Returning to the events of November the 5th, French troops at Ramsgate, numbering roughly 15,000 men, landed at roughly the same time as the other landings along the coast of Southern England. Unlike Dover and Pevensey Bay, Ramsgate was not equipped with strong fortifications, neither Martello Towers or inland defences, due to the fact that the British Government, when establishing its anti-invasion preparations, had determined that the most likely points where an invading force would land would be the coastal strip between Dover and Eastbourne. Therefore, when the Frenchmen landed, they initially encountered minimal opposition, and were able to climb up the dunes towards Ramsgate and entered the town unopposed. From there, on the 6th, the French forces planned to advance north to capture Broadstairs and Margate, which would put the entire Isle of Thanet under French occupation. However, it was at this point that the French began to encounter serious resistance as they began their advance towards Broadstairs.
On the day of the landings (the 5th), a light infantry regiment under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore had been in the Isle of Thanet, on a march from Folkestone to Margate in order to keep the soldiers in the regiment active. Under usual circumstances, Moore and his light infantry regiment (the first to be established in Britain) were based at the Shorncliffe Army Camp near Folkestone, yet Sir John now found himself defending a completely different part of Kent, which left Moore in a difficult situation, for his light infantry regiment only numbered roughly 5,000 men in total, not nearly enough to combat a French force of 15,000 men, and his soldiers were (as their name suggested) equipped with more light equipment, so as to enable the regiment to move faster than a larger army. So, rather than engage the French head-on, Moore instead decided to carry out what his regiment had been trained for, and began harassing the advancing French army from behind, engaging in skirmishes and often ambushing the rears of the advancing French army so as to delay their advance and decrease French morale, in preparation for when a larger British army arrived to engage in open battle with the French.
Although Moore and the light infantry regiment were unable to stop the French from capturing Broadstairs on the 9th, his skirmishes had certainly delayed the French advance, and had resulted in 524 French casualties, while Moore’s force had sustained 103 casualties while carrying out attacks on the advancing army. By the 10th, the French forces had begun to advance from Broadstairs towards Margate, and thus Moore and his light infantry, who had been largely hiding in the countryside surrounding Broadstairs while the French entered the town, once again resumed his skirmishing strategy once the advance towards Margate began. Yet, at this point, a large British Army was in reach of the advancing French force – this was Dundas and his Army, at this point numbering 62,200 soldiers, who had, a few days previously, fought Napoleon at Chatham (see later on in this chapter), and was
en route to travel to Dover to confront Murat and the French forces there (see the previous chapter). On the 11th, the British and French forces engaged one another at a hamlet called Flete, which was three kilometres southwest from Margate – the Battle of Flete, as it came to be known, lasted for half a day and eventually resulted in a British victory, with 1,200 British casualties and 3,453 French casualties. During the battle, Dundas and the British were assisted by Moore’s light infantry regiment, which was able to attack the rear of the French forces during the battle, which forced many French soldiers to confront Moore and the light infantry rather than Dundas and the main British army. In the aftermath of their defeat at Flete, the French forces, having been unable to capture Margate and facing a British army far larger than their own (reduced) force, surrendered on the 12th, placing Ramsgate and Broadstairs back under British control.
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The second-to-last French landing which took place on the 5th occurred at Southend in Essex, where 10,000 Frenchmen under the command of Guillaume Brune travelled into the entrance of the Thames to arrive at their landing point. Unlike the other French landings, the landing at Southend was intended to be little more than a distraction, designed to divert British forces at London to Essex to combat Brune rather than to the entrance of the Medway to combat Napoleon. Nonetheless, Brune and the French, facing initially minimal resistance, were able to occupy the village with relative ease [1], before moving inland to occupy Prittlewell. Brune then began to march his forces north, with the intention of threatening Chelmsford and possibly engaging a British army in Essex – as it happened, Brune would engage a British force defending Chelmsford, yet
who was leading that army surprised not only Brune but the entire French force.
As previously mentioned, as part of the wider Government evacuation of London, George III and Pitt had travelled to Chelmsford when news of the French landing arrived on the 5th. Throughout the standoff between Britain and France between 1801 and 1804, the King had made it clear that he wished to emulate his grandfather, George II, and lead his troops into Battle. Writing to Richard Hurd, a prominent Anglican Bishop, in November 1803, George III stated:
‘Should his troops effect a landing, I shall certainly put myself at the head of my troops and my other armed subjects to repel them’ [2]
When news of the French landing at Southend reached the Monarch and Prime Minister at Chelmsford, George III announced that he would be taking command of the British forces defending the town, something which both Pitt and Major General Sir James Craig (the overall commander of the British army in Eastern England) agreed to. And so, on the 6th, George III took command of the 31,400-man strong British Army in Essex (of whom 15,000 were professional soldiers, 1,400 were members of the militia, and 15,000 were volunteers from local Yeomanry Regiments), and began to advance towards Brune and the advancing French army. Eventually, George III and the British forces reached Brune and the French forces at the village of Stock (north of Billericay, which the French had captured on the 9th) on the 10th, leading to the two forces engaging in what would become known as the Battle of Stock.
When the engagement began, a French cavalry charge against the British centre was repulsed, owing to the British forces’ numerical superiority, and from there onwards the two sides fired at one another for roughly four hours. Eventually, it was clear that the French force, in spite of Brune’s attempts to hold the French line, were drastically dropping in morale and their resistance to the British was starting to falter. Therefore, George III ordered the British cavalry to launch a charge of their own – this was a far greater success than the earlier French charge, and the British cavalry was able to disperse the French forces and cause a scattered retreat belatedly ordered by Brune. Therefore, the Battle of Stock came to a conclusion in a decisive British victory, with 3,781 French casualties and 2,399 British casualties, and George III had become the second British monarch to lead soldiers on the battlefield. George III’s victory and the fact that the King had been present on the battlefield led to a large morale boost amongst the British Army, and also resulted in recruitment into Yeomanry Regiments increasing substantially, as a common message to men who were wavering about volunteering was: ‘The King has proved his mettle, have you?’.
Following the British victory at Stock, Brune and the French began to retreat back towards the Thames, hoping to cross the River using their landing craft and arrive in Kent, where Brune intended to link up with Napoleon’s main invasion force. However, George III and the British began pursuing the retreating French from Stock, while a separate British force under the command of Craig began to advance towards the retreating French from the flank and, on the 12th, liberated the town of Basildon, thereby trapping Brune and the retreating French in Billericay, forcing Brune to attempt to withstand a siege. Yet a combination of low morale amongst the French, and the overall hostility of the population of the town in which they were attempting to withstand a siege ultimately led to Brune surrendering to George III personally on the 15th, ending what was collectively known as the Battle of Essex in a British victory.
For the King, leading soldiers personally proved to be an uplifting experience - in the years after the campaign, George III confided to his wife, Charlotte, that leading troops at Stock was 'the proudest moment of my life'. Meanwhile, Pitt had also served in combat during the Battle of Essex, serving under George III during the Battle of Stock (largely at the insistence of the King), thereby allowing the Prime Minister to also, later on, recall with fondness leading soldiers at Stock during the campaign.
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The final French landing in Southern England was that of Napoleon at the entrance to the River Medway, near Chatham. The French Emperor planned to quickly disarm and defeat any British forces near to Chatham, which would leave the route to London open for the French, allowing Napoleon to reach the city within four days and, as his plan went, capture it. The French soldiers who landed with Napoleon numbered roughly 47,000 in total and, like the landings at Ramsgate and Southend, did not have to confront any major fortifications or defences, as had been the case for the landings at Pevensey and Dover – because of this, the French Emperor was able to capture Strood by the end of the 5th, and entered Rochester largely unopposed on the 6th. At this point, French scouts reported to Napoleon that a British Army under the command of Dundas had rallied at Chatham, and intended to block the French from capturing the town – eager to secure his first major victory in the campaign, Napoleon ordered his men to march east towards Chatham, with the intention of fighting Dundas in open battle.
Meanwhile, Dundas was rallying his soldiers, numbering roughly 65,000 men in total, for their inevitable confrontation against the French Emperor. The British General had two possible plans, which depended on whether or not he could defend Chatham – if Chatham was successfully defended, and Dundas was able to defeat Napoleon, then the British forces under his command would push the French back, liberating Rochester and Strood, and forcing Napoleon to retreat into the Thames and across the Channel, while, if Dundas were defeated, then he and his force would move south to eliminate the threat of the French landing at Dover, thereby denying the French a port on the other side of the Channel. On the 7th, Dundas received his answer to which strategy would be put in place, when the British under Dundas and the French under Napoleon engaged one another outside Chatham in a battle for control of the town.
During the Battle of Chatham, Napoleon utilised his traditional tactic of fast movement and a combination of infantry, cavalry and artillery simultaneously – while it became clear to the French Emperor that the British Army had adapted to fight this form of warfare far easier than his Continental adversaries, the speed of Napoleon’s armies was nonetheless enough to eventually force Dundas to order a retreat, ending the battle in a French victory, with 2,800 British casualties and 1,004 French casualties. In the aftermath of the engagement, Chatham was left effectively defenceless, as Dundas organised his strategy of repulsing the French from Dover (after a brief detour to defeat the French in the Isle of Thanet) – this allowed Napoleon to march into the town and claim his first victory of the campaign.
On the 8th, the day after the battle, the French Emperor decided to establish a new state to lay claim over England – initially, Napoleon considered declaring one of his siblings as monarch of a new client kingdom, yet the French Emperor eventually decided against this, and instead, in the town centre of Chatham, a proclamation, drafted by Napoleon, was declared by a French soldier, which announced the establishment of the Boudiccan Republic, named after the Celtic Queen who had fought in vain to repulse the Romans from Britannia in 60 or 61 [3]. The new Republic laid claim over the entirety of England, aside from Kent, which Napoleon intended to directly annex into the French Empire, and a General Assembly was established, as the legislature of the Boudiccan Republic. The declaration also declared that the head of state of the Republic would be known as the First Consul, who would be appointed by the Grand Assembly – yet, for the time being, Napoleon decided to select the first office holder of First Consul, and selected Thomas Paine [4], who had travelled (somewhat reluctantly) alongside the French invasion force. And so, the people of Chatham witnessed the creation of the Boudiccan Republic, with Paine as First Consul.
When news of the Republic’s establishment reached Britain outside of the small French occupied area, most people scoffed at the idea – only a few extreme Radicals favoured the establishment of the Boudiccan Republic and began to collaborate with the French client state, while the vast majority of Britons continued to support the Kingdom of Great Britain and remained loyal to their monarch, King George III. Therefore, if his intention in establishing the Republic had been to secure collaborators and supporters in England, Napoleon had clearly failed. Nonetheless, the French under Napoleon began to once again advance on the 9th, with the intention of reaching London within three days.
And so, the initial landings in Southern England came to a close, with British forces having been able to repulse French landings in most areas, yet Napoleon having been able to entrench himself on the River Medway. Now, both sides would prepare for the next major engagement in the South – the Battle for London was about to begin.
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[1] At this point, Southend was still a village, and only became a large town during the 19th century.
[2] It is worth pointing out that this is an extract from a letter which George III wrote in our timeline.
[3] This is following the usual French pattern for the naming of client states being based on ancient tribes from the country – for example, the Batavian Republic (after the Batavi) and the Helvetic Republic (after the Helvetii) in our timeline.
[4] In this timeline, Robespierre never has Paine arrested, and therefore Paine remains allied to the French and never leaves for the United States.
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