28. The Collapse of Napoleon’s Plan to Invade England
Upon its return to European waters, the French Toulon fleet was defeated off Spain in the Battle of Cape Finisterre in July, 1805. The survivors fled to Cadiz, where they were blockaded. With the plan to control the English Channel in tatters, Napoleon gave up on the invasion of England.
In August, 1805, he renamed the finely trained Army of England the Grande Armee, and marched it from the Channel coast to Central Europe to fight the Austrians and Russians. Two months later, the Franco-Spanish fleet was defeated decisively at the Battle of Trafalgar, but by then the army that had trained for years to invade England was fighting in Central Europe, hundreds of miles from the English Channel.