Bernard Dubourdieu was a French naval officer who served in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and became an aggressive commander in the Adriatic. From bases in French-controlled Italy he attacked British trade and positions along the Dalmatian coast.
In March 1811 he led a Franco-Venetian squadron against the British near Lissa but was killed when his flagship Favorite was overwhelmed, and the battle ended in a decisive British victory. Bernard Dubourdieu was born in Bayonne and died in Vis.
Julian Stockwin’s Balkan Glory makes Bernard Dubourdieu the French naval commander whose superior squadron threatens Thomas Kydd’s operations in the Adriatic. Raids and convoy actions gradually build toward a confrontation near Lissa, where Kydd must face the force assembled under Dubourdieu’s command. By using the historical French admiral as the principal opposing commander, the novel grounds its fictional naval career in the real Anglo-French contest for control of the Adriatic during the Napoleonic Wars.