the spanish people of that years really didn´t care napoleon. I think they would be happy if they had known napoleon had died -supposedly- as a good catholic. In fact, pious vii, who was ill-treated by napoleon, offered him without doubt staying in the pontificates states when he falled, but at the end the revolutionary english goverment took him to the rock of st. Helena.
The two reasons the spanish people raise against napoleon were: 1. The attack which revolutionary french troops made against the catholic religion; 2. The imprisonment of their legitimate king: Ferdinand vii (who was taken prisoner together with the pope pious vii by napoleon). If napoleon had not made this double mistake perhaps he wouldn´t have had problems to dominate the peninsula.
Napoleon wrote in the diary he made in st. Helena: "it was that unhappy war in spain that ruined me. The results have irrevocably proved that i was in the wrong. [...] the unfortunate war in spain proved a real wound,--the first cause of the misfortune of france. If i could have foreseen that that affair would cause me so much vexation and chagrin, i would never have engaged in it. [...] had i known at the first that the transaction would have given me so much trouble, i never would have engaged in it."
i have not read this book, but it seems to be good.
napoleon's cursed war: Popular resistance in the spanish peninsular war, 1808-1814
by ronald fraser
in this definitive account of the peninsular war (1808–14), napoleon’s six-year war against spain, ronald fraser examines what led to the emperor’s devastating defeat against the popular opposition—the guerrillas—and their british and portuguese allies. As well as relating the histories of the great political and military figures of the war, fraser brings to life the anonymous masses—the artisans, peasants and women who fought, suffered and died—and restores their role in this barbaric war to its rightful place while overturning the view that this was a straightforward military campaign. This vivid, meticulously researched book offers a distinct and profound vision of “napoleon’s vietnam” and shows the reality of the disasters of war: The suffering, discontents and social upheaval that accompanied the fighting. 
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the spanish people of that years really didn´t care napoleon. I think they would be happy if they had known napoleon had died -supposedly- as a good catholic. In fact, pious vii, who was ill-treated by napoleon, offered him without doubt staying in the pontificates states when he falled, but at the end the revolutionary english goverment took him to the rock of st. Helena.
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