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Portugal was left to a later disposition, probably direct annexation to
France.
Portugal was quickly overrun in 1807, although the Braganças suc-
ceeded in escaping to Brazil aboard a British naval squadron. French
occupation remained tenuous, and the partition scheme could not be
implemented. In the meantime Napoléon wearied of working through
intermediaries, and the French troops who had been welcomed into
Spain turned upon and disarmed their hosts. Charles IV and his defiant
son (who had gone so far as to proclaim himself Ferdinand VII) were
taken into custody, along with the rest of the royal family, and impris-
oned in France. Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the French emperor, was
proclaimed King Joseph I of Spain in 1808.
For Britain, the Peninsular War of 1809-14 was merely one segment
of a worldwide struggle against France. It included an abortive cam-
paign in northwestern Spain, the invasion and clearing-out of Portugal,
and a series of spectacular victories under Arthur Wellesley's (soon to
be created duke of Wellington) command in which his expeditionary
force was merely supplemented by Portuguese and Spanish irregulars.
But for Spain, the “war of independence” was a national crusade in
which remnants of the old royal army, reinforced by volunteers from
every walk of life, systematically expelled the “intrusive king,” his
French army of occupation, and the minority of Spaniards who had
accepted him. Moreover, in the southern part of the country, which
had never been overrun by the enemy, a junta loyal to Ferdinand VII
summoned the Cortes to create, as a national body, a constitution. Pro-
duced in 1812, the liberal document granted wide franchise and per-
sonal freedoms unprecedented in Spanish history. Far more than a
mere military experience, the struggle against Napoléon would pro-
foundly affect the political and cultural future of the Spanish nation.
For the restored Bourbon king, Ferdinand VII, the constitution and
all that it represented were to be swept away. Spain was to return to
what it had been before the taint of revolution crept across the Pyre-
nees. His supporters among the aristocracy and the clergy concurred in
his refusal to acknowledge that a new era had dawned. Around the
king and his supporters, a conservative movement took shape celebrat-
ing the glories of Spain's past, denying its decline over recent genera-
tions, and refusing to accept the possibility of any change for the future.
They equated the supporters of liberal reform with the “traitors” who
had welcomed the godless and radical doctrines of the French invaders,
ignoring the shared struggle against the foreigners that had just come
to an end. In the environment of uncompromising reaction created by
the restoration, it was hardly surprising, although profoundly shocking,
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