Napoleon's Prisoner of War

Campaign, capture and the long march to liberation

This substantial book, originally published in two volumes under the title 'Narrative of a Forced March Through Spain and France as a Prisoner of War During the Years 1810 to 1814', provides useful historical context for all those interested in the war in the Peninsula and the conditions of British prisoners in the hands of the French leading up to the first abdication of Napoleon and the Bourbon Restoration. We join Blayney, an officer engaged in the campaign in Southern Spain, as a disastrous expedition finds him a prisoner of the French Army, and so begins an adventure through Spain-where the French are hounded by Spanish guerrillas-and into the south of France as the British pursue their enemies. Blayney has provided posterity with an interesting view 'behind the lines' and combined that with insights into the France of the First Empire and the reasons for its ultimate collapse.