Russia had been instrumental in forming the Third Coalition in 1805 (including Austria, Britain, Sweden, and Naples) and had contributed substantial military resources to the campaign that ended disastrously for the forces of Tsar Alexander I (1777-1825) and his Austrian allies at Austerlitz, in Moravia, on 2 December 1805. Austria soon abandoned the coalition, while Alexander withdrew his army through Bohemia - Rusian army was badly shaken but not destroyed.
When Prussia challenged France in the autumn of 1806, Russia prepared to help Prussia, but military intervention did not become effective until early 1807, by which time Prussia had been thoroughly beaten, and the costly struggle at Eylau on 7 February and, finally, the decisive defeat at Friedland on 14 June, persuaded Alexander to seek terms with Napoleon, in conjunction with the Prussian king. The peace of Tilsit the following month sparked a diplomatic revolution, converting France and Russia from adversaries into allies, with Europe split between them and a chastened Frederick William in control of a much weakened Prussia. By secret clauses in the treaty France promised to assist Russia in 'liberating' most of European Turkey, while in return Russia agreed to open hostilities with Britain and Turkey if Britain refused the Tsar's mediation.
Both sides promised to pressure Sweden, Denmark and Portugal into conforming to the Continental System - Napoleon's ambitious scheme to close the whole European coastline to British commerce in an attempt to strangle the British economy. Russia cooperated, albeit unenthusiastically, and duly declared war on Britain in November (and invaded Swedish territory in 1808), though war with Britain amounted to little more than the cessation of trade with her. Napoleon and Alexander renewed their agreement at a conference at Erfurt in September 1808, while French armies were busy in Spain trying to subdue that nation as part of the same scheme to eradicate British trade with the Continent.
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| Alexander I of Russia.The Tsar's formidable forces opposed the French in 1805 and 1807, before Napoleon finally decided to invade Alexander's vast empire. Despite the occupation of Moscow, Alexander not only refused to negotiate, but pursued the French out of Russia and across Germany in a relentless campaign to reach Paris and overthrow the Bonaparte dynasty. Russia's major contribution to victory and Alexander's considerable influence on affairs at the Congress of Vienna established Russia as the most powerful nation on the Continent until the Crimean War |
That close Franco-Russian relations never fully developed may be divined by Alexander's decision to stand aloof during the 1809 campaign, his armies merely observing on the Austrian frontiers. With victory achieved over Austria for the fourth time since 1792 (1797, 1800 and 1805), Napoleon's new friendship, such as it was,with the Habsburg monarchy caused considerable concern at St Petersburg, and in any event by 1810 Russia was growing tired of the economic hardship caused by her inability to carry on trade with Britain. Pro-British factions in the court of St Petersburg were now once again in the ascendant and there were signs that Napoleon was not fulfilling his side of the Tilsit agreement. He had raised the Electorate of Saxony to the status of a kingdom and had created the Kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jerome out of Prussian territory, but the Emperor had done nothing to hasten the partition of Turkey, and Russia continued to wage her war against the Ottomans, begun in 1806, without any French aid. Moreover, the territory of the Duke of Oldenburg, a relation of Alexander's, was annexed to France without prior consultation. Russian anxieties grew still deeper when, in 1810, Napoleon not only annexed Holland in order better to enforce the Continental System, but also extended his control along the coastline stretching to the Baltic Sea. Both these actions were clear violations of Tilsit.
For his part, the Tsar had also broken his commitments. He truly closed his ports to British merchant vessels, yet British and colonial goods still came ashore via ships flying neutral flags and protected by Royal Navy escorts. The fact remained that, by 1810, the exclusion of British trade had badly hurt the Russian economy; by employing this expedient, the Tsar could improve his financial situation by collecting import duties on that goods. By the end of the year he had also increased the duty on French imports coming by land - yet another source of criticism. Alexander also grew increasingly resentful of the French satellite, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw - a Polish state reconstituted from Prussian and Austrian annexations of the partitions of the 1790s - and suspected the French of involvement in the Swedes' nomination of the former Napoleonic marshal, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (1763-1844), to their throne, as crown prince. Thus, through a combination of many factors based on mutual distrust and self-interest, the Franco-Russian alliance established in 1807 had effectively come to an end by 1811.
By this time Napoleon, grown tired of Russian rejection to support the ban on British trade, planned his ill-fated invasion, and on 24 February 1812 he enlisted Prussia's nominal support in the form of 20,000 men, improved by 60,000 Austrians supplied in conformity with a treaty concluded on 12 March. Together with his own Grande Armée of genuinely loyal troops - half of whom summoned from outside France herself - the Emperor had 600,000 men ready by the spring. The Tsar, for his part, was not idle. Apart from gathering large forces of his own, on 5 April Alexander established an offensive and defensive alliance with Sweden – finding Bernadotte in fact hostile to Napoleon – and on 28 May he ended his 6 year war with Turkey, thus releasing much needed troops for the theater of war to the north.
At the end of March, through secret proposal to Frederick William, he learned that Prussia's support for the invasion was nothing more than a demonstration, with an auxiliary corps of 20,000 men under Major-General Yorck von Wartenburg (1759-1830), while the Austrians indicated on 25 April that their army, under Prince von Schwarzenberg (1771-1820), would not take part in serious fighting. In July Russia and Britain signed a peace treaty, ending the quasi-war that Tilsit had created. For the first time since April 1805, during the formation of the Third Coalition, these two peripheral, yet powerful, nations entered into a formal alliance by which Britain promised subsidiary aid and weapons, while Russia prepared to counter the French invasion with Russia’s massive resources in manpower.
Napoleon's invasion began on 22 June, he fought a costly struggle at Borodino on 7 September and entered Moscow the same month. Weeks passed as he waited for Alexander to come to terms. Receiving no communication and with most of the city already destroyed by fire, Napoleon began the long winter retreat, with its now well-known and fatal consequences.
For his part, the Tsar had also broken his commitments. He truly closed his ports to British merchant vessels, yet British and colonial goods still came ashore via ships flying neutral flags and protected by Royal Navy escorts. The fact remained that, by 1810, the exclusion of British trade had badly hurt the Russian economy; by employing this expedient, the Tsar could improve his financial situation by collecting import duties on that goods. By the end of the year he had also increased the duty on French imports coming by land - yet another source of criticism. Alexander also grew increasingly resentful of the French satellite, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw - a Polish state reconstituted from Prussian and Austrian annexations of the partitions of the 1790s - and suspected the French of involvement in the Swedes' nomination of the former Napoleonic marshal, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (1763-1844), to their throne, as crown prince. Thus, through a combination of many factors based on mutual distrust and self-interest, the Franco-Russian alliance established in 1807 had effectively come to an end by 1811.
By this time Napoleon, grown tired of Russian rejection to support the ban on British trade, planned his ill-fated invasion, and on 24 February 1812 he enlisted Prussia's nominal support in the form of 20,000 men, improved by 60,000 Austrians supplied in conformity with a treaty concluded on 12 March. Together with his own Grande Armée of genuinely loyal troops - half of whom summoned from outside France herself - the Emperor had 600,000 men ready by the spring. The Tsar, for his part, was not idle. Apart from gathering large forces of his own, on 5 April Alexander established an offensive and defensive alliance with Sweden – finding Bernadotte in fact hostile to Napoleon – and on 28 May he ended his 6 year war with Turkey, thus releasing much needed troops for the theater of war to the north.
At the end of March, through secret proposal to Frederick William, he learned that Prussia's support for the invasion was nothing more than a demonstration, with an auxiliary corps of 20,000 men under Major-General Yorck von Wartenburg (1759-1830), while the Austrians indicated on 25 April that their army, under Prince von Schwarzenberg (1771-1820), would not take part in serious fighting. In July Russia and Britain signed a peace treaty, ending the quasi-war that Tilsit had created. For the first time since April 1805, during the formation of the Third Coalition, these two peripheral, yet powerful, nations entered into a formal alliance by which Britain promised subsidiary aid and weapons, while Russia prepared to counter the French invasion with Russia’s massive resources in manpower.
Napoleon's invasion began on 22 June, he fought a costly struggle at Borodino on 7 September and entered Moscow the same month. Weeks passed as he waited for Alexander to come to terms. Receiving no communication and with most of the city already destroyed by fire, Napoleon began the long winter retreat, with its now well-known and fatal consequences.
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References
- Fremont-Barnes, G. (2002). Essential Histories : The Napoleonic Wars (4). Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
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