From the Third of May to the Third of January

It is the start of the 19th century, throughout Spain (and the rest of Europe) the reigning Spanish Sovereign, Charles IV, is regarded as an ineffectual cuck in all aspects of his life.

Famine ravages his land year on year, wheat prices rice over 60% in areas resulting in a mortality crisis that would see population decline as a high as 15%. Meanwhile the prime minister of Spain is a sycophant, ineffectual and self serving, he obtained his position the way yes men and boot lickers often do. - He is also believed to be the one cuckolding Charles IV, which may have had a greater deal to do with with his appointment to PM than his memoirs would let on.

In stark contrast to this, Napoleon I after a series of military victories and amassing popular support, now elevates his position from First Consul, to crowning himself Emperor of France.

It is unsurprising then given these pressures and disparity in competence, that in 1807 when Napoleon proposed to the Spanish leadership that all Spain needed to do to take Portugal was let France march through, the Spanish did not look any deeper in to Napoleons plans nor seem to have any misgivings about the man who had just declared himself Emperor.

(Despite the fact Napoleon had also recently Crowned himself king of Italy, appointed one brother to be king of Naples, the other to be king of Holland, and a third to the newly formed kingdom of Westphalia, all after deposing the sitting monarchs or military victories. He had also resoundingly beaten the Austrians twice, the Prussians, the Russians, and a host of others, all whilst pursuing conquest as opposed to defence. Alongside this the French army stood at 350,000 soldiers, by comparison Spain's standing army was believed to be 50,000 at the time...)

There are no prizes for guessing what happened after the invasion of Portugal was complete. Frances Armies remained in Spain, they occupy key Citadels and locations, It dawns on Spanish leadership far too late the sheer size of the fox they have let in to the hen house. Being the rather incompetent leaders that they are, their response is dithering, confused, and ineffectual. A number of Forts still think the French their allies and greet the marching troops with pomp, others resist.

The Spanish people are initially buoyed by the victory over Portugal, alongside the need for change. They even take up action to ensure the fall of their own corrupt leaders in its wake with the mutiny of Aranjuez resulting in the killing of the sycophantic PM. They think now their favoured successor will take the throne (that favoured successor is not Napoleons brother, so you can probably assume how that works out)

So with Napoleons Brother on yet another European throne the reality of regime change sets in. This does not go over particularly well with the embittered Spanish population, nor with most of Europe for that matter, given Napoleons seemingly unstoppable conquest of the landmass.

It is here, after I have exhausted your attention span, that we reach the third of May 1808.

The country has become a tinder box, one French agent writing that "Spain is different. The Spaniards have a noble and generous character, but they have a tendency to ferocity and cannot bear to be treated as a conquered nation. Reduced to despair, they would be prepared to unleash the most terrible and courageous rebellion, and the most vicious excesses". This courage was unleashed in Madrid on the 2nd of May in open rebellion, on the 3rd of May the French response would come in the form of firing squads. Hundreds of Spaniards are rounded up and shot en masse.

It is this moment that Goya immortalised in his painting 'The third of May 1808'. It is a painting that depicts conflict and war in a way no other really had up until that point. There is no glorious light upon the soldiers, no dynamic movement to their form. The victims are not adorned in the fervour of the martyr, no angels part the clouds and weep upon the scene. This is mechanised slaughter, dark, brutal, rigid and inhuman. The victims piles of flesh, not statuesque heroes, nor made beautiful in their martyred ascension.

This is the nuance of conflict, a peoples plight, misused hope, misplaced faith and the machinations of war.

This is not about assigning righteous claim or blame. This is the suffering of people under imperialism and ineffectual leadership, neither of which countermand the other, both of which simply amplify the suffering. They reduce our humanity to naught more but piles of misshapen flesh, and rows of machine men.

(Over a million people would die in the ensuing 'Peninsular War')