The French army in Spain was ordered by Napoleon to reoccupy Portugal, and Marshal Soult was directed to march, via Oporto, on Lisbon, Marshal Ney to hold Galicia, and Marshal Victor to invade Portugal south of the Tagus.

The British Government sent out Sir Arthur Wellesley to Portugal with strong reinforcements. Wellesley marched on Oporto and seized the passage of the Douro on 12th May, and drove Soult back into Galicia. Victor meanwhile had reached Talavera de la Reyna on the Tagus, and was supported by King Joseph and Marshal Jourdan.

Wellesley now advanced and joined the Spanish General Cuesta near Talavera. Victor thereupon fell back, and, Cuesta following him up alone, was severely handled by King Joseph and driven back behind the Alberche river.

The French army, under King Joseph with Jourdan and Victor, now advanced and crossed the Alberche, and, after several sharp combats, the battle of Talavera was fought on 28th July. After a desperate struggle, the French were finally driven back at all points, and early on the following morning retired across the Alberche.

On the same day, the Light Division under General Craufurd, consisting of the 43rd and 52nd Light Infantry and the 1st Battalion 95th Rifles, reached the field and immediately took up the outposts. This Division, after a march of 20 miles, was in bivouac at Malpartida, when Craufurd received a report that the British were hard pressed at Talavera. He at once started "with a resolution not to halt until he reached the field of battle.... The troops pressed on with impetuous speed, and, leaving only seventeen stragglers behind, in twenty-six hours crossed the field of battle, a strong compact body, having during that time marched 62 English miles in the hottest season of the year, each man carrying from fifty to sixty pounds weight."[4]

Soult being joined by Ney, Mortier, and Kellermann, now moved against Wellesley's line of communications, and the latter, leaving Cuesta to watch King Joseph on the Alberche, marched to oppose him. Cuesta, however, abandoned his post and fell back on Wellesley, closely pursued by Victor. At the same time the English General learned that Soult, having received reinforcements, had now a force of over 53,000 as against his 17,000 British troops; and he was in consequence forced to recross the Tagus at Puente del Arzobispo and retire on Portugal.

Thus ended the campaign of 1809, during which the British losses amounted to over 3500; and, owing to the hopeless conduct of both the Spanish Government and the Spanish generals, all the advantages which should have accrued to the British, from the successful operations on the Douro in May and the victory of Talavera in July, were rendered nugatory, and the French, in the words of Napier, were left with "all the credit of the campaign."