#vimeiro

So, while in Portugal last week I managed to visit 4 Peninsular War battlefields in one day. This is the story of those battles, in 4 parts.

Link to Pt. 1, the battle of Rolica, which took place just before Vimeiro. 

On August 17 1808 British forces under Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, defeated a French army at Rolica as part of their efforts to protect Portugal from Napoleonic France. Four days later, a larger French army commanded by Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot attacked the allied British-Portuguese army near the village of Vimeiro.

The battle essentially occurred at two locations consecutively. The British held Vimerio hill, just to the town’s south, and the ridgeline to the north. Below is a shot from the village of Vimeiro hill, which was the main allied position - the outline of it is vaguely discernible above the brown triangle-shaped field right in the centre.

Throughout the day there were three French assaults on the hill, the last consisting of two composite battalions of grenadiers. While the French made ground in places (including almost breaking through Vimeiro village itself via the graveyard) all attacks were repulsed. British cavalry launched a counter-attack, but started as they meant to go on in the war and overextended, being in turn decimated by French infantry.

At the same time, two attacks were mounted on the ridgeline to the north. The French advance was hampered by a narrow ravine - the ridge can be seen below from the viewpoint of Vimeiro village. The French attacks were initially more successful, driving the British back, but a counter-attack led in part by the 71st Foot (Fraser’s Highlanders) ultimately drove them off.

The battle of Vimeiro ended with 720 British casualties and 2160 French. Ironically, Wellesley was due to be replaced, with the man doing the replacing actually arriving and being present during the battle, albeit only as an observer. 

Following Vimeiro the French position in Portugal was untenable. French forces surrendered to the new British commander.

Said commanded gave them outrageously lenient terms, allowing Royal Navy ships to transport them along with everything they had looted in Portugal back to France. The treaty was known as the Treaty of Sintra, named after the palace it was signed in (the outhouse and church of which is pictured below). The furore the treaty created in Britain meant that Wellesley was soon back in command in the Peninsula.