The attempted invasion of Ireland was toward the end of the Revolutionary Wars. The French fleet ran into bad weather, turned round, and went home (and lost one of their best trained and led ships of the line to a couple of frigates in the process). The rebellion they'd supported/organised went ahead anyway and turned out to be a bit of a damp squib - very few of the locals had any interest in exchanging being run from London to being run from Paris, be that from loyalty to the King or "better the devil you know".
Is There a Napoleonic Unmentionable Sea Mammal Equivalent thread?
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The attempted invasion of Ireland was toward the end of the Revolutionary Wars. The French fleet ran into bad weather, turned round, and went home (and lost one of their best trained and led ships of the line to a couple of frigates in the process). The rebellion they'd supported/organised went ahead anyway and turned out to be a bit of a damp squib - very few of the locals had any interest in exchanging being run from London to being run from Paris, be that from loyalty to the King or "better the devil you know".
The rising was in '98 so any potential resistance/liberation movement is probably still smashed at this point anyway.
Napoleon could have had peace after Amiens. The British probably would have accepted a non-expansionist French hegemony in Europe at that point. But Napoleon saw it as simply a pause to regroup before going again. He didn’t leave Holland, as required and took over Switzerland.
Unsure of his sincerity the British didn’t leave Malta, and eventually gave a sort of test of Napoleon’s willingness to abide by diplomatic rules of the day (which was a big deal to the rulers of Europe at the time). They asked him to leave Holland before they would leave Malta. And, considering the influence he had in Holland, he probably could have pulled out troops and lost basically nothing. But instead he doubled down.
To Britain, and in many ways to the rest of Europe, this signalled that Napoleon was unwilling to allow the rules of conduct between nations to hamper his ambitions. IMO, this was to Napoleon what the invasion of Czechoslovakia was to Hitler; the moment beyond which he could no longer be trusted by the other Great Powers. After this, I don’t think lasting peace was possible with Napoleon on the throne and Britain not finally defeated.
You might see a long truce and stalemate though. Although having been warring with France on and off for more than a century (and with all the advantages-and money from industrialization) Britain will be disinclined to stop until it has no other choice.
Probably have to hope Napoleon's OTL death really was natural causes from cancer and any regency council for his son is a bit more sensible.
- You need Nelson's fleet to get utterly decimated against the Danes at Copenhagen first.
- Then you need what home fleet is left at that point to be defeated by the French-Spanish fleet.
- Then and only then can a French invasion of England happen under Napoleon.
- Then you need what home fleet is left at that point to be defeated by the French-Spanish fleet.
- Then and only then can a French invasion of England happen under Napoleon.
Not sure I’d characterize it like this. It was more the repressive efforts of the British state, failure of French troops to land, and utter disorganization than doomed 1798 to failure rather than apathy or allegiance to Britain. The tactical split between Wolfe Tone and the moderates over whether to wait for the French, the leaking of information about the underground organization, the pre-emptive arrest of influential leaders like Robert Emmet and the declaration of martial law, the sporadic and uncoordinated nature of local uprisings, and the ultimate failure of a French army to materialize are the main reasons it turned out to be a “damp squib”.. I would argue there was a lot of local interest in the coming of the French really.
They also tried Wales aswell and met a similar lack of local support
Battle of Fishguard - Wikipedia
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There are a few, but they're all old so best to continue the discussion here.
If you want to read what's been previously discussed:
2018: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...nvading-england-between-1803-and-1805.453733/
2011: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/napoleonic-invasion-of-britain.192910/
2009: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/1804-1805-napoleonic-invasion-of-britain.130099/
2009: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/napoleonic-invasion-of-ireland.128634/
2007: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/napoleonic-invasion-of-england.60204/
2011: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/napoleonic-invasion-of-britain.192910/
2009: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/1804-1805-napoleonic-invasion-of-britain.130099/
2009: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/napoleonic-invasion-of-ireland.128634/
2007: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/napoleonic-invasion-of-england.60204/
Yeah, his description of why the 1798 rising failed is not particularly accurate. There's plenty of signs that many Irish Catholics hoped that a French invasion would liberate the island. Notably the popular Irish song "Wearing of the Green" actually originated as a song hoping for "Boney" to land in Ireland, and it was far from the only Irish ballad during this period celebrating Napoleon Bonaparte.
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A God of Destin would be a good timeline about this:
Sadly, there has been no update for a year.
A God of Destin: A Napoleon Timeline
AGOD Part One: Nemesis "Napoleon on the Sands at Boulogne, France" by Andrew Carrick Gow What is the whole history of England, but a continued scene of rapine and desolation, with now and then a few solitary intervals of repose? ~ William Sherwin, radical journalist and Napoleon sympathizer...
www.alternatehistory.com
Sadly, there has been no update for a year.