Stopping Napoleon

After his defeat by Nelson at Trafalgar, Napoleon knew he could never invade England. Many thought he would try to take over the vast, crumbling Ottoman Empire, return to Egypt and even march on India. So the British concentrated on the Mediterranean: for a decade it became the scene of dangers - real or imagined - and of battles - both on land and at sea.

All was dictated by a fierce determination to stop Napoleon. There were triumphs and disasters in remote and exotic places, and a Trafalgar in miniature was fought between frigate squadrons in the Adriatic.

The Peninsular War might well have been fought in another peninsula: Italy. Bizarre rulers had to be flattered, or fought: the Bourbons in Palmero and Napoleon's dashing brother-in-law, Marshal Murat, King of Naples.

The successors to Nelson and predecessors of Wellington fought there, amongst them Lord Collingwood, Sir Sidney Smith and Sir John Moore. Napoleon himself materialised at his most magnificent in Venice and in humiliating exile on Elba.

Of course, Napoleon himself did not see it like that, and the outcome was startling for all...