In 1809, as Napoleon fought the Austrians at Wagram, the war in Spain and Portugal continued to rage. The French had inflicted several heavy defeats on Spanish field armies, but now they faced a popular insurgency as well as a well-trained Anglo-Portuguese army led by British general Lord Wellington. The Peninsular War, as became known, became Napoleon's 'bleeding ulcer', or his Vietnam, costing his empire nearly quarter of a million soldiers, in a war that looked increasingly unwinnable.
Charles Nove
