War of the Third Coalition

• 1. Coalition Formation And Prelude

  ›

  In March 1802, hostilities between France and the Allies came to an end. However it was clear to the leading European politicians that the peace treaties of Lunéville and Amiens were not a lasting solution. Tensions between Napoleon-ruled France and the United Kingdom had been rising again since the second half of 1802. The fact that Napoleon played an active role in the Caribbean contributed to this rise in tension. There were also indications that he was once again interested in Egypt and the Middle East. Reports in French newspapers claimed 10,000 men would be enough to reconquer Egypt.

  Napoleon increased his influence when he transformed the Cisalpine Republic into the Italian Republic and made himself president. He annexed Piedmont to France. Contrary to the peace treaty of Amiens, the French army was not withdrawn from the Netherlands. Instead, the Batavian Republic was given a new constitution based on the French model. The Helvetic Republic was also closely dependent on France. Napoleon had given the country a new federalist constitution with the Act of Mediation. At the same time, the country had to bind itself politically to France for fifty years.

  The peace treaty stipulated that the United Kingdom was to return all conquered territories except Ceylon and Trinidad to their respective previous owners. Minorca went to Spain and Malta to the Order of St. John. In return, France was to leave Egypt and Naples and guarantee the independence of Portugal and the Ionian Islands. In order to prevent Napoleon from advancing further into the Levant, it was necessary for the United Kingdom to keep Malta and a fleet in the Mediterranean. Russia's interest in Malta offered Napoleon an ideal opportunity for a war in which he hoped to play Britain and Russia off against each other. Napoleon indirectly threatened war on the 13th of March 1803 when he criticized Britain's refusal to fully implement the terms of the Treaty of Amiens to British ambassador Lord Whitworth. Whitworth returned to London and shortly afterwards, on May 18, the United Kingdom declared war on France.

• 2. Ulm Campaign Strategy

  ›

  In August 1805, Napoleon turned his army's sights from the English Channel to the Rhine to deal with the new Austrian and Russian threats. The War of the Third Coalition began with the Ulm Campaign, a series of French and Bavarian military manoeuvres designed to outflank an Austrian army under General Mack. General Mack thought that Austrian security relied on sealing off the gaps through the mountainous Black Forest area. He believed there would be no action in Central Germany. Mack decided to make the city of Ulm the centrepiece of his defensive strategy. This called for containment of the French until the Russians under Mikhail Kutuzov could arrive.

  Fatally, the Aulic Council decided to make Northern Italy the main theatre of operations for the Austrian army. Archduke Charles was assigned 95,000 troops and directed to cross the Adige river. Archduke John was given 23,000 troops and commanded to secure Tyrol while serving as a link between his brother and cousin. The latter's force of 72,000 was effectively controlled by Mack. The Austrians also detached individual corps to serve with the Swedish in Pomerania and the British in Naples.

  Meanwhile, Marshal Murat conducted cavalry screens across the Black Forest to fool the Austrians into thinking that the French were advancing on a direct west, east axis. The main attack in Germany would be supported by French assaults in other theatres. Marshal Masséna confronted Archduke Charles in Italy with 50,000 men. Marshal St. Cyr marched to Naples with 20,000 men. Marshal Brune patrolled Boulogne with 30,000 troops against a possible British invasion. On the 22nd of September, Mack decided to hold the Iller line anchored on Ulm. In the last three days of September, the French began the furious marches that would find them at the Austrian rear.

• 3. Trafalgar Naval Dominance

  ›

  Britain had already been at war with France following the breakdown of the Peace of Amiens and remained the only country still at war with France after the Treaty of Pressburg. From 1803 to 1805, Britain was under constant threat of a French invasion. The Royal Navy assured its naval dominance at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805. This battle took place off the coast of Spain.

  The main body of the French fleet followed the remains of the Austrian army towards Vienna. Following the failure of the Austrian army at Ulm, a Russian army under General Mikhail Kutuzov was also withdrawing east. They reached the Ill river on the 22nd of October where it joined with Kienmayer's retreating corps. On the 5th of November, they held a successful rearguard action in Amstetten. On the 7th of November, the Russians arrived in St. Pölten and then moved across the Danube river the next day. Late on the 9th of November, they destroyed the bridges across the Danube, holding the last one at Stein near Krems until the late afternoon.

  At the Battle of Dürenstein, three Russian columns circled around the First Division of the Corps Mortier and attacked Gazan from both the front and the rear. Not until Dupont's division arrived, after dark, was Gazan able to start to evacuate his soldiers to the other side of the Danube. Gazan lost close to 40 percent of his division. In addition, 47 officers and 895 men were captured. He lost five guns as well as the eagles of the 4th Infantry Regiment and the eagle and guidon of the 4th Dragoons. The Russians also lost around 4,000 men.

• 4. Austerlitz Decisive Land Victory

  ›

  After Hollabrunn, the armies gathered on the plains to the east of Brünn. Napoleon could muster some 75,000 men and 157 guns for the impending battle. About 7,000 troops under Davout were still far to the south in the direction of Vienna. The Allies had about 73,000 soldiers, seventy percent of them Russian, and 318 guns. On the 1st of December, both sides occupied their main positions.

  The centerpiece of the entire area were the Pratzen Heights, a gently sloped hill about 260 feet in height. An aide noted that the Emperor repeatedly told his Marshals, "Gentlemen, examine this ground carefully, it is going to be a battlefield; you will have a part to play upon it." Around 8:45 a.m., finally satisfied at the weakness in the enemy centre, Napoleon asked Soult how long it would take for his men to reach the Pratzen Heights. The Marshal replied, "Less than twenty minutes, sire." About 15 minutes later, Napoleon ordered the attack, adding, "One sharp blow and the war is over."

  A dense fog helped to cloud the advance of St. Hilaire's division. As they went up the slope the legendary 'Sun of Austerlitz' ripped the mist apart and encouraged them forward. Russian soldiers and commanders on top of the heights were stunned to see so many French troops coming towards them. Allied commanders were now able to feed some of the delayed detachments of the fourth column into this bitter struggle. Over an hour of horrendous fighting left much of this unit decimated beyond recognition.

• 5. Italian Theater And Neapolitan Invasion

  ›

  Meanwhile, in Italy, the Austrian Armee von Italien under Archduke Charles fought against the French Armée d'Italie under Marshal Masséna. The French managed to gain a bridgehead over the Adige river at Verona on the 18th of October. Finally, between 29 and the 31st of October, the outnumbered French defeated the superior Austrian army in the Battle of Caldiero. In November the Austrians retreated, engaging the French vanguard of d'Espagne in several rear-guard actions.

  On the 9th of February 1806, Masséna invaded the Kingdom of Naples and two days later, the Bourbon King of Naples, Ferdinand IV also fled to Sicily, protected by the British fleet. Naples soon fell into French hands and by the end of February, only two places in the kingdom still held out. One was the fortress city of Gaeta, north of Naples, and the other was Calabria in the very south of Italy. On the 3rd of March, General Jean Reynier, who commanded the 10,000 strong II Corps of the Army of Naples, invaded Calabria.

  Only a few Calabrians resisted the invading French force and the Royal Neapolitan Army was soundly defeated at the Battle of Campo Tenese on the 10th of March 1806. Ferdinand now had no choice but to concede the Neapolitan throne to the French. A day after Campo Tenese, Joseph was installed as the new King of Naples. By now, the last regular troops of the Neapolitan army had fled to Sicily and the French controlled the entire Italian mainland except for the fortress of Gaeta.

• 6. Treaty Of Pressburg And Political Restructuring

  ›

  France and Austria signed a truce on the 4th of December and the Treaty of Pressburg 22 days later took the latter out of the war. Austria agreed to recognize French territory captured by the treaties of Campo Formio and Lunéville. They ceded land to Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden, which were Napoleon's German allies. The treaty imposed an indemnity of 40 million francs on the defeated Habsburgs. Venetia was also given to the Kingdom of Italy.

  In July 1806, Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, a string of German client states. These states pledged themselves to raise an army of 63,000 men. With Napoleon as their "Protector", the confederate states were compelled to leave the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was dissolved shortly afterward. Prussia saw these and other moves as an affront to its status as the main power of Central Europe and it went to war with France in 1806.

  On the 26th of December 1805, Austria and France signed the Treaty of Pressburg. It confirmed the Austrian cession of lands in Italy to France and in Germany to Napoleon's German allies. The treaty allowed the defeated Russian troops free passage through hostile territories and back to their home soil. Victory at Austerlitz prompted Napoleon to create the Confederation of the Rhine. As a direct consequence of those events, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist when, in 1806, Francis II abdicated the Imperial throne.