After his victories in Italy, Andrew Roberts explains (in Napoleon: A Life), Napoleon turned his attention to England:
Napoleon visited Boulogne, Dunkirk, Calais, Ostend, Brussels and Douai over two weeks in February to evaluate the chances of a successful invasion, interviewing sailors, pilots, smugglers and fishermen, sometimes until midnight. ‘It’s too hazardous,’ he concluded. ‘I will not attempt it.’ His report to the Directory on February 23, 1798 was unequivocal:
Whatever efforts we make, we shall not for some years gain naval supremacy. To invade England without that supremacy is the most daring and difficult task ever undertaken… If, having regard to the present organization of our navy, it seems impossible to gain the necessary promptness of execution, then we must really give up the expedition against England — be satisfied with keeping up the pretence of it — and concentrate all our attention and resources on the Rhine, in order to try to deprive England of Hanover…or else undertake an eastern expedition which would menace her trade with the Indies. And if none of these three operations is practicable, I see nothing else for it but to conclude peace.
[…]
It was in the Directors’ interests for Napoleon to go to Egypt. He might conquer it for France or — just as welcome — return after a defeat with his reputation satisfyingly tarnished.
For Napoleon it represented an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of both his greatest heroes, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and he did not rule out the possibility of using Egypt as a stepping-stone to India.
“To invade England without that supremacy is the most daring and difficult task ever undertaken… ”
Going from France to England difficult. Going from England to France [Normandy] difficult too.
William did it. Eisenhower wanted to do it too. And succeed.
Two Williams did it… William the Conqueror and William III of Orange.
For some reason, Anglos always downplay the Dutch invasion of 1688 that installed William III on the English throne. It was not a small affair, the Dutch fleet was the largest fleet ever assembled in European waters up to that date. It outnumbered the English fleet 2:1. The English crumbled with little resistance. Some officers betrayed their king and troops were too scared to fight. The king ran away into exile in France.
The English call this debacle “The Glorious Revolution.”
James II was Catholic and William III was Protestant. Simple as.