Napoleon Crushes Prussia

This series has seven easy 5 minute installments. This first installment: Prussia Prepares for War.

Introduction
Austerlitz put an end to the “third great coalition” against France. The Russians retreated to their own country; Austria sued humbly for peace. Prussia had been threatening to join the coalition; now, bewildered by its sudden downfall, her ministers scarce knew where to turn. They signed a hurried treaty with Napoleon, yielding him some German territory and joining him in alliance against England. The English monarch’s German duchy of Hanover was thereupon handed over to Prussia.

From this moment Napoleon treated Prussia with insolence, if not contempt. Some historians have believed that he deliberately planned to force Prussia into war at this moment when she would have no allies to join her, when even England was enraged against her because of Hanover. F or a dozen years Prussia had kept carefully out of all the French wars. Her King, Frederick William III, was wisely pacific, he had even certain sympathies with the aroused French people; but there had always been a war party at Berlin headed by the heroic Queen Louise. Prussians, remembering the days of Frederick the Great (died 1786), believed themselves invincible in arms. Their King found himself forced at last into a declaration of war.

This selection is from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte by Sir Walter Scott published in 1839. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was the great Scottish writer of such novels as Ivanhoe and Rob Roy. He also wrote histories and biographies such as the one of Napoleon from where this selection comes.

Time: 1806
Place: Jena and Auerstadt

The people of Prussia at large were clamorous for war. They, too, were sensible that the late versatile conduct of their cabinet had exposed them to the censure and even the scorn of Europe and that Bonaparte, seeing the crisis ended, in which the firmness of Prussia might have preserved the balance of Europe, retained no longer any respect for those whom he had made his dupes but treated with total disregard the remonstrances, which, before the advantages obtained at Ulm and Austerlitz, he must have listened to with respect and deference.

Another circumstance of a very exasperating character took place at this time. One Palm, a bookseller at Nuremberg, had exposed to sale a pamphlet containing remarks on the conduct of Napoleon, in which the Emperor and his policy were treated with considerable severity. The bookseller was seized upon for this offence by the French gens d’annes and transferred to Braunau, where he was brought before a military commission, tried for a libel on the Emperor of France, found guilty, and shot to death in terms of his sentence. The murder of this poor man, for such it literally was, whether immediately flowing from Bonaparte’s mandate or the effect of the furious zeal of some of his officers, excited deep and general indignation.

The constitution of many of the states in Germany was despotic; but, nevertheless, the number of independent principalities, and the privileges of the free towns, have always insured to the nation at large the blessings of a free press, which, much addicted as they are to literature, the Germans value as it deserves. The cruel effort now made to fetter this unshackled expression of opinion was, of course, most unfavorable to his authority by whom it had been commanded. The thousand presses of Germany continued on every possible opportunity to dwell on the fate of Pahn; and at the distance of six or seven years from his death, it might be reckoned among the leading causes which ultimately determined the popular opinion against Napoleon. It had not less effect at the time when the crime was committed; and the eyes of all Germany were turned upon Prussia as the only member of the late Holy Roman League by which the progress of the public enemy of the liberties of Europe could be arrested in its course.

Amid the general ferment of the public mind, Alexander once more appeared in person at the court of Berlin, and, more successful than on the former occasion, prevailed on the King of Prussia at length to unsheathe his sword. The support of the powerful hosts of Russia was promised; and, defeated by the fatal field of Austerlitz in his attempt to preserve the southeast of Germany from French influence, Alexander now stood forth to assist Prussia as the Champion of the North. An attempt had indeed been made through means of D’Oubril, a Russian envoy at Paris, to obtain a general peace for Europe, in concurrence with that which Lord Lauderdale was endeavoring to negotiate on the part of Britain; but the treaty entirely miscarried.

While Prussia thus declared herself the enemy of France, it seemed to follow as a matter of course that she should become once more the friend of Britain; and, indeed, that power lost no time in manifesting an amicable disposition on her part, by recalling the order which blockaded the Prussian ports and annihilated her commerce. But the cabinet of Berlin evinced, in the moment when about to commence hostilities, the same selfish insincerity which had dictated all their previous conduct. While sufficiently desirous of obtaining British money to maintain the approaching war, they showed great reluctance to part with Hanover, an acquisition made in a manner so unworthy; and the Prussian minister, Lucchesini, did not hesitate to tell the British ambassador, Lord Morpeth, that the fate of the electorate would depend upon the event of arms.

Little good could be augured from the interposition of a power that, pretending to arm in behalf of the rights of nations, refused to part with an acquisition which she herself had made contrary to all the rules of justice and good faith. Still less was a favorable event to be hoped for when the management of the war was entrusted to the same incapable or faithless ministers who had allowed every opportunity to escape of asserting the rights of Prussia, when, perhaps, her assuming a firm attitude might have prevented the necessity of war altogether. But the resolution which had been delayed, when so many favorable occasions were suffered to escape unemployed, was at length adopted with an imprudent precipitation, which left Prussia neither time to adopt the wisest warlike measures nor to look out for those statesmen and generals by whom such measures could have been most effectually executed.

About the middle of August Prussia began to arm. Perhaps there are few examples of a war declared with the almost unanimous consent of a great and warlike people which was brought to an earlier and more unhappy termination. On October 1st Knobelsdorff, the Prussian envoy, was called upon by Talleyrand to explain the cause of the martial attitude assumed by his State. In reply a paper was delivered containing three propositions, or rather demands. First: that the French troops which had entered the German territory should instantly re-cross the Rhine. Second: that France should desist from presenting obstacles to the formation of a league in the northern part of Germany, to comprehend all the states, without exception, which had not been included in the Confederation of the Rhine. Third: that negotiations should be immediately commenced, for the purpose of detaching the fortress of Wesel from the French Empire and for the restitution of three abbeys which Murat had chosen to seize upon as a part of his Duchy of Berg.

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