Abstract

Robert Southey (1774-1843) was a prolific writer and a key figure in British cultural life in the early-nineteenth-century. One aspect of his significance was the central role that he played as an interpreter of Spanish and Portuguese politics, society and literature to a British audience. This essay examines two neglected aspects of Southey's engagement with the Iberian peninsular - his writings in the Edinburgh Annual Register and his unfinished series of inscriptions on the Peninsular war - in order to reach a fuller understanding of Southey's view of developments in Iberia and how these impacted on his politics and his sense of his public role.