Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderlands


 Terrific resistance was encountered almost immediately. Spec-
tacular public resentment had flared forth in Madrid on the fa-
mous second of May, when the youngest prince was forced to leave
for Bayonne. Local junta, or governing bodies, sprang up all over
Spain; and guerrilla armies fell on the French, distinguishing
themselves at the battle of Bailhn, on the day before Joseph's
entrance into Madrid. That and other succeess forced Joseph to
retire to northern Spain, and to appeal to his brother for aid.
Napoleon himself was forced to campaign in Spain that autumn to
reestablish the "rey intro" (intruder king).
 A Junta Suprema de Gobiero (supreme governing body),
formed in April, 1808, under the French commander Joachim
Murat, failed to hold the people, who followed their organization
of local juntas by drawing up a rival to the Murat group under the
presidency of Count Floridablanca. This institution, the Junts
Central Suprma Oubernativa del Beio (central supreme gov-
erning body of the kingdom), carried on in the name of Ferdinand
VII, refusing to acknowledge his renunciation in favor of the
Bonapartes. It met first at Aranjues in September, 1809, then
moved to Sevilla4 and in the fall of 1810, when Napoleon again
invaded Spain, it was driven to the Island of Le6n in the harbor
of Cadiz, the one spot that could be defended against the French
forces."
 This organization, or its successors, the Consojo de Regenia (re-
 gent council) and the Cortes (assembly), both first formed in 1810,
 maintained a government in opposition to the French throughout
 the Napoleonic Wars which followed, and provided the legal con-
 tinuation of the monarchy as a truly Spanish institution. But their
 efforts would have been fruitless without the powerful aid of
 England.
 The English, especially after the battle of Trafalgar and Na-
 poleon's invasion of Portugal, Britain's ally, bent their efforts to
 attacking the French through the Peninsula. It was the most
 vulnerable point in the Continental system. Thus Britain was
 amenable to diplomatic advances made by the Spanish Justa and
 Regency-in fact encouraged and guided them. On January 14,
 1809, a treaty of alliance against France was drawn up in London,
 which laid the foundation for the Peninsular campaign and the
 eventual expulsion of the Corican."