The Swedish armies in the Napoleonic wars

Author: Philippe Petolon.

The Swedish and Danish armies in the Napoleonic wars.

I have always wondered why so little had been written on the involvement of the Scandinavian armies during the Napoleonic wars. A great deal has been written about a number of small nations, to include Hanover, Brunswick, the Netherlands and Nassau because of their involvement in the battle of Waterloo. The battles in which Scandinavian armies were involved never quite reached the intensity we know of Napoleonic battles. It would however be wrong to assume that they did not fight and I hope that the following lines will help demonstrate that Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway were much more than just side-shows to the European theatre of war between 1800 and 1814.

Scandinavia was divided into two powers: the kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark. Finland and Pomerania belonged to Sweden, whilst Norway was part of the Danish crown. Both Sweden and Denmark were united by the same wish: remaining independent at all costs. It was this wish to be independent and neutral that forced them into war against the greatest military powers of the world.

Denmark and Norway

Denmark remained oblivious to the changes in continental Europe and was neutral until 1801. This neutrality posed a serious problem to England and France, for Denmark had a strong navy that could potentially impact quite seriously on the outcome of a battle at sea. With France trying to suffocate England economically and England wanting to maintain its control of the sea, Denmark's neutrality was becoming a serious issue. In 1801, England forced the issue and deliberately provoked a conflict, sent its battleships towards Copenhagen and sank most of the Danish fleet. Though confronted with the largest fleet of the world, the Danes fought gallantly and lost 1,800 men in the battle, the English losing approximately half this amount.

Denmark then managed to remain neutral until 1807. But, as in 1801, England decided that it was time to intervene when Napoleon threatened to invade the small country. An army of 28,000 men landed not far from Copenhagen and, after a few bloody battles, laid siege under the capital city itself. Copenhagen was bombarded for three days and finally an armistice was agreed. This resulted in harsh terms for the losers. Over 60 ships of all sizes had to be transferred to the English, as well as everything stored in the arsenals. No less than 2,000 Danes, civilians and soldiers, died in this short campaign. The English army lost just about 200 men. This second act of war against a peaceful country pushed the Danes into the Emperorís arms: on 31st October 1807 the Danish King signed a military alliance with France and declared war on England.

During the tragic Russian campaign, the Danish army assumed the role of rear-guard and stayed in Denmark, Germany and Norway to protect the Grande ArmÈe in case of retreat. After the battle of Leipzig, the Danish army fought with great courage against Russian, Prussian and Swedish troops. After a short campaign in North Germany and Southern Denmark, the outnumbered Danes had to accept the terms of peace dictated by Bernadotte, the new King of Sweden and former general of Napoleon. Norway was lost and became an integral part of the Swedish kingdom. But this decision was not to the taste of the fiercely independent Norwegians. They proclaimed their independence, appointed their own King and prepared their tiny army to war against Sweden. Bernadotte sent an army of 30,000 Swedes and 30,000 Russians and Prussians to crush the uprising. A further 6,000 Russians were to land in Trondheim. To the contrary of what is believed and with just about 27,000 men, the Norwegians fought a series of hard battles against the invading Swedes. Finally, after a staunch resistance, all fighting ended on 29th July 1814.

Denmark thus paid the price of its alliance with France. The country was bankrupt and five-sixths of her territory had been lost. Norway had to wait for another hundred years before she would finally become independent.

Sweden

Russia and Sweden had been at odds over Finland for nearly a hundred years and the Tsar was looking at any opportunity to attack Russiaís old foe. This opportunity was given to him after the signature of the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, which made Russia an ally of France. Sweden was allied to England and became the target of Russiaís greed.

In February 1808, and army of 40,000 Russians invaded Finland. Its objective was to take Finland first and then invade Sweden itself. The only troops available to the Swedes were a hastily concentrated army of 22,000 men, mostly Fins. A series of brief encounters resulted in the Swedish army beating the Russians. Despite these small victories, and due to its losses, the Swedish army had to retreat . The Swedes concentrated their army in the South of Finland and started a series of vigorous counter-attacks, which forced the Russian to retreat.

But by the end of Summer 1808 Russian reinforcements had arrived and the Swedo-Finnish army had to retreat again. The Swedish army made a stand at the battle of Oravais and lost 2,000 dead within a few hours. Despite this victory, the Russians were unable to pursue their adversary. By then they had occupied a large part of Finland.

The fighting carried on until Winter 1808 and after sustaining a series of defeats, the Swedish agreed to negotiate. This effectively ended the campaign, but not the war. The Swedish King was determined to continue the war in Spring, when better weather and newly supplied troops could be launched against the Russians. By this time, Gustavus IV had become extremely unpopular amongst the army and his people and was forced to abdicate after a military coup. A new King was appointed by the military: Charles XIII of Sweden.

The Russians seized the opportunity and launched an attack, but were driven back by several Swedish counter-attacks. In the end, realising that they would not be able to invade Sweden without sending a large army, and faced with the prospect of fighting armed civilians, the Russians agreed to a cease-fire. On 17th September 1809 peace was concluded and Finland became part of the Russian empire.

The old King Charles XIII had no children and left the throne to Crown Prince Christian August. Christian August was Norwegian and received the support of the Swedish military because it was thought that Norway would leave Denmark and join Sweden after his accession to the throne. This would compensate for the loss of Finland. However, Prince Christian August died prematurely on 10th May 1810 whilst reviewing his troops.

With nobody to take over the vacant throne, the Swedish generals turned to Bernadotte. Though French and therefore an enemy, Bernadotte was an independent spirit who proved that he was an able and just administrator whilst in charge of Swedish prisoners of war. He was unanimously elected and became Charles XIV on 21st August 1810. Napoleon saw this as an opportunity and supported the move, for Sweden became an ally of France in its war against England.

Bernadotte however had only one objective in mind: keeping away from further conflicts until his army was reorganised and ready to either retake Finland from the Russians or invade Norway. Fighting the almighty Russian army was something the newly elected King did not look forward to. Norway became therefore the preferred choice.

In 1812 Napoleon grew tired of Sweden's reluctance to participate in military actions against England and French troops invaded Swedish Pomerania. Most of the garrisons were taken prisoners and support dwindled amongst Swedish francophiles. This aggression resulted in Bernadotte signing an alliance with Russia in April 1812, promising military support to fight France in exchange of political support for the invasion of Norway.

Thus the Swedish army marched again and took part in the 1813 campaign against France and Denmark. Bernadotte knew that his army had no chance against the well-trained French and carefully avoided any involvement of Swedish troops in major battles. This is why the Swedish army participated in a few actions against the French, but was never committed to full battle. The Swedish artillery participated actively in several battles and the army was finally committed during the last day of the battle of Leipzig. Losses during the whole campaign were therefore not excessive and culminated at Leipzig with the loss of 300 men.

This victory boosted the morale of the Swedish army which performed extremely well during the next campaigns in Denmark and Norway. The newly organised Swedes crushed their enemies with little help from Prussian or Russian troops.

This was the last time the Swedish army fought any battles.

I would like to thank Mr Christian Roth and Mrs Magdalena Lundgren from the Military Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, for helping me to collect the above information. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss the article, please write to me on e-mail address.

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