I had a look at Brandao's book in Lisbon and you are quite right Anthony, he treated the British and French with almost equal disdain and dismissed the effect of the battles of Rolica and Vimeiro entirely. He believed Portugal's liberation was entirely down to guerrilla action, which I personally disagree with. This is a commonly held view in Portugal and Spain though and it is important not to underestimate the effects of the People's War. I favour the 'safe' view that the French were only defeated by a combination of conventional armies and guerrilla forces while conceding that (had they been faced by either kind of conflict alone) they would have eventually taken the Peninsula. However, it is difficult to deny that Brandao was correct in deriding the Convention of Sintra, which Dalrymple and others made a dreadful mess of.

Junot was an unpleasant character but a pleasure to write about, his feckless lifestyle providing many interesting anecdotes. Although a selfish man with many faults, he was unquestionably brave but should have remained a cavalry general. His various diplomatic appointments contain many unfortunate incidents with Junot behaving more like a trooper in camp than a representative of the French government. Indeed, I was shocked that Napoleon tolerated numerous instances of outrageous behaviour simply because Junot was a personal friend and he felt obliged to his family. His performance in Portugal was patchy and his seizure of Lisbon would probably have ended in disaster had the Portuguese offered resistance. Wellesley made him pay a heavy price for his reckless attack on his army at Vimeiro but Junot managed to wrest an unexpectedly favourable peace settlement from the British that came close to ending Wellesley's career. It is a fascinating campaign to read about.

Junot's career after 1808 was lacklustre and Napoleon considered him an outright liability in Russia in 1812. He died a wretched death throwing himself from a window having gone insane. Experts believe this insanity was caused by a combination of drink, drugs, syphilis and two head wounds that never fully healed.

So a controversial character to say the least but certainly never boring. However, I will visit and photograph his grave in Pere Lachaise if I get another chance.