1806: A Precis
The Collapse of the Third Coalition
by James Gaite, UK
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The End of the Austro-Russian Threat Within a week, negotiations had begun for a Franco-Austrian armistice and, on 26th December, the Treaty of Pressburg was signed, ceding the Tyrol to Bavaria, the Voralberg to Württemberg, Venetia to the Kingdom of Italy and the Dalmatian territories to
the French Empire. Austria now receded from the international scene.
Archduke Charles, labelled the “pacifist”, once more rose to ascendancy in the Austro-Hungarian Court, laying down the foundations for his famous army reforms and successfully resisting calls from the “hawks” for Austrian involvement in
the Franco-Prussian conflict later in the year.
Russia, although refusing to make peace with Napoleon, also seemed to withdraw into isolation. Alexander I, initially greeted with great sympathy on his return to St. Petersburg, soon found himself under heavy fire from his critics at Court when the full details of the military disaster reached the capital. Losing faith in future Prussian and Austrian involvement in the struggle against the French Empire, Alexander slowly withdrew into himself. This, in itself, caused great concern amongst the ruling circles of Russia - the complicit assassins of Alexander’s father, the
Mad Tsar Paul, feared that they were seeing the return of that madness in his son.
Alexander became increasingly depressed during the early months of 1806. His enthusiastic drive for the reform of the Russian state dwindled and, despite his opposition to the French occupation of Cattaro in January, he seems to have become resigned to the invincibility of Napoleon’s ever-increasing Empire.
Consequently, in May 1806, he resolved to end the state of “phoney war” and despatched Count d’Oubril to negotiate terms with the French Emperor.
The Humiliation of Prussia
Prussia also suffered heavily from the collapse of the Third Coalition. Coerced into participation by the Russian Tsar and his own War Party in November 1805, Frederick William III had put his armed forces on a war footing and issued an ultimatum to
Napoleon to cease hostilities or face the wrath of the renowned Prussian army. Whether by accident or design, the ultimatum was not presented to the French Emperor until after the decisive encounter at Austerlitz, at which time it was treated with scorn.
Caught in an unenviable position, the Prussian ambassador, Count von Haugwitz, was forced to sign a humiliating treaty at Schönbrunn on 15th December and was then sent scuttling back to his master in Berlin. The terms of this treaty stated that Prussia was to cede the territory of Ansbach, Cleves, Berg and Neuchatel and, in return, would be permitted to occupy the British province of Hanover.
Not surprisingly, these degrading terms for a nation unblooded and undefeated in combat, were greeted with anger and calls for war. However, Frederick William III, under the influence of his close circle of ministers and his own pacifistic nature, resisted
the call to arms and despatched Haugwitz again, in an attempt to moderate the terms. Napoleon and Haugwitz met again, this time in Paris, where the Prussian emissary was subjected to a further display of Napoleon’s hostility.
The French Emperor threatened to destroy Prussia unless the original terms were signed at the same time imposing additional obligations on the Prussian monarchy - Bayreuth was added to the list of concessions, along with an exclusive offensive-defensive pact with France and the closure of all Prussian ports to British trade. On 15th February, Haugwitz could take no more and,
placing his signature to the Treaty of Paris, returned to Berlin with these new conditions for peace.
When these terms were presented to the Prussian Court, indignation reigned supreme amongst the pro-War members and cries for Prussian pride to be assuaged by war resounded around the corridors of power. However, Frederick William III had grown tired
of this debacle - unwilling to enter the war in the first place and considering Prussia ill-equipped for a head on clash with the might of Napoleon’s France, he ignored the calls for war and ratified the terms of the Treaty of Paris.
However, the seeds of discontent had been sown in the Prussian Court and events later in the year were to see these seeds germinate and bloom into a full-scale war between Prussia and France.
Britain Stands Alone
Militarily, Britain was more heavily involved in the war of the Third Coalition than ever before with three expeditionary forces being despatched from her shores during the second part of 1805. The first, under Lieutenant General Cathcart, was an Anglo-Hanoverian contingent that was to link up with elements from the Russian, Prussian and Swedish armies on the Elbe and invade the Batavian Republic.
Another, under Lieutenant General Craig, was instructed to co-ordinate its operations with General Lacy’s Russian troops in Italy and form a third front.
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Lieutenant General Sir David Baird and Commodore Sir Home Popham led the final expedition, with a flotilla of eight warships and a military force of 6,000 men, in an endeavour to retake the Cape of Good Hope and secure the sea route to India. In addition to this, the full resources of the British navy were employed, under the command of Vice Admiral Lord
Nelson, in the pursuit and destruction of Villeneuve’s Franco-Spanish fleet currently at large in the Atlantic.
News of the disaster at Austerlitz caused consternation in Britain, overshadowing the great victory gained posthumously by Nelson at Trafalgar. The foreign expeditions were hastily recalled, Cathcart from the Elbe to Britain and Craig from Naples to Sicily.
Despair reigned throughout Britain and Lord Sheffield commented, “Unless something extraordinary happens, I shall consider the game as lost.”
In January 1806, William Pitt the Younger died and “in a few months England had lost her greatest seaman, her most famous soldier…. and now her greatest statesman.” [3]
The only good news reached London in March 1806, when Baird’s capture of Cape Town was reported. Wild festivities were in evidence across the country on the disclosure of these glad tidings but they did little to raise the cloud of foreboding that had settled over the British nation.
A new government was formed in January 1806, led by Lord William Grenville and dubbed the “Ministry of All Talents”. Its most prominent member was Sir Charles James Fox, one of whose ambitions was to secure peace with France. Moves were initiated to open negotiations with Napoleon immediately upon Fox’s promotion to the position of Foreign Secretary, in February 1806. At first, the talks were undertaken by Lord Yarmouth, a British aristocrat “interned” in France, but, as the talks became more involved, Lord Lauerdale was despatched from London to replace him.
“That Perfidious Woman”
The last member of the Third Coalition was the Kingdom of Two Sicilies ruled by King Ferdinand of Naples and Sicily and his domineering queen, Maria-Carolina. Ferdinand, led by the political machinations of his wife and his own deep-set hatred of Republicanism, had joined the wars against France on three previous occasions but had somehow managed to survive defeat each time with his state intact.
In November 1805, under the advice of his wife and the Russian Ambassador, Tatistcheff, he had joined the Third Coalition, allowing the Russo-British force under General Lacy to occupy his frontier. However, when news of the Austro-Russian defeat at
Austerlitz reached the Kingdom, panic filled the Allied camp. Despite frantic representations by the Queen, General Lacy re-embarked his troops and sailed for the Russian-held Ionian Islands, while the British force under Lieutenant General Craig was instructed to secure Sicily at the expense of the mainland Kingdom of Naples.
King Ferdinand sailed with his Court to Palermo on 17th January 1806, leaving Maria-Carolina, deserted by her allies and her husband, with no option but to try to negotiate a peace with Napoleon. She employed all her charm in entreating the French Emperor
to forgive her husband’s nation one more time, promising to close her ports to British trade and ending her letter by stating that:
However, this was all to no avail. Napoleon had decided that it was time to crush “that perfidious women” and her nation to eliminate the threat to his southern flank once and for all. He therefore assembled an army of 40,000 men, under the command of his brother, Joseph, and the talented Marshal Masséna, which crossed the Neapolitan frontier on 8th February 1806. On 14th February, Joseph took control of the city of Naples, on 9th March, General Reynier defeated the poorly led Neapolitan forces at Campo Tenese and by the 20th March 1806, the entire state of Naples, barring the town of Gaeta, was in French hands. Only the presence of Craig’s British force, reinforced by contingents from Malta, prevented Reynier from crossing the Straits of Messina and taking control of the poorly defended Kingdom of Sicily.
1806: A Precis
Prussians in 1806
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The Battle of Austerlitz sounded the death knell for the Third Coalition [1] ; despite the existence of allied forces elsewhere in Europe, the spirit of resistance seemed to have dissipated after that resounding defeat. The Austro-Russian forces withdrew from the field and went their separate ways: the Russians retracing their line of advance back to the Russian frontier, while Francis II led his forces south to link up with Archduke Charles’ battered army in Hungary.