knighthood conferred in 1649. He was tried and convicted of treason at the Restoration, and died while a prisoner in the Tower on the 17th of December 1661. He was twice married, and had six children by his first wife, several of whom became Quakers.
Isaac Penington (1616–1679), Sir Isaac’s eldest son, was one of the most notable of the 17th-century Quakers. He was early troubled by religious perplexities, which found expression in many voluminous writings. No less than eleven religious works, besides a political treatise in defence of democratic principles, were published by him in eight years. He belonged for a time to the sect of the Independents; but about 1657, influenced probably by the preaching of George Fox, whom he heard in Bedfordshire, Penington and his wife joined the Society of Friends. His wife was daughter and heiress of Sir John Proude, and widow of Sir William Springett, so that the worldly position of the couple made them a valuable acquisition to the Quakers. Isaac Penington was himself a man of very considerable gifts and sweetness of character. In 1661 he was imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of allegiance, and on several subsequent occasions he passed long periods in Reading and Aylesbury gaols. He died on the 8th of October 1679; his wife, who wrote an account of his imprisonments, survived till 1682. In 1681 Penington’s writings were published in a collected edition, and several later editions were issued before the end of the 18th century. His son John Penington (1655–1710) defended his father’s memory against attack, and published some controversial tracts against George Keith. Edward Penington (1667–1711), another of Isaac Penington’s sons, emigrated to Pennsylvania, where he founded a family. Isaac Penington’s stepdaughter, Gulielma Springett, married William Penn.
See Maria Webb, The Penns and Peningtons of the 17th Century (London, 1867), Lord Clarendon, History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (7 vols., Oxford, 1839), Bulstrode Whitelocke, Memorials of English Affairs: Charles I. to the Restoration (London, 1732); J. Gurney Bevan, Life of Isaac Penington (London, 1784); Thomas Ellwood. History of the Life of Ellwood by his own hand (London, 1765), Willem Sewel, History of the Quakers (6th ed., 2 vols., London, 1834).
PENINSULA (Lat. paeninsula, from paene, almost, and insula,
an island), in physical geography, a piece of land nearly surrounded
by water. In its original sense it connotes attachment
to a larger land-mass by a neck of land (isthmus) narrower than
the peninsula itself, but it is often extended to apply to any
long promontory, the coast-line of which is markedly longer than
the landward boundary.
PENINSULAR WAR (1808–14). This important war, the
conduct and result of which greatly enhanced the prestige of
British arms, had for its main object the freedom of the Peninsula
of Spain and Portugal from the domination of Napoleon; and
hence it derives its name, though it terminated upon the soil
of France.
Nelson having destroyed the French fleet at Trafalgar, Napoleon feared the possibility of a British army being landed on the Peninsular coasts, whence in conjunction with Portuguese and Spanish forces it might attack France from the south. He therefore called upon Portugal, in August 1807, to comply with his Berlin decree of the 21st of November 1806, under which continental nations were to close their ports to British subjects, and have no communication with Great Britain. At the same time he persuaded the weak king of Spain (Charles IV.) and his corrupt minister Godoy to permit a French army to pass through Spain towards Portugal; while under a secret treaty signed at Fontainebleau on the 27th of October 1807 Spanish troops were to support the French. Portugal was to be subsequently divided between Spain and France, and a new principality of the Algarve was to be carved out for Godoy. Portugal remonstrated against Napoleon’s demands, and a French corps (30,000) under General Junot was instantly despatched to Lisbon. Upon its approach the prince regent fled, and the country was occupied by Junot, most of the Portuguese troops being disbanded or sent abroad. Napoleon induced the king of Spain to allow French troops to occupy the country and to send the flower of the Spanish forces (15,000) under the marquis of Romana[1] to assist the French on the Baltic. Then Dupont de l’Etang (25,000) was ordered to cross the Bidassoa on the 22nd of November 1807; and by the 8th of January 1808 he had reached Burgos and Valladolid. Marshal Moncey with a corps occupied Biscay and Navarre; Duhesme with a division entered Catalonia; and a little later Bessières with another corps had been brought up. There were now about 100,000 French soldiers in Spain, and Murat, grand duke of Berg, as “lieutenant for the emperor,” entered Madrid. During February and March 1808 the frontier fortresses of Pampeluna, St Sebastian, Barcelona and Figueras were treacherously occupied and Spain lay at the feet of Napoleon. The Spanish people, in an outburst of fury against the king and Godoy, forced the former to abdicate in favour of his son Ferdinand; but the inhabitants of Madrid having (May 2, 1808) risen against the French, Napoleon refused to recognize Ferdinand; both he and the king were compelled to renounce their rights to the throne, and a mercenary council of regency having been induced to desire the French emperor to make his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, king, he acceded to their request.[2]
The mask was now completely thrown off, and Spain and Portugal rose against the French. Provincial “juntas” (committees of government) were organized, appeals for assistance made to the British government, which granted arms, money and supplies, and it was resolved to despatch a British force to the Peninsula. Before it landed, the French under Dupont, Moncey and Marshal Bessières (75,000) had occupied parts of Biscay, Navarre, Aragon and the Castiles, holding Madrid and Toledo, while General Duhesme (14,000) was in Catalonia. Moncey (7000) had marched towards the city of Valencia, but been repulsed in attempting to storm it (June 28); Bessières had defeated the Spanish general Joachim Blake at Medina de Rio Seco (June 14, 1808) and Dupont (13,000) had been detached (May 24) from Madrid to reduce Seville and Cadiz in Andalusia. Spanish levies, numbering nearly 100,000 regulars and militia, brave and enthusiastic, but without organization, sufficient training, or a commander-in-chief, had collected together; 30,000 being in Andalusia, a similar number in Galicia, and others in Valencia and Estremadura. but few in the central portion of Spain.
At this juncture Dupont, moving upon Cadiz, met with a reverse which greatly influenced the course of the Peninsular War. On the 7th of June 1808 he had sacked Cordova; but while he was laden with its spoils the Spanish general Castanos with the army of Andalusia (30,000), and also a large body of armed peasantry, approached. Falling back to Andujar, where he was reinforced to 22,000 strong, Dupont detached a force to hold the mountain passes in his rear, whereupon the Spaniards interposed between the detachment and the main body and seized Baylen. Failing to dislodge them, and surrounded by hostile troops and an infuriated peasantry, Dupont capitulated with over Battle of Baylen, July 19, 1808. 20,000 men. This victory, together with the intrepid defence of Saragossa by the Spanish general José Palafox (June 15 to August 13, 1808) temporarily paralysed the French and created unbounded enthusiasm in Spain. Duhesme, having failed to take Gerona, was blockaded in Barcelona, Joseph fled from Madrid (Aug. 1, 1808), and the French forces closed to their rear to defend their communications with France. The British troops were directed towards Lisbon and Cadiz, in order to secure these harbours, to prevent the subjugation of Andalusia, and to operate up the basins of the Guadiana, Tagus and Douro into Spain. The British force consisted of 9000 men from Cork, under Sir Arthur Wellesley—at first in chief command; 5000 from Gibraltar, under General (Sir Brent) Spencer; and 10,000 under Sir John Moore coming from Sweden; Wellesley and Moore being directed towards Portugal, and Spencer to Cadiz. On the 1st of August 1808
