War of the Fifth Coalition

• 1. Introduction

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  The War of the Fifth Coalition began not with a formal declaration but with a terse note. On the 9th of April 1809, Archduke Charles of Austria sent a written message to French Marshal Lefebvre informing him that the Austrian army had orders to invade Bavaria. The next morning, before sunrise, Austrian troops crossed the Inn River. No war had been declared.

  What followed was a conflict that would strain two of the greatest armies in Europe to their limits. Napoleon, the dominant force on the continent, would suffer the first major defeat of his military career. Austria, rebuilt and hopeful after years of humiliation, would find that battlefield courage alone could not compensate for the structural flaws baked into its institutions. The war would end with a signed treaty, a dynastic marriage, and a set of consequences neither side fully anticipated.

  The questions at the heart of this story are not only about who won or lost. They are about why Austria chose this moment to strike, how Napoleon's army was beginning to show the cracks that would widen in the years ahead, and what the battles of 1809 revealed about the future of European warfare itself.

• 2. Why Austria Gambled

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  Johann Philipp Stadion, the Austrian foreign minister, was the architect of the decision to go to war in 1809. He had watched Napoleon dismantle the old European order piece by piece. By early 1809, Stadion had persuaded Emperor Francis I that only armed confrontation could halt the erosion of Habsburg power.

  The timing was not random. France had withdrawn 108,000 troops from Germany in October 1808 to reinforce its armies in Spain, removing more than half of its strength in the region. Austria had spent three years rebuilding after its crushing defeat in 1805. Stadion read the situation as a narrow window.

  Russia, Austria's main ally in the 1805 campaign, had made peace with Napoleon at Tilsit and was now engaged in wars on other fronts. Stadion sent Klemens von Metternich, his ambassador in Paris, home to rally support at court. By December 1808, Francis was persuaded. The final decision was made at an the 8th of February 1809 meeting attended by the emperor, Archduke Charles, and Stadion himself.

  Charles disputed the war's prospects but accepted the emperor's decision. The empire's finances added urgency: Austria could only afford to sustain its army on home soil until late spring, which meant that if war was coming, it had to come soon. Prussia, another potential partner, had been effectively neutralised. A letter from Prussian minister Baron von Stein discussing the negotiations was intercepted by French agents and published in the Le Moniteur Universel on the 8th of September 1808. Napoleon confiscated Stein's holdings and pressured Frederick William III to dismiss him. The resulting Convention of Paris limited the Prussian Army to 42,000 men, one sixth of its pre-war total, and tied repayment of 140 million francs in reparations to a 30-month schedule. Prussia chose neutrality.

  Britain agreed to fund the effort. Austria received 250,000 pounds in silver upfront, with a further one million pounds promised for future expenses. Britain declined to land troops in Germany but committed to an expedition in the low countries and renewed fighting in Spain. The Fifth Coalition was, in practice, Austria carrying the war almost alone on land.

• 3. An Army Built on Paper

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  Austria assembled the largest army in its history for the 1809 campaign, but the quality of that force was undermined at almost every level. Archduke Charles had carried out genuine reforms, but those reforms were incomplete when war arrived.

  Conscription pulled men from across the empire: Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Croats, and Serbs. Some, including the Hungarians, had little enthusiasm for their Habsburg rulers. Most private soldiers, the majority of non-commissioned officers, and many junior officers were illiterate. The army trained in massed column formations that were strong against cavalry but exposed to artillery fire.

  The regular infantry were considered too slow to be trained in skirmishing, a role that had traditionally belonged to the grenzer light infantry units. Their quality had declined since conflicts with the Ottoman Empire ended. Volunteer jäger units only partly filled the gap. The Landwehr militia, intended for home defence, were pressed into field service with second-rate weapons and poor leadership, forbidden by regulation from drawing officers from the landowning classes. Later in the campaign they were used to draw French fire.

  Senior officers were appointed by aristocratic background and seniority rather than ability. The average age of the generals was 63. Charles could not dismiss any of them. He had published a tactical guide in 1806 and expected his commanders to follow it, favouring doctrine over flexibility.

  The artillery lacked the horse artillery needed to manoeuvre quickly and was subordinated to infantry commanders in the field. The cavalry, though reasonably capable, was hampered in 1809 by large numbers of horses that were only partly trained. A large wagon train required to supply the army further slowed its movements.

  Charles and the Aulic Council could not even agree on the strategy. Charles preferred an offensive from Bohemia, which would isolate French forces in northern Germany. The Council argued that the Danube would split the army and insisted the main attack come south of the river. The Council prevailed, but the dispute delayed Austrian preparations by a month. Historian Steven Englund later wrote that Austria might well have won the campaign if the nation had concentrated its forces in Germany.

• 4. Five Days That Decided the Opening

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  Napoleon arrived in Donauörth on the 17th of April, a week after Austrian forces had crossed into Bavaria, and found his army in a precarious state. His field commander Louis-Alexandre Berthier, better suited to staff duties than battlefield command, had misread Napoleon's instructions. He had ordered three corps to march toward Regensburg, leaving the Armée d'Allemagne with its two wings separated by 75 miles, joined by a thin line of Bavarian troops.

  The Austrians had a good crossing over the Isar River and were pressing Davout's isolated corps with roughly five corps totalling 80,000 men. Napoleon had estimated Charles had only a single corps across the river. When Napoleon took command he ordered the entire French army to deploy behind the Ilm River within 48 hours, a demand his own officers described as unrealistic.

  Davout's III Corps held its ground against odds. On the 19th of April, Austrian columns moving north ran into four columns of Davout's men heading west near Neustadt. The Austrian attacks were slow and uncoordinated, and the experienced French corps repulsed them without difficulty. Meanwhile Napoleon devised what became known as the Landshut Maneuver: André Masséna's corps, augmented by Oudinot's forces, would drive southeast toward Landshut to threaten the Austrian flank while Davout and Lefebvre pinned the main Austrian body.

  By the 20th of April, the Austrians had suffered 10,000 casualties, lost 30 guns, 600 caissons, and 7,000 vehicles, yet remained a fighting force. The French position was still fragile. Charles held the bridge at Regensburg and the road to Vienna as an avenue of retreat. On the 21st, Napoleon received a dispatch from Davout reporting the Battle of Teugen-Hausen, where roughly 36,000 French troops had fought 75,000 Austrians.

  The following day, Napoleon arrived at the Battle of Eckmühl at 1:30 pm as fighting was already under way. Davout ordered attacks along his entire line despite being outnumbered. The 10th Light Infantry Regiment stormed the village of Leuchling and captured the nearby woods with heavy casualties. Recognising the threat on his left flank, Charles ordered a withdrawal toward Regensburg, ceding the field. Marshal Jean Lannes then stormed the fortress walls at Regensburg and captured the town by 5:00 pm, allowing Napoleon to march on Vienna.

• 5. Aspern-Essling

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  Charles reached the Marchfeld, a plain northeast of Vienna that served as an Austrian military training ground, on the 16th and the 17th of May. He kept his army several miles from the riverbank, intending to concentrate at whatever point Napoleon chose to cross the Danube. On the 20th, observers on Bissam hill reported that the French were building a bridge at Kaiserebersdorf, southwest of Lobau island.

  Charles ordered an advance on the 21st of May with 98,000 troops and 292 guns organised into five columns. The French bridgehead rested on two villages: Aspern to the west and Essling to the east. Napoleon had not anticipated serious resistance. The bridges connecting his troops at Aspern-Essling to Lobau island were unprotected by palisades, leaving them vulnerable to Austrian barges that were set ablaze and sent downriver.

  The Battle of Aspern-Essling opened at 2:30 pm on the 21st. The first three Austrian columns attacked Aspern and the Gemeinde Au woods, but their assaults were poorly coordinated and failed. Later attacks succeeded in capturing the western portion of Aspern. The fourth and fifth columns, with longer marching routes, did not reach Essling until 6:00 pm; French defenders repulsed them throughout the day.

  Fighting resumed at 3 am on the 22nd. By 7 am the French had retaken Aspern. Napoleon had 71,000 men and 152 guns across the river but was still outnumbered. He launched a massive assault on the Austrian center to buy time for the III Corps to cross. Lannes advanced with three infantry divisions and had marched for about a mile before Archduke Charles personally rode to the Zach Infantry Regiment to rally it. The Austrians opened a devastating fire and the French fell back.

  At 9:00 am the French bridge broke again. Charles launched another assault an hour later, eventually seizing Aspern for the final time. At Essling, the Austrians took everything except the granary, which held. Napoleon ordered Jean Rapp to cover a withdrawal from the granary; Rapp disobeyed and led a bayonet charge that cleared the Austrians from Essling, for which Napoleon later commended him. The bridge could not be repaired and Napoleon ordered a withdrawal to Lobau, burning the pontoon bridge behind his troops.

  Lannes, given command of the rearguard, was struck by a cannonball and mortally wounded. He became the first of Napoleon's marshals to die in battle. Charles had dealt Napoleon the first major defeat of his career, but his exhausted army lacked the strength to pursue.

• 6. Wagram and Its Limits

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  Napoleon spent more than six weeks after Aspern-Essling preparing a second crossing. He brought more troops, more guns, and protective measures against floating fire ships. From the 30th of June through the early days of July, more than 188,000 French troops crossed the Danube and advanced across the Marchfeld toward the Austrian position centred on the village of Wagram. The Austrian army numbered around 145,000 men.

  Napoleon ordered a general advance at noon on the 5th of July. Masséna captured the villages of Leopold and Süssenbrunn on the left flank, but the Austrians held firm elsewhere. For the second day, Charles planned a double envelopment that depended on his brother Archduke John arriving quickly from a position a few kilometres east of the battlefield.

  The fighting on the 6th opened at 4:00 am when Klenau's VI Corps and Kollowrat's III Corps drove the French from both Aspern and Essling. Then Bernadotte unilaterally withdrew his troops from the central village of Aderklaa, citing heavy artillery fire, and compromised the entire French line. Napoleon was furious and sent two of Masséna's divisions supported by cavalry to retake the village. The fighting was brutal; Masséna's reserve division under Molitor eventually captured Aderklaa, only to lose it again to Austrian counterattacks.

  To delay the Austrian army while Davout's corps worked against their left flank, Napoleon sent 4,000 cuirassiers under Nansouty forward and assembled a 112-gun grand battery in the center of his line. He then formed three small divisions under MacDonald into a hollow oblong formation and sent it marching against the Austrian center. Austrian artillery devastated the formation but it broke through. With the Austrian left weakened by the need to reinforce against Davout, Oudinot captured Wagram and split the Austrian army. Charles, learning his brother would not arrive until evening, ordered a withdrawal at 2:30 pm.

  French losses stood at around 32,000 men; roughly 40 French generals were killed or wounded. Austrian losses were around 35,000. The Austrians withdrew in good order, the main army westward and the left wing northward. Fighting resumed at Znaim on the 10th and the 11th of July, and on the 12th Charles signed the Armistice of Znaim. Historian Steven Englund wrote that the war was characterised by "magnitude and maneuver more than before" and that "the decisive factor was attrition, more than dramatic one (or two) day pitched battles."

• 7. Other Theatres

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  While the main campaign played out along the Danube, 1809 was also a war of peripheral theatres that tested French control across the continent. In Italy, Napoleon's stepson Eugène de Beauharnais faced Archduke John. After John held the French off at the Battle of Sacile in April, forcing Eugène back to Verona and the Adige river, the situation reversed. John's army was defeated at the Battle of Piave River on the 8th of May and driven out of Italy entirely. Eugène pursued John into Hungary and dealt him a heavy defeat at the Battle of Raab before joining Napoleon at Vienna.

  The British launched the Walcheren Campaign in July 1809 with more than 39,000 troops under John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, described in the source as the largest British Expeditionary Force of the Napoleonic Wars. The objective was to land at Walcheren, advance up the Western Scheldt, and capture the French naval base at Antwerp. Siege batteries were not in place until the 13th of August, and Flushing did not surrender until the 16th of August. By then, disease had already decided the campaign. Walcheren Fever, believed to be a combination of malaria and typhus, killed 4,000 men; only 106 were killed in action. By the 24th of August Chatham concluded his force was too diminished to assault Antwerp. British troops began withdrawing on the 7th of September, though a garrison remained until the 9th of December. The campaign's failure led to the resignation of British prime minister the Duke of Portland and his replacement by Spencer Perceval.

  In the Duchy of Warsaw, Austrian forces initially succeeded, defeating Poniatowski's army at the Battle of Raszyn on the 19th of April and occupying Warsaw four days later, with the occupation lasting until the 1st of June. Russia, bound by treaty to France, entered the conflict reluctantly. General Sergei Golitsyn crossed into Galicia on the 3rd of June with instructions to advance slowly and avoid major confrontations. A letter from Russian divisional commander General Andrei Gorchakov to Archduke Ferdinand was intercepted by the Poles and forwarded to both Napoleon and Tsar Alexander. Alexander removed Gorchakov from command. The Austro-Polish theatre ended with Russia receiving the Galician district of Tarnopol under the eventual treaty.

  At sea, the British navy had been blockading French warships since its victories in the Trafalgar and Atlantic campaigns. In February 1809, a storm scattered the British fleet under Vice-admiral James Gambier, allowing the French Atlantic Squadron under Counter-Admiral Willaumez to anchor in the Basque Roads. Captain Thomas Cochrane was sent to lead an attack and on the 11th of April his fire ships spread chaos through the French fleet, driving many vessels aground. Gambier failed to follow up with his main fleet, but Cochrane's smaller force destroyed three French ships of the line and a frigate; a fourth was scuttled.

• 8. Rebellions and Aftermath

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  The Treaty of Schönbrunn, signed on the 14th of October 1809, stripped Austria of its Mediterranean ports and roughly 20% of its population. The empire lost Carinthia, Carniola, and its Adriatic coastline. West Galicia went to the Duchy of Warsaw. The Duchy of Salzburg, which Austria had acquired as compensation for earlier losses, was transferred to Bavaria. Emperor Francis agreed to pay an indemnity equivalent to almost 85 million francs, recognised Napoleon's brother Joseph as King of Spain, and reaffirmed the exclusion of British trade from his remaining territories.

  Beyond the treaty, the war produced a series of uprisings that outlasted the fighting. In Tyrol, Andreas Hofer led a rebellion against Bavarian and French rule that produced early victories at the Battles of Bergisel and temporarily freed the region from Bavarian occupation by late August. An Italian force under Luigi Gaspare Peyri captured Trento on the 29th of September but could advance no further. The following month, a Bavarian force under Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon supported by Franco-Italian troops conducted a three-pronged assault with 45,000 troops that occupied the region by early November. Hofer went into hiding but was betrayed by one of his men in January 1810 and executed by the French.

  In Veneto, Archduke John's proclamations in April 1809 calling for Italian nationalist uprising produced a revolt that spread after Austrian forces withdrew in May. The rebellion ended in November 1809. Napoleon responded by sending 4,000 troops to Bologna from Naples; 675 citizens were arrested, of whom 150 were killed. In Gottschee, the ethnic German population known as the Gottscheers, led by Johann Erker, rebelled against the French garrison. They were quickly defeated, and the French intended to burn the city of Gottschee. After petitions from local clergy, the burning was cancelled, but the city was looted for three days beginning the 16th of October.

  The most striking act of individual defiance came a few days before the treaty was signed: an 18-year-old German named Friedrich Staps approached Napoleon during an army review and attempted to stab the emperor. General Rapp intercepted him. The incident was one marker of a broader sentiment. Historian Steven Englund described the conflict as "the first modern war" for its deployment of symmetrical conscript armies of very large size, divided into corps and commanding decentralised across multiple theatres. The Battle of Aspern-Essling was warmly received across much of Europe as proof that Napoleon could be beaten. Napoleon married Archduke Francis's daughter Marie Louise after the treaty, hoping the union would anchor a Franco-Austrian alliance, but Francis declared war on France again in 1813.