In the spring of 1811 the TWELFTH Light Dragoons received orders to hold themselves in readiness to join the allied army commanded by Lord Wellington, engaged in the glorious struggle to effect the expulsion of the legions of Bonaparte from Spain and Portugal; and six troops of the regiment embarked at Portsmouth in May and June. On the 11th of June Lieut.-Colonel Hon. F. C. Ponsonby was appointed lieut.-colonel in the regiment in succession to Major-General Robert Browne. The regiment landed at Lisbon on the 25th of June, and, after a halt of ten days, advanced up the country. The allied army retired, soon afterwards, from its position on the Caya in the Alentejo, and moved towards Ciudad Rodrigo; and the TWELFTH Light Dragoons were formed in brigade with the First (Royal) Dragoons under the command of Major-General Slade. This brigade was employed in the operations connected with the blockade of _Ciudad Rodrigo_, and with the action at El Bodon, which took place when the armies of Marshal Marmont and General Dorsenne advanced to relieve the blockaded fortress. A series of movements followed, in which the TWELFTH took part, and after the retrograde of the French army, the brigade went into cantonments in the valley of the Mondego, the TWELFTH occupying Celerico. [Sidenote: 1812] In the winter, when the siege of _Ciudad Rodrigo_ was undertaken, the TWELFTH Light Dragoons advanced to take part in covering the operation, and were posted at Regarda, and on the capture of fortress in January, 1812, they fell back to Seixo, in the valley of Mondego, where they were formed in brigade with the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Light Dragoons, under the orders of Major-General Anson.