Russian blood for the salvation of "foggy Albion"
Napoleon awards the Legion of Honor to officers at the Boulogne camp. Artist: Jean-Victor Adam
Preparing for a great war
The Anglo-French War had been going on for two years already (The battle for the place of "king of the hill"). The British blockaded French ports and seized French ships sailing to the open sea. The French responded by blockading English trade on the continent. They seized Hanover, an English possession in Germany, and strengthened their positions in Germany and Italy. But this did not give either side an advantage.
In England, they feared the French landing army that was gathering at the Boulogne camp. The best French commanders—Davout, Ney, Soult, Lannes, Marmont, Augereau, and Murat—commanded the corps destined for the landing in Foggy Albion. The best officers and soldiers were gathered there. Bonaparte himself devoted exceptional attention to the preparations for the landing.
The distinguished French admiral Latouche-Tréville, who fiercely hated the British, devoted all his energy to preparing the landing operation. He reported to Napoleon that nearly 2,5 transport ships had already been prepared. Tragically, on the night of August 29, 1804, he died suddenly on his flagship. Given the skill of the British "knights of the cloak and dagger," he was likely poisoned.
What was to be done? There were two options. The first was to form a new anti-French coalition and attack France, disrupting Napoleon's landing in England. But this would take time. Austria, defeated by Napoleon, wanted revenge but feared war. Prussia hesitated. Russia was hesitant.
The negotiations took time. Months of intense diplomatic negotiations, both official and unofficial, and the use of rumors and other means were spent. The process was complex and slow.
The second option was to eliminate Bonaparte himself, like the Russian Tsar Paul. Use the French opposition, the royalists. But organizing a direct conspiracy in the Tuileries (the royal palace in central Paris) was difficult. The Guard and the new aristocracy were entirely on Bonaparte's side.
The British then deployed the royalists Georges Cadoudal (leader of the royalist peasants in Brittany) and General Charles Pichegru. The fanatical Cadoudal, who possessed immense physical strength and had survived dozens of bloody battles, was to assassinate Bonaparte with a group of his comrades. Pichegru and General Jean Moreau, Napoleon's rival who envied his success, were then to lead the army and place Louis XVIII on the French throne.
The plot failed, and all three were arrested by French police in February and March 1804. Pichegru was murdered in his cell, strangled with his own tie. Moreau was exiled from France to the United States. Cadoudal was executed. Standing before the guillotine, he cried out, "Let us die for our Lord and our King!"
Bonaparte, deeply irritated by the clandestine activities of the British and royalists, succumbed to Talleyrand's provocation and believed that the French prince Louis Antoine d'Enghien was in contact with the conspirators. He ordered the Duke of Rovigo and Caulaincourt to deal with d'Enghien. The Duke of Enghien was captured and executed in the moat of the Château de Vincennes in March 1804.
The execution of the Duke of Enghien caused a great uproar in the monarchical courts and hastened the formation of the Third Anti-French Coalition. As a result, the British achieved their goal, once again undermining peace in Europe.
"The Duke of Enghien in the Moat of the Château de Vincennes" by Jean-Paul Laurens
Third Coalition
The head of the British government, William Pitt, not counting millions of gold pounds sterling, was creating a new anti-French coalition.
Vienna was thirsty for revenge. Bonaparte had acted like a master in Western and Southern Germany, as well as in Italy, destroying the Austrian Empire's sphere of influence. Without it, Austria was becoming a second-rate power. It also presented an opportunity to fight for British gold.
Almost simultaneously with secret negotiations with the Austrians, the British were seeking an alliance with Russia.
Napoleon knew Britain was seeking an alliance with Austria and Russia. "If Austria intervenes, it will mean that England will force us to conquer Europe," he declared to Talleyrand. Bonaparte was unable to disrupt the anti-French coalition through diplomatic means. He had the opportunity to find common ground with Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Perhaps he wanted to settle the matter once and for all on the battlefield.
As the Russian historian Albert Manfred noted, Napoleon “was again playing a risky game, a game on the edge of a knife, where victory and defeat were separated from each other by the thinnest of lines.”
From 1804 until the summer of 1805, he hoped to resolve all the problems of European politics with a single blow—by defeating Britain. In the autumn of 1805, his primary target became the Austrian Empire.
Upon ascending the throne, Russian Emperor Alexander Pavlovich thwarted the creation of a St. Petersburg-Paris axis (involving Berlin), which could have doomed the project of a global British Empire. He relied on the aristocratic, noble, and merchant parties, which oriented themselves toward an alliance with the German royal courts and England. Britain was then Russia's main trading partner, purchasing agricultural raw materials.
Britain was also backed by the emperor's "friends" from the Secret Committee—Novosiltsev, Czartoryski, and others. Personality also played a role. Alexander believed Bonaparte had insulted him by hinting at his involvement in the conspiracy and murder of his father.
Thus, Russia and France had no fundamental contradictions, historical, territorial or economic disputes. Strategically, Russia benefited from the intra-European confrontation along the lines of Paris-London, Paris-Vienna, and Berlin. We could focus on our internal affairs (Siberia, the Far East, Russian America), resolve the problems of the Caucasus and Turkestan, and transform the Black Sea into a "Russian lake," completing the work of Catherine the Great: the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and Constantinople-Tsargrad. Complete the reunification of the Russian lands by returning Galician and Carpathian Rus' (formerly part of Austria) when France defeated the Habsburg Empire.
However, Alexander succumbed to personal emotions, determined to defeat the "Corsican monster" and "liberate Europe" from French oppression. As a result, Britain gained control of Russian "cannon fodder."
At the same time, the political moment seemed opportune. Britain would provide the gold. France was opposed by England (with its finances and dominance of the seas and maritime communications), Austria, the Kingdom of Naples, and Prussia, which was deeply concerned about Bonaparte's arbitrary actions in Western Germany. Napoleon lacked the strength and resources to deal with such a powerful alliance.
Napoleon crowned King of Italy on May 26, 1805, in Milan. Italian artist Andrea Appiani.
Treaty of St. Petersburg
On March 30 (April 11), 1805, an alliance between Russia and England was signed in St. Petersburg, laying the foundation for the Third Coalition. The parties pledged to include Austria, Prussia, and other European powers in the alliance. By secret clause, both countries pledged to assist in the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty to the French throne and the House of Orange in the Netherlands.
The Allies planned to assemble a 500-strong army. Austria was to contribute 250 soldiers, and Russia 115. Britain pledged to assist the coalition with its fleet and provide the allied powers with a cash subsidy of 1,250,000 pounds sterling annually for every 100,000 men. The Russian government also pledged to deploy observation corps (from the Latin observetio, onis—observation, i.e., observational, auxiliary) to the borders of Prussia and Austria. Later, Alexander I agreed to increase the Russian force to 180,000 men with a corresponding increase in British subsidies (additional clause signed on May 10 (22), 1805).
Meanwhile, Napoleon continued to prepare for his landing in England. He strengthened his position in Italy, annexing Piedmont, Lucca, and Genoa. General Saint-Cyr occupied Otranto, Taranto, and Brindisi, capturing key points in southern Italy. The French thus threatened the Ionian Islands and Egypt, drawing England's attention to the Mediterranean.
On March 17, 1805, the Kingdom of Italy was created from the vassal Italian Republic, of which Napoleon was president. In May, Bonaparte was crowned with the ancient Iron Crown of the Lombards in Milan, and his stepson, Eugene de Beauharnais, assumed the title of Viceroy of Italy.
This pushed Austria, still hesitant, toward an alliance with Russia and England. On July 29 (August 8), 1805, Vienna issued a special declaration announcing its accession to the Russo-English agreement.
One of Alexander I's closest associates in the early years of his reign, a member of the so-called "Secret Committee," an Anglophile, and one of the authors of the Treaty of St. Petersburg, Nikolai Novosiltsev (1761–1838). Portrait by S. S. Shchukin
The emergence of the "Great Army"
In the spring and summer of 1805, Napoleon still believed in the invasion of England, which would cut all the tangled Gordian knots and contradictions. French troops in London were the surest way to stop a major war in Europe. The Emperor declared to his admirals that he needed not three, but two days, even just one day of calm on the English Channel, to land in England. Bonaparte wrote: "For six hours we will be masters of the world." A landing in England—and all the problems of world politics would be solved.
However, the clouds were gathering. The new fleet commander, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, was unable to unite the disparate forces of the French fleet and relieve Brest, blockaded by the British. The Franco-Spanish fleet was blockaded in Cadiz, Spain.
Napoleon, who had repeatedly delayed the landing operation, traveled to the Boulogne camp in August 1805 to personally supervise the "leap across the sea." Initially, he was pleased with the preparations for the operation. Then the situation changed. Villeneuve's eagerly awaited fleet never arrived. By the second half of August, it became clear that Villeneuve had been unable to leave Cadiz and enter the English Channel.
Meanwhile, news was coming from Europe that a grave danger was threatening eastern France. The Third Coalition had mobilized over half a million bayonets and sabres. Russian corps had moved to join the Austrians, and the Austrians were ready to attack in Bavaria and Italy.
Napoleon decided to march against Austria. On August 29, 1805, the 180-strong "Army of England" was renamed the "Grand Army." Seven corps were led by Bernadotte, Marmont, Davout, Soult, Lannes, Ney, and Augereau, the cavalry by Murat, and the Guard by Bessières.
This was the end of the Boulogne camp, two years of preparations for the landing in England. Napoleon said, "If I'm not in London in 15 days, I must be in Vienna by mid-November." London was saved, finding cannon fodder for the war with France and the struggle for European and global dominance. And Vienna, like many thousands of Russian soldiers, had to pay for it.
Bonaparte spent several hours dictating the dispositions for the new campaign. Orders flew in all directions regarding new recruits for the reserves and about supplying the army during its march across France and Bavaria to meet the enemy. Couriers rushed to Berlin, Madrid, Dresden, and Amsterdam with new diplomatic instructions.
In a few days, taking advantage of the well-organized military organization created for the invasion of England, Napoleon raised the enormous Boulogne camp and formed the army into marching order, reinforced it with new units and moved from the shores of the English Channel across the whole of France to his allied Bavaria.
The Emperor decided to defeat the enemy piecemeal, first Mack's Austrian army. Napoleon's army advanced rapidly, outflanking the Austrian forces on the Danube from the north, whose left flank was the fortress of Ulm.
The French corps began moving on August 27, and by September 25, the French had deployed on the Rhine, having covered 490 miles (from Boulogne) in 28 days. Bonaparte acted swiftly and decisively, not giving the enemy time to recover and retaliate.
To be continued ...
Information