The Fatal Knot: The Guerrilla War in Navarre and the Defeat of Napoleon in Spain

by John Lawrence Tone

John Tone recounts the dramatic story of how, between 1808 and 1814, Spanish peasants created and sustained the world's first guerrilla insurgency movement, thereby playing a major role in Napoleon's defeat in the Peninsula War. Focusing on the army of Francisco Mina, Tone offers new insights into the origins, motives, and successes of these first guerrilla forces by interpreting the conflict from the long-ignored perspective of the guerrillas themselves.

Only months after Napoleon's invasion in 1807, Spain seemed ready to its rulers were in prison or in exile, its armies were in complete disarray, and Madrid had been occupied. However, the Spanish people themselves, particularly the peasants of Navarre, proved unexpectedly resilient. In response to impending defeat, they formed makeshift governing juntas, raised new armies, and initiated a new kind of people's war of national liberation that came to be known as guerrilla warfare. Key to the peasants' success, says Tone, was the fact that they possessed both the material means and the motives to resist. The guerrillas were neither bandits nor selfless patriots but landowning peasants who fought to protect the old regime in Navarre and their established position within it.

from the "That unfortunate war destroyed me; it divided my forces, multiplied my obligations, undermined my morale. . . . All the circumstances of my disasters are bound up in that fatal knot.--Napoleon Bonaparte on the Spanish war

Genres: History, Military Fiction, Spain

247 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

Reviews

[Rob Markley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best pieces of original historical research into the Napoleonic era I've every read. Tone makes a real contribution to understanding things in a fresh way. It's just a shame he writes so dryly, particularly when he comes to the narrative rather than simply the analysis. He also lets himself down by betraying a quite unnecessary anti British bias. But no negative enough to pull the score down from 5 stars

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very accessible history of the Spanish rising against Napoleon in the Peninsular War. Descriptions such as this one about complex microlevel processes are rare.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focusses on a very narrow aspect of the guerilla war in Spain, that being the region of Navarre in the North-East bordering France and one of the most successful guerilla campaigns in Spain over the period 1801-1814.

John Tone’s book is an incredibly detailed study of this particular theatre of the broader conflict. In my view, it is too detailed, getting bogged down in facts and figures that distracts from the overall narrative. Conversely, as an academic study it hits the mark due to the deep research attributed to writing the book. Having said that, the reader will come away with an extensive knowledge of this subject.

Tone’s book is worth it for the deep reader of Spanish guerilla warfare or an experienced reader on Napoleonic Wars, but maybe not for the casual reader of the period.

[Lisa Vizcarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book truly explains the conflict in Spain.