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| Franco-Swedish War (Pomeranian War) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theNapoleonic Wars | |||||||||
 Swedish Pomerania (centre-right) in 1812 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
Co-belligerents:
| Co-belligerents:
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 1805: 13,000 1810: 40,000 | 1805: 12,125 1810: 27,000 | ||||||||
[a] Gustav IV Adolf was deposed by acoup d'etat on March 9, 1809, and Charles XIII was appointed king in his place. [b] Until 1808 | |||||||||
TheFranco-Swedish War orPomeranian War was the first involvement bySweden in theNapoleonic Wars. The country joined theThird Coalition in an effort to defeatFrance underNapoleon Bonaparte.
In 1803, theUnited Kingdom had declared war onFrance, and Sweden remained neutral, together withDenmark–Norway andPrussia. However, after the execution ofLouis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé in 1804, the Swedish government broke all diplomatic ties with France and concluded a convention to allow the British to useSwedish Pomerania as a military base against France in exchange for payments.Russia also promised Sweden that 40,000 men would come to the aid of the country if it was threatened by French forces. Therefore, on 9 August 1805 Sweden joined the Third Coalition and declared war on France on 31 October.[1]
In early November 1805, a combined British, Russian and Swedish force of about 12,000 men were sent from Swedish Pomerania to liberate French-heldHanover. The offensive against Hanover was repeatedly delayed because of Prussia's partial reluctance for the Swedes and the Russians to move troops through Prussian territory. However, in December 1805, after theBattle of Austerlitz, the British and the Russian forces started to evacuateHanover and left only a small Swedish force alone to face the French. In April 1806, the Swedes were also forced to retreat to Swedish Pomerania after an agreement had been concluded between Prussia and France.
However, during the summer of 1806 Prussia formed theFourth Coalition against France, which gave Sweden the right to occupySaxe-Lauenburg. In the autumn, the French forces advanced rapidly and soon much of the western German regions were occupied, which forced the Swedish troops on a retreat towardsLübeck. The plan was for the troops from there to take the sea route toStralsund to avoid the advancing French forces. The Swedes were still caught by the French on the 6 November while they loaded their ships at Lübeck, and after theBattle of Lübeck, about 1,000 Swedish soldiers had to surrender to the numerically-superior French forces.
TheFrench Army began its offensive towards Swedish Pomerania in early 1807 andbesieged Stralsund on 15 January. That began a seven-month siege, and since the French forces were engaged in warfare elsewhere as well, the number of troops stationed around Stralsund was gradually reduced. When the Swedes were reinforced on 1 April, a decision was made to attempt to break the siege. That was done with some success since the Swedes managed to takeUsedom andWolin, but the French chose to counterattack, and a force of 13,000 men attacked the Swedes fromStettin on 16 April and forced the left section of the Swedish army to withdraw. Another division inUeckermünde was then cut off and later captured. On 18 April, France and Sweden agreed on a ceasefire according to which the French were to leave Pomerania. However, the Swedish government refused to join theContinental System and denounced the armistice under the influence of British diplomacy on 8 July.
On 6 August 1807, 50,000 French, Spanish andDutch troops under MarshalGuillaume-Marie-Anne Brune began an assault on Swedish Pomerania and besieged Stralsund again. On 20 August 1807, the defenders of the city capitulated and the remains of the Swedish Army were surrounded atRügen. However, Swedish GeneralJohan Christopher Toll managed to conclude the Convention of Schlatkow with Marshal Brune on favourable terms, and his forces withdrew to Sweden, along with all of their war munitions, on 7 September.[2]
The Franco-RussianTreaty of Tilsit left Britain and Sweden without other allies in the war against France. On 21 February 1808, Russia joined the war against Sweden byinvading Finland and on 14 March the same year,Denmark-Norway alsodeclared war on Sweden. Danish, French and Spanish troops began preparations for an invasion ofSkåne in Sweden, but the plan was soon aborted, and the war was instead directed to the Norwegian-Swedish border. SirJohn Moore's expedition, sent by the British government to protect Sweden from possible French-Danish attack, arrived on 3 May 1808 and stayed until July, when it wasredirected to Portugal.
Napoleon's plans to invade Sweden were never executed because of the British activity on theBaltic Sea, the weakness of the Danish military and the hesitations of French MarshalBernadotte, whose actions made him popular enough to be elected as a SwedishCrown Prince after thecoup d'etat in March 1809. On 30 August 1809, the new Swedish government was to conclude theTreaty of Fredrikshamn with Russia, which legitimised the Russian annexation of Finland andÅland. A peace treaty between Sweden and Denmark-Norway was signed with no territorial adjustments on 10 December 1809.
On 6 January 1810, Sweden signed a Russian-mediatedTreaty of Paris with France, regaining Pomerania at a cost of joining theContinental System. On 17 November 1810, Sweden was forced to declarewar on Britain, and all British goods in Swedish Pomerania were seized. The government-supported smuggling continued, however, over theNorth Sea, and theRoyal Navy was informed that it would be a phantom war. The war lasted until 1812, but no military action was taken.
