War between Great Britain and the Russian Empire
"Anglo-Russian War" redirects here. For the Anglo-Russian war of 1853?1856, see
Crimean War
.
The Anglo-Russian War of 1807?1812
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Part of the
Napoleonic Wars
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Opyt_and_Salsette.jpg/300px-Opyt_and_Salsette.jpg) Battle between the Russian ship
Opyt
and a British frigate, off the coast of Nargen Island, 11 July 1808
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Date
| 2 September 1807 ? 18 July 1812
(4 years 10 months & 16 days)
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Location
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Result
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Treaties of Orebro
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Belligerents
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Supported by
:
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Supported by
:
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During the
Napoleonic Wars
, the
Anglo-Russian War
(2 September 1807 ? 18 July 1812) was the phase of hostilities between
Great Britain
and
Russia
after the latter signed the
Treaty of Tilsit
that ended its war with
France
. Anglo-Russian hostilities were limited primarily to minor naval actions in the
Baltic Sea
and
Barents Sea
.
[1]
Treaty of Tilsit
[
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]
After
Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated the Russians at the
Battle of Friedland
(14 June 1807),
Tsar
Alexander I of Russia
signed a peace treaty, known as the
Treaty of Tilsit
. Although the treaty was quite unpopular within the Russian court, Russia had no alternative as Napoleon could easily cross the
Neman
river (then the Russian border) and invade Russia.
The terms of the treaty obliged Russia to cease her maritime trade with Great Britain. This closure was a part of Napoleon's continuing efforts to establish the
Continental System
, strengthening economic ties between the different countries in Europe under French domination. Napoleon's objective was to close one of Britain's most important markets and thus force it economically into submission.
Military activities
[
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]
On 26 October 1807,
Emperor of all the Russias
Alexander formally declared war on the United Kingdom after the
British attack on Copenhagen
in September 1807. He did not actively prosecute the war; Alexander instead restricted Russia's contribution to the bare requirement to close off trade. The British, understanding his position, limited their military response to the declaration. However, there were a few notable incidents.
Detention of Russian vessels
[
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]
The official news did not arrive in Britain until 2 December, at which point the British authorities declared an embargo on all Russian vessels in British-controlled ports. The crews of approximately 70 British ships profited from the seizure of the 44-gun Russian frigate
Speshnoy
, which was lying at anchor in
Portsmouth Harbour
.
[2]
The Russian storeship
Wilhelmina
was also seized at the same time.
[3]
Speshnoy
had sailed from
Kronstadt
with the payroll for Vice-Admiral
Dmitry Senyavin
’s squadron in the Mediterranean, together with
Vilgemina
.
Vilgemina
was slower but caught up with
Speshnoy
at
Portsmouth
.
A portion of their cargo found on board consisted of 601,167 Spanish
doubloons
and 140,197 Dutch
ducats
.
Consequently, an
able seaman
on any one of the 70 British vessels in the harbour received 14
shillings
and 7½
pence
in
prize money
.
[6]
Lisbon Incident
[
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]
In August 1807, Senyavin was ordered to bring his fleet from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, where the
Finnish War
with
Sweden
was already brewing. He set sail from
Corfu
on 19 September and although he planned to proceed directly to
Saint Petersburg
, stormy weather forced him to take refuge in the
Tagus
river and cast anchor in
Lisbon
on 30 October. With a French army approaching the city, Prince Regent
John VI of Portugal
had fled to the Portuguese colony of
Brazil
and the
Royal Navy
blockaded Lisbon, intercepting a Russian
sloop
as an enemy vessel because the Anglo-Russian War had been declared. In November, the French forces under the General
Jean-Andoche Junot
overran Lisbon.
Senyavin, placed in a delicate diplomatic position, proceeded to distinguish himself as a diplomat. He declared himself neutral and managed to protect his ships from seizure. In August 1808, British forces under the command of
Arthur Wellesley
defeated the French army
at Vimeiro
, expelling them Portugal. Senyavin's squadron of seven ships of the line and one frigate were left face to face with fifteen British ships of the line and ten frigates. Senyavin maintained his neutrality, threatening to blow up his ships and destroy Lisbon in the case of an attack made against his squadron. Eventually, he signed a convention with Admiral
Sir Charles Cotton
, whereby the
Royal Navy
would escort his squadron to
London
, with the Russians still flying their flags. Moreover, Senyavin was to assume supreme command of the joint Anglo-Russian fleet, as he was higher in rank than Cotton. Two ships of Senyavin's squadron,
Rafail
and
Yaroslav
, were left in Lisbon due to needing repairs.
[7]
Senyavin's squadron embarked from Portugal for Portsmouth on 31 August 1808. On 27 September, it arrived at Portsmouth Harbour, and the
British Admiralty
was informed that the Russians had arrived with their flags streaming, as if in times of peace. The
Lord Mayor of London
,
Charles Flower
, argued that the convention was "disreputable for Britain's prestige", which many in the Admiralty agreed with. Senyavin's squadron was therefore detained in Portsmouth under various pretexts until winter, when the weather made their return to the Baltic impossible. The authorities in Portsmouth insisted that unless Senyavin's squadron sailed to
Arkhangelsk
, they would be intercepted by the
Swedish Navy
. In 1809, the departure of the squadron was further delayed by the disastrous
Walcheren Expedition
. At long last, on 5 August, Senyavin's squadron was allowed to leave Portsmouth for Riga, arriving there on 9 September 1809.
[7]
Naval conflict in the Baltic
[
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]
Russia also
invaded Sweden
, a close ally of Britain, in 1808. But it was unlikely related to Britain and the Treaty, as the two countries already were at odds at the time. The Royal Navy supported the Swedish navy during the
Finnish War
and scored victories over the Russians in the
Gulf of Finland
in July 1808 and August 1809. In May 1808, the British sent a fleet under Vice-Admiral
Sir James Saumarez
to the Baltic. The British 44-gun
frigate
Salsette
captured the Russian cutter
Opyt
on 23 June [
O.S.
11 June] 1808 after her captain and crew put up a determined resistance. The action took place off
Nargen island
(now Naissaar), which defends
Reval
from the sea.
[8]
The Admiralty took
Opyt
into service as HMS
Baltic
.
- Centaur
and
Implacable
vs.
Vsevolod
On 9 July, the Russian fleet, under Admiral
Pyotr Khanykov
, came out from
Kronstadt
. The Swedes massed a fleet under Admiral
Rudolf Cederstrom
, consisting of 11 line-of-battle ships and 5 frigates at
Oro
and
Jungfrusund
to oppose them. On 16 August, Saumarez then sent
74-guns
Centaur
and
Implacable
to join the Swedish fleet. They chased two Russian frigates on the 19th and joined the Swedes the following day.
On 22 August, the Russian fleet, consisting of nine ships of the line, five large frigates and six smaller ones, moved from
Hanko
to threaten the Swedes. The Swedes, with the two British ships, grouped at Oro, and three days later sailed to meet the Russians.
The Russians and the Anglo-Swedish force were fairly evenly matched, but the Russians retreated and the Allied ships followed them.
Centaur
and
Implacable
were better vessels than the Swedish ships and slowly pulled ahead, with
Implacable
catching up with a Russian straggler, the 74-gun
Vsevolod
, under Captain Daniil Rudnev (or Roodneff). Eventually, and after heavy casualties,
Vsevolod
struck her colours
.
In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the
Naval General Service Medal
with clasps "Implacable 26 Augt. 1808" and "Centaur 26 Augt. 1808" to the surviving claimants (41 per vessel) from the action.
[10]
Vice-Admiral Saumerez with his entire squadron joined the Anglo-Swedish squadron the next day. They then blockaded Khanykov's squadron for some months. After the British and the Swedes abandoned the blockade, the Russian fleet was able to return to Kronstadt.
- Boat actions
On 7 and 8 July 1809, the boats of
Prometheus
,
Implacable
,
Bellerophon
and
Melpomene
captured or destroyed several Russian
gunboats
and a convoy off
Hanko Peninsula
in the Baltic. Among the captured vessels were Russian gun boats No.5, No.10, No. 13, and No.15.
[11]
In 1847 the Admiralty issued the
Naval General Service Medal
with clasp "7 July Boat Service 1809" to 33 surviving claimants from the action.
[12]
Then on 25 July seventeen boats from a British squadron consisting of
Princess Caroline
,
Minotaur
,
Cerberus
and
Prometheus
, attacked a flotilla of four Russian gunboats and a brig off
Aspo
Head near
Fredrikshamn
in
Old Finland
, then part of Russian Empire. Captain Forrest of
Prometheus
commanded the boats and succeeded in capturing gunboats Nos. 62, 65, and 66, and the transport brig No. 11. The action was sanguinary in that the British lost 19 men killed and 51 wounded, and the Russians lost 28 men killed and 59 wounded.
[13]
In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "25 July Boat Service 1809" to 35 surviving claimants from the action.
[12]
However the successes of the Russian army on land forced Sweden to sign a peace treaty with Russia in 1809 whereby,
inter alia
, Sweden ceded the later
Grand Duchy of Finland
to Russia. Sweden sued for peace with France in 1810 and then formally joined the blockade against Britain as required by the Continental System, although in practice did little to enforce it. Sweden kept trading with Britain and the Royal Navy kept using Swedish ports.
Naval raids in the Barents Sea
[
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]
In time, the Anglo-Russian War overlapped with the
Gunboat War
against
Denmark-Norway
, leading the British to expand their trade embargo to Russian waters and to forays by the British navy northwards into the Barents Sea. The navy conducted raids on
Hasvik
and
Hammerfest
and disrupted the
Pomor trade
, the Norwegian trade with Russia.
In June 1809
HMS
Nyaden
participated in one or two actions. First, her boats conducted a night raid on
Kildin Island
that neutralised a Russian garrison there. Boats from
Nyaden
also captured some 22-3 coastal trading vessels in the
Kola River
, many upriver from the present city of Murmansk.
[14]
Nyaden
also took several other Russian vessels at sea as prizes.
Nyaden
was probably the vessel whose boats in July took possession of Catherine Harbour, in the
ostrog
, or fortified settlement, of
Kola
. The British also commandeered all the stores belonging to the
White Sea
Company (est. 1803 at
Archangelsk
).
The Times
reported that this was the first British engagement in Russian territory, news of the actions on Kildin Island either being subsumed or overlooked.
[15]
British naval involvement in the region continued into 1811. On 3 August 1810, the brig
Gallant
captured the
St. Peder
. Next year, on 2 January,
Gallant
captured the Danish privateer
Restorateur
off the Norwegian coast.
Restorateur
was armed with six 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 19 men.
[16]
Four months later, on 5 April,
Gallant
captured the
Victoria
.
[17]
Then on 1 August 1811, the frigate
Alexandria
, which was operating out of the Lieth station, captured the Russian vessels
Michael
,
Ivan Isasima
, and
St. Oluff
, and their cargoes.
[18]
Persia
[
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]
During the
Russo-Persian War
, several British officers, who were part of Sir John Malcolm's 1809 embassy to Persia, remained in Persia and provided training to the reforming Persian army. One of the officers,
William Monteith
, accompanied
Abbas Mirza
on his unsuccessful campaign in
Georgia
and then commanded a frontier force and the garrison of
Erivan
.
Outcome
[
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]
Alexander I kept Russia as neutral as possible in the ongoing French war with Britain. He allowed Russians to continue secretly to trade with Britain and did not enforce the blockade required by Continental System.
In 1810, he withdrew Russia from the Continental System and trade between Britain and Russia grew.
Franco-Russian relations
became progressively worse after 1810. By 1811, it became clear that Napoleon was not keeping to his side of the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit. He had promised assistance to Russia in its
war against the Ottoman Empire
, but as the campaign went on, France offered no support at all.
With war imminent between France and Russia, Alexander started to prepare the ground diplomatically. In April 1812 Russia and Sweden signed an agreement for mutual defence. A month later Alexander secured his southern flank by the
Treaty of Bucharest (1812)
, which formally ended the war against Turkey.
After Napoleon
invaded Russia
in June, the British and the Russians signed one
Treaty of Orebro
on 18 July 1812; on that same day and in the same place the British and Swedes signed another Treaty of Orebro ending the
Anglo-Swedish War (1810?1812)
, a war that had had no engagements and no casualties.
References
[
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]
Sources
[
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]
- Chapman, Tim (2001),
Imperial Russia, 1801?1905
(illustrated, reprint ed.), Routledge, p.
29
,
ISBN
978-0-415-23110-7
- Chichester, Henry Manners
(1894).
"Monteith, William"
. In Sidney Lee (ed.).
Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 38
. Vol. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 280?281.
- Clarke, James Stanier
; Jones, Stephen (1808),
The Naval chronicle 1808 (January?June)
, Containing a general and biographical history of the royal navy of the United kingdom with a variety of original papers on nautical subjects ([1799?1818]), vol. 19, London: J. Gold, p.
129
- Nolan, Cathal J. (2002),
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations: S-Z
, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations, Cathal, vol. 4 (illustrated ed.), Greenwood Publishing Group, p.
1666
,
ISBN
978-0-313-32383-6
- Norie, John William (1827),
The naval gazetteer, biographer, and chronologist; containing a history of the late wars, from their commencement in 1793 to their final conclusion in 1815; and continued, as to the biographical part, to the present time
,
j. w. Noire & Co
, p.
560
- Tredrea, John; Sozaev, Eduard (2010),
Russian Warships in the Age of Sail, 1696?1860
, Seaforth,
ISBN
978-1-84832-058-1
Further reading
[
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]
- The Napoleonic Wars
, Osprey Publishing
External links
[
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]