Of the many facets of the Napoleonic wars there are a vast number of books written in English on the climatic battle of the age of sail, perhaps only eclipsed by the wealth of material written on the Waterloo Campaign of 1815 as a single subject. However there is not a great deal written as to what went on on “the other side of the hill” or “the other side of the horizon”, amongst the French and Spanish commanders who faced Nelson and his band of brothers.
Edward Fraser’s book goes a long way to redress that balance, and focuses on the many brave men that fought for the Napoleonic cause, some more willingly than others; men such as Don Miguel-Ricardo Alava, a Spanish nobleman who would have the rare distinction of being on the Anglo-Allied side at Waterloo and on the opposition side at Trafalgar.
Edward Fraser was a prominent historian of the period having written a number of books on the great battle of Trafalgar and Wellington’s soldiers in the Peninsula. This work was written just before the outbreak of the First World War, with the Entente Cordiale in place, and is therefore more balanced than some of the earlier English works on the period which tended to a more anti-French view.
A fine, detailed and very thoroughly researched account of what the enemy experienced during the battle of Trafalgar.
Illustrations – 60 – all incuded
