long-standing Russian desire to be a major diplomatic player in Europe;
some said Alexander inherited an acute inferiority complex about the
West. The murder of d'Enghien in I804 finally tipped the balance against
Napoleon, for Alexander considered it a personal affront: he had set
himself up as self-appointed leader and spokesman for Europe's crowned
heads. The British cunningly encouraged the Czar to shift his Mediterra
nean interest towards Italy, the Levant and modern Yugoslavia, which
Napoleon regarded as his sphere of influence and where he was unwilling
to make concessions. And money finally did the trick: Alexander could
not resist the financial deal struck with Britain, whereby Russia received
£I ,2 so,ooo a year for every I oo,ooo troops she put in the field.
Since the Third Coalition would start a process whereby Russia
became virtually supreme arbiter in Europe by I8IS, and since Napoleon
is often facilely bracketed with Hitler, it is worth dwelling on the
geopolitics of all this and separating fact from propaganda. Napoleon's
foolish intransigence and his desire to have a finger in every pie in I8os
was rightly condemned by Talleyrand, who saw where it would all lead.
But we should also be aware of the humbug and hypocrisy in the Third
Coalition. Why was a simple demand like 'natural frontiers' by France
regarded as unacceptable by Britain yet Russian meddling in the
Mediterranean was justified? Why was Russian seizure of Corfu as a pis
aller for Malta not portrayed as warmongering by a British press always
so eager to detect all such manifestations. Horror was expressed when
Russia made itself a European power in I945 but the prospect was viewed
with complacency in I80S-I5. Special pleading was never seen to such
good effect as in the justifications by Britain for Russian expansionism
after I8os.
By April I8os British diplomacy had smoothed away Russian distrust
of London's intentions in the eastern Mediterranean and, after extremely
difficult negotiations between Pitt (who had returned to office in I803)
and Novosiltsov, an Anglo-Russian alliance was completed on I I April at
St Petersburg. Austria, initially reluctant to join an anti-French coalition
if Prussia remained neutral, was inveigled into Pitt's web after Napoleon's
coronation in Milan. Many Austrians, including General Mack, were
confident they could beat France in a new war, so in June Vienna's Aulic
Council began making overtures to Pitt. In August I 8os Austria formally
protested to Napoleon over his seizure of Savoy, and a treaty of alliance
was then signed with Pitt and Alexander. Talleyrand performed sterling
service in keeping Prussia neutral, which he did by making over Hanover.
So the Third Coalition was in being. It was an unwieldy alliance, where
all three partners were motivated by diffe rent raisons d'etat and where
marcin
(Marcin)
#1