From the Pyrenees to Waterloo
E-book, Czech
From the Pyrenees to Waterloo
In the spring of 1808, a dynastic struggle erupted in Spain between father and son, King Charles IV and Prince Ferdinand of Asturias. Napoleon was tasked with deciding who had the greater right to the crown, and he resolved the dispute by deposing them both. He then gave Spain to his brother Joseph. Everything seemed fine at first, but an anti-French uprising soon broke out in Madrid, and the flames of resistance engulfed the entire country. A guerrilla war, a relentless partisan conflict, began to rage across the Pyrenees, and no Frenchman's life was safe.
Then the British intervened in the Peninsular War. Unlike the memoirs of French soldiers and officers from the Napoleonic Wars, only one English memoir (Waterloo – A Near Run Thing) has been translated into Czech. This translation of the memoirs of a captain of the 95th Rifles from the Peninsular War, which also describes the subsequent campaign into southern France and concludes with an account of the Battle of Waterloo, now partially fills that gap. The author of the memoirs, Jonathan Leach, could be called, with some exaggeration, the 'real Sharpe' – he and his men were the inspiration for the fictional and later television hero, Richard Sharpe.
Captain Leach vividly describes his military experiences in the uniform of the renowned rifle regiment. We share with him the hardships and privations of day and night marches, as well as the dangers of the countless battles he fought in. Military events, the landscape, and the people are brought to life before our eyes within the broader context of the era. The book introduces Czech readers to a little-known theatre of the Napoleonic Wars, seen through the eyes of an English officer in an elite regiment, with whom he marched through Portugal, Spain, and France to the plains near the small Belgian town of Waterloo.
Jiří Kovařík places Leach's diary entries into their historical context in his foreword. Leonid Křížek, the translator, outlines the character of the 95th (Rifle) Regiment in the introduction.
EUROMEDIA GROUP a.s., Nádražní 762/32, Praha 5-Smíchov 15000, Česká republika, www.euromedia.cz
