The Anglo-Portuguese Army was the combined
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
that participated in the
Peninsular War, under the command of
Arthur Wellesley. The Army is also referred to as the British-Portuguese Army and, in
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
, as the ''Exército Anglo-Luso'' or the ''Exército Anglo-Português''.
The Anglo-Portuguese Army was established with the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
deployed to the
Iberian Peninsula under the command of General Arthur Wellesley, and the
Portuguese Army
The Portuguese Army ( pt, Exército Português) is the land component of the Armed Forces of Portugal and is also its largest branch. It is charged with the defence of Portugal, in co-operation with other branches of the Armed Forces. With it ...
rebuilt under the leadership of British General
William Beresford and the Portuguese
War Secretary
The Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The Secretary of State for War headed the War Office an ...
Miguel Pereira Forjaz. The new Portuguese battalions were supplied with British equipment, trained to British standards and thoroughly re-organised. Incompetent or corrupt officers were
cashiered and appropriate replacements were appointed or promoted from amongst promising
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...
s.
On 22 April 1809, Wellesley became
Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in the Peninsula, replacing
General Cradock, whose assessment of the military situation the British government found too pessimistic.
At the same time he was appointed by the
Portuguese Government as Commander-in-Chief of the Portuguese Army. He then came to have the two armies under his command, transforming them into a single integrated army.
The Army was organised into
divisions, most of them including mixed British-Portuguese units. Usually, each one had two British and one Portuguese
brigades. In the elite Light Division, the brigades themselves were mixed, each including two British
light infantry and one Portuguese
Caçadores
The Caçadores (hunters) were the elite light infantry troops of the Portuguese Army, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Units of ''Caçadores'' – with features somewhat different from the original ones – continued to exist in the Po ...
battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...
s.
Order of battle
The following tables show the order of battle and commanders of the Anglo-Portuguese Army at various stages in the Peninsular War.
See also
*
Army of Spain (Peninsular War)
*
Lines of Torres Vedras
*
King's German Legion
The King's German Legion (KGL; german: Des Königs Deutsche Legion, semantically erroneous obsolete German variations are , , ) was a British Army unit of mostly expatriated German personnel during the period 1803–16. The legion achieved t ...
*
Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance (or , "Luso-English Alliance") is the oldest alliance based on known history in the world that is still in force by politics. It was established by the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, between the Kingdom of England ( ...
References
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{{Authority control
Military units and formations established in 1809
Military units and formations of the Napoleonic Wars
Military units and formations of the Peninsular War
British light infantry
King's German Legion
Peninsular War
Portuguese Army