ABSTRACT
How Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul (and after 1804 Emperor) 1 of the French, planned to invade and conquer Britain in 1803–5 is one of the abiding folk memories of the English people. As children, in our school days, we heard about his great ‘Army of England’ drilling on the cliffs of France, all ready and waiting to cross the Channel. We heard, too, of the vast flotilla of invasion barges which ‘Boney’ assembled in his Channel ports to ferry this army over to England. The climax of the story was how Nelson met a hero’s death in his victory at Trafalgar; and from then on, it was inferred, everybody in England lived happily ever after, because the danger of invasion was over.
