The Treaty of Amiens
Origins of the War
of the Third Coalition
The Treaty of Amiens
by John Cook, UK
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At right: Henry Addington, the well meaning but ineffectual Tory Prime Minister, who placed such hopes on the Treaty of Amiens but whose failure to secure worthwhile conditions meant that peace could only be temporary. It would be wrong, however, to interpret this as enthusiasm the treaty on Pitt’s part for there were a number of imperatives which would have forced any British government to seek an accommodation with France, regardless of Prime Minister, and Pitt was very well aware of this. Against the background of two failed harvests, and a general public war-weariness, the principal motive for accommodation with France was commerce and there was already considerable pressure on the government from the British commercial sector for a normalisation of trading relations. Not only did the war mean that Britain was excluded from those parts of Europe controlled by Paris, but the League of Armed Neutrality presented an impediment to commerce in the Baltic, which was a vital source of raw materials for the British economy. A further consideration was the futility of continuing the war without major continental allies and the recognition that Britain, although infinitely superior at sea, was unable to match France with meaningful land forces which were essential to any quick military conclusion. Negotiations were opened in London in September 1801 between the French representative Louis Otto and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Hawkesbury (Robert Banks Jenkinson), who would later become the 2nd Earl Liverpool and the Prime Minister whose administration would see the successful conclusion to the Napoleonic Wars. The preliminary articles to the treaty were signed in London on 1 October 1801 in which, inter alia, Britain recognised French interests in the Netherlands, the Rhineland and Italy, agreed to return Egypt to the Ottoman Empire, Malta to the Knights of Saint John, and French colonies siezed during the late war to France. France, for her part, agreed to evacuate the Papal States and Neapolitan territory which would be restored to the Bourbon monarchy. These were not concessions at all and were already conditions of the Treaty of Lunneville which had been signed with Austria some eight months before. On 20 November the negotiations opened in Paris. The parties then moved to Amiens, which gave its name to the treaty. The British side anticipated extracting further French concessions over commerce and a firm commitment in the context of Holland, but the French delegation headed by Tallyrand and Joseph Bonaparte were steadfast in their refusal to make further concessions. Nevertheless, the definitive treaty, pending ratification, was signed at Amiens Town Hall on 25 March 1802 by Cornwallis, the British representative, without reference to London. There was a general agreement that the contracting parties, which included an ostensibly independent Batavian Republic and Spain, would do nothing whatsoever which could be considered hostile to the others. No agreement was concluded over the issue of commerce. The refusal of the French to come to an agreement over commerce was a major disappointment for the Addington administration but it was assumed, not unnaturally, that a normalisation of relations generally would lead to a similar normalisation of trading relations between countries at peace with each other. There were, however, already mounting concerns, within and without the government, that Napoleon had no intention of honouring the spirit of the treaty, as it was interpreted by London, and as far as the British government was concerned subsequent events indicated that its fears were well founded. French expansionist policies were to continue as if the treaty did not exist and the continent, wherever French arms were able to make it so, was to remain closed to British trade. The debate to accept the treaty opened in the House of Commons on 29 April 1802, and was marked by heated exchanges between those who considered it to be inadequate and those who were prepared to give Napoleon the benefit of the doubt. The acrimony notwithstanding, the Commons accepted the treaty, by a majority of 276 to 20 on 13 May 1802, followed in the Lords by a similarly large majority of 122 to 16. The hawks, essentially Pitt and his supporters, in both chambers of the British parliament were marginalised for the time being. The French Assembly accepted the treaty on 16 Floreal An X (5 June 1802). Thus, assuming that all parties had ratified by 5 June 1802, Britain could be expected to at least commence withdrawal from Malta in about October 1802. More Treaty of Amiens and 3rd Coalition
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On 3 February 1801 William Pitt resigned as Prime Minister, over disagreement with George III regarding Roman Catholic emancipation to which the king was implacably opposed. Pitt is frequently considered an impediment to peace but the fact is that his initial view of the Treaty of Amiens was that “it was honourable and reasonably advantageous” and until Henry Addington’s fall, he either supported his successor or was neutral.