The Anglo-Swedish Alliance Against Napoleonic France

This new study by Christer Jorgensen addresses a much neglected field of study in the history of Scandinavia and the greater Baltic region during the Napoleonic Age. The book concentrates upon relations and the alliance between Britain and Sweden during the middle years of the war; years that encompassed the Austerlitz campaign, the complicated diplomatic talks between the allies, Russia's abandonment of the allied cause at Tilsit (1807), the Russo-Swedish War (1808-09) that decided the fate of Finland, the capitulation of the Gibraltar of the North, and finally the turbulent politics of Sweden during and after the coup of March 1809. During the eighteenth century the Baltic, dominated by the northern powers, was an area of great economic and strategic importance. Britain had much at stake since the Baltic kept Britain's navy afloat and its population fed. In relation to Sweden, Britain's policy oscillated from outright hostility - as during the League of Armed Neutrality (1800-1) - to the alliance that began with the Austerlitz campaign in the autumn of 1805 and ended with a palace coup in March 1809. Britain's policies in the Baltic and the alliance with Sweden were part and parcel of their global reach and worldwide commitments. Once a great power herself, by the early nineteenth century Sweden was much reduced in military strength and political power. King Gustavus IV, like his father, believed passionately in Sweden's role in European politics - and as a member of the anti-French coalition. Sweden's security depended, as with Britain, upon maintaining the balance of power in Europe and that required the removal of Napoleon from power. The Swedish king's ministers viewed his policies with a mixture of distaste and fear. They wanted Sweden to remain neutral at all costs. The king's military officers did not want neutrality but favoured, like Gustavus IV, an active foreign policy in alliance with France. The king's alliance with Britain and the subsequent war against France brought the long struggle between the absolutist Swedish king and his discontented nobility to a head-on collision by 1809. The Anglo-Swedish Alliance against Napoleonic France fills a significant gap in the literature of the Napoleonic age by exploring this developing alliance and the dramatic events which shaped it Front Matter....Pages i-xxii The Legacy: Anglo-Swedish Relations during the Eighteenth Century....Pages 1-17 The Road to War: The Creation of the Common Cause against Napoleon, March 1804–October 1805....Pages 18-40 The Great Offensive: The Campaign of the Third Coalition, October 1805–February 1806....Pages 41-53 Phoney War, Phoney Peace: The Anglo-Swedish ‘War’ with Prussia and the Anglo-Russian Peace Negotiations with Napoleon, February–September 1806....Pages 54-74 The Watershed: Napoleon’s Campaigns against Prussia and Russia, October 1806–March 1807....Pages 75-89 The Beginning of the End: Tilsit, the Battle of Copenhagen, the Franco-Russian ‘Continental’ Coalition against Britain and Invasion Plans against Sweden, March 1807–March 1808....Pages 90-125 Peninsular Priorities: The Anti-Climax of the Common Cause, the Futile Expedition, the Peninsular Campaign and the Finnish Front, February–September 1808....Pages 126-152 Endgame: The Decline and Fall of the Common Cause, October 1808–March 1809....Pages 153-170 The Twilight Era: The End of the Common Cause and the Shadow Alliance between Sweden and Britain, March 1809–October 1810....Pages 171-186 Conclusion....Pages 187-193 Back Matter....Pages 194-250 "Once a great power herself, by the early nineteenth century Sweden was much reduced in military strength and political power. King Gustavus IV, like his father, believed passionately in Sweden's role in European politics - and as a member of the anti-French coalition. Sweden's security depended, as with Britain, upon maintaining the balance of power in Europe and that required the removal of Napoleon from power. The Swedish king's ministers viewed his policies with a mixture of distaste and fear. They wanted Sweden to remain neutral at all costs. The king's military officers did not want neutrality but favoured, like Gustavus IV, an active foreign policy in alliance with France. The king's alliance with Britain and the subsequent war against France brought the long struggle between the absolutist Swedish king and his discontented nobility to a head-on collision by 1809." "The Anglo-Swedish Alliance against Napoleonic France fills a significant gap in the literature of the Napoleonic age by exploring this developing alliance and the dramatic events which shaped it."--Jacket