on Pamplona. Two British officers with drawn swords escorted them, and had some difficulty in making their way through the drunken ruffians who sought to do them violence.’Īfter Vitoria, Wellington’s army regrouped and pursued the retreating French, reaching the Pyrenees in early July. In one street I met General Phillipon the French governor of Badajoz between his two daughters, holding each by the hand, and endeavouring to convey them out of the town. In passing several houses we heard the shrieks of females mixed with the groans of the dying and when we met British and Portuguese soldiers in the streets, the insanity of the hour overcame the strong instincts and discipline and respect for their officers. They scattered over the town divided into small parties plundering the houses, the doors of which they forced open. ‘In a short time after the entrance of the Allied troops into Badajoz the whole of the British and Portuguese soldiers appeared to be in a state of maddened drunkeness for they had broken into the French store of wine and brandy in the vaults of the cathedral and many private stores besides. The continual drain on French resources led Napoleon to call the conflict the ‘Spanish Ulcer’. By 1812, the French had over 350,000 soldiers in Iberia, but 200,000 were protecting lines of supply rather than serving as front-line troops.Īll of these factors meant that although on paper the French heavily outnumbered the British armies in Iberia, they were never able to concentrate enough of their troops to win a decisive victory. ![]() French communications and supply lines were harassed by their raids and ambushes. Spanish armies, though frequently defeated, kept reappearing, forcing France to send more armies against them.įrench troops were also required to garrison hostile territory and wage a bitter war against Spanish and Portuguese insurgents, the ‘guerrillas’. The stubborn Spanish defence of cities and towns tied down thousands of French troops. Retrained and reorganised by Marshal William Beresford, Portugal’s soldiers fought bravely alongside those of Britain. The Portuguese and Spanish played an important part in the war.
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