• DOI:10.1086/240080
• Corpus ID: 143376566

The French Fleet, 1807-1814; Britain's Problem; and Madison's Opportunity

@article{Glover1967TheFF,
  title={The French Fleet, 1807-1814; Britain's Problem; and Madison's Opportunity},
  author={Richard Glover},
  journal={The Journal of Modern History},
  year={1967},
  volume={39},
  pages={233 - 252}
}

• R. Glover
• Published 1 September 1967
• History
• The Journal of Modern History

T HE title of this essay may surprise some readers; for how, they will ask, could the French fleet, after meeting ruin from Nelson's guns off Cape Trafalgar in 1805, be Britain's problem in 1807-14? And in the "Oxford history of England" does not Steven Watson himself say that by his victory at Trafalgar Nelson made "any revival of [Bonaparte's invasion] threat impossible"?1 Watson does indeed say that; and his statement is valuable as a warning of how easily the stark realities of military or naval power can be forgotten if we study only civilian history. But the facts are that Britain had really rather little to fear in the supposed invasion years of 1803-5. In those years the Grand Army of France might indeed be daily drilling on the cliffs of Boulogne, but the horde of rowboats in which Bonaparte then put his trust was a hopelessly incompetent means of throwing an organized force of two hundred thousand men upon a hostile shore.2 In the period 1807-14, however, Britain had much to fear, for then Bonaparte, virtually discarding the barges at Boulogne for other purposes than bluff, made a great drive to win the command of the sea.