22 January – Royal Navybrig-sloopHMS Primrose (1807) (bound for the Peninsular War) is wrecked in a snowstorm on The Manacles reef off The Lizard peninsula in Cornwall with only a drummer boy surviving and the transport Dispatch is wrecked on Black Head nearby with 104 homeward bound soldiers lost and only seven survivors.
12 May – Peninsular War: Second Battle of Porto: the Anglo-Portuguese Army commanded by Wellesley crosses the Douro, drives the French army commanded by Marshal Soult out of Porto and forces them to retreat into Spain.[4]
18 September – A new Theatre Royal, Covent Garden(pictured) opens in London to replace the first burnt down in 1808. An increase in ticket prices causes the Old Price Riots which last for 64 days.
9 December – Walcheren Campaign: The last British forces withdraw from Vlissingen. The unsuccessful campaign has cost the British 4,000 dead, wounded or captured (but only 106 through combat) and at least 12,000 sick.[9]
William Combe begins publication of the verse Tour of Dr Syntax in search of the Picturesque in Ackermann's Political Magazine, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson.
^Renwick, Aly (30 September 2015). "The Radical Sergeant Major". Veterans for Peace UK. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
^Gurney, W. B. (1809). Minutes of a court-martial... on the trial of James Lord Gambier. London: Mottey, Harrison & Miller.
^ abBrett-James, Antony. "The Walcheren Failure." History Today (Dec 1963) 13#12 pp 811-820 and (Jan 1964) 14#12 pp 60-68.
^Gash, Norman (2004). "Wellesley, Arthur, first duke of Wellington (1769–1852)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29001. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
^Paxman, Jeremy (1998). The English: a portrait of a people. London: Michael Joseph. p. 217.
^"Brailsford, Mary Ann (bap. 1791, d. 1852), originator of the Bramley's Seedling apple". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57264. Retrieved 22 November 2020.(subscription or UK public library membership required)
^"History of William Cavendish-Bentinck Duke of Portland - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2023.