Fighting Napoleon: Guerillas, Bandits and Adventurers in Spain, 1808-1814

In this important book, Esdaile takes head on the crucial problem of definition of the guerillas and their struggle during the Peninsular War. As is clear from the title, those fighting in an unofficial way in Spain were 'Guerillas, Bandits and Adventurers'. And ever since the years of the struggle itself, veterans and historians alike have tried to deal with the problem, emphasising according to their national, political or ideological standpoint the respective definitions. Esdaile is largely revisionist in his attempt, aiming to re-place the guerillas in their correct context. Not all guerrillas were small bands harrassing in hills. Others were organised into formal fighting units with rigourous military training and administration, sometimes taking the French forces on in pitched battles. Others were actually financed by local Spanish governments. Yet further groups were simply interested in marauding, attacking French and Spanish alike. A point emphasised by Esdaile in his discussion of the gruesome woodcuts by Goya. These are extraordinarily brutal illustrations, but Goya gives deliberately ambiguous with his titles for them, for example, 'Nobody knows the reason' (for a picture of eight garotted criminals) and 'With reason or without'. For viewers it is unclear who the combatants were and why they were fighting. Indeed, Goya makes it impossible to judge whether those mutilated or mutilating are heroes or villains.
At times the complexity of the subject makes Esdaile's prose difficult to follow. Above all, as a result of the revisionist stance, it is occasionaly unclear whether Esdaile is criticising the sources he cites for its ideological or nationalistic bias or whether he actually agrees with the author of the citation. But the book is a key one and on an important subject. Esdale himself hopes that it will start a debate which is long overdue. One thing however is for certain – the whether they were fighting for booty, for king and country or simply out of bloodymindedness, it was these dogged fighters who tipped the balance.