Campaign in north-east France (1814): Difference between revisions

1814 campaign in northern France
Part of the War of the Sixth Coalition
1814 campaign in France by Meissonier
Date January–March 1814 Location Northeastern France Result Coalition victory
Commanders and leaders
Schwarzenberg Blücher	Napoleon
Strength
More than 1 million	Between 150,000 and 360,000
Casualties and losses
At least 100,000 casualties	At least 65,000 casualties

The 1814 campaign in northern France involved Coalition armies fighting a series of battles against Napoleon Bonaparte on French territory after his defeat at the 1813 Battle of Leipzig. At the campaign's conclusion, the Coalition captured Paris and exiled Napoleon to Elba.

The Coalition crossed the Rhine with a three-pronged force totalling 350,000 men, aiming to converge on Paris:

• The Army of Bohemia or Grand Army, with 210,000 Austrian troops under Schwarzenberg, passed through Swiss territory and crossed the Rhine between Basel and Schafhausen on the 20th of December 1813.
• The Army of Silesia, with 75,000 Prussians and Russians under Blücher, crossed the Rhine between Rastadt and Koblenz on 1 January 1814.
• The Army of the North, with Prussian and Russian corps under the command of Wintzingerode and Bülow, and Dutch troops under Bernadotte, "quickly followed".

Napoleon attempted to counter the incursion of the Army of Silesia shortly after their crossing but arrived too late, meeting only the rearguard. Engaging in pursuit, he met the force at Brienne on 29 January 1814, inflicting 4000 casualties and taking 3000 of his own. Blücher and Schwarzenberg's forces combined three days later to attack Napoleon in the Battle of La-Rothière. Napoleon retreated and the Coalition continued their three-part advance towards Paris. On 10 February Napoleon won a victory in the Battle of Champaubert. He thus took a central position between divisions of the Army of Silesia, winning further victories in the battles of Montmirail and Vauchamps to complete his Six Days' Campaign.

However, south of Paris the Grand Army had succeeded in advancing between Marshal Oudinot and Marshal Victor, forcing them to establish a defensive line just 18 miles (29 km) from Paris. Napoleon arrived to fight the Battle of Montereau on 18 February 1814. Blücher led another advance towards Paris on 24 February before being forced to withdraw on 2 March under pursuit by Napoleon. Napoleon tried to march towards Laon but was confronted by Blücher's forces in the Battle of Craonne, where he lost over 6000 men. On 9 March the Battle of Laon began; Napoleon's forces were severely outnumbered in this fight, and many of his marshals were defeated in conflicts elsewhere around Paris. Nevertheless, he gained a quick victory in a skirmish near Reims on 13/14 March and began pursuing Schwarzenberg's forces. Napoleon won a very narrow victory against the Grand Army in the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, but withdrew. A letter outlining his plan to move on the Marne was intercepted by the Coalition, which prepared to attack Paris in his absence.

On 2 April, the French Senate agreed to the Coalition's terms and passed a resolution deposing Napoleon (Acte de déchéance de l'Empereur). They also passed a decree dated 5 April, justifying their actions. Napoleon had advanced as far as Fontainebleau when he learned that Paris had surrendered. When Napoleon proposed the army march on the capital, his marshals decided to mutiny. On 4 April, Napoleon abdicated in favour of his son, with Marie-Louise as regent. However, the Coalition refused to accept this. Napoleon was then forced to announce his unconditional abdication on the 6 April, and a few days later on 13 April under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau Napoleon accepted a pension for his relatives and exile for himself to the island Elbe. Louis XVIII was restored to the French throne, but under certain conditions including that of the establishment of a French Parliament.

Aftermath

On 5 of May—two days after Napoleon set sail on the British brig of war HMS Undaunted, bound for his new realm of Elba—the treaty of Treaty of Paris (1814) was signed by Louis XVIII's plenipotentiaries and the major Coalition powers. France was stripped of most of her territorial gains, and reduced to its borders of November 1792. In addition, although she kept some of her colonies she Tobago, Santa Lucia and Mauritius. The treaty was quite lenient (compared to the treaty which was imposed oh her the following year Treaty of Paris (1815). As for the difficult question as to how the map of Europe should be redrawn, that was postponed by common consent, to be decided at the Congress of Vienna to be held in the autumn.

The Coalition powers hoped, that by granting this lenient peace, France might be welcomed back to become a cooperating member of the European nations, but the Napoleonic Wars were not over for the very next year Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to France, he was opposed by the powers of the Seventh Coalition who defeated his army at Waterloo, re-invaded the country and forced him to abdicate for a second and final time.

References

• Alison, Archibald (1860), History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815 (ten ed.), W. Blackwood Alison, p. 197
• Alexander, R. S. (2012), Europe's Uncertain Path 1814-1914: State Formation and Civil Society (illustrated ed.), John Wiley & Sons, pp. 4–5, ISBN 9781405100526
• Gates, David (2003), The Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815, Pimlico, ISBN 0-7126-0719-6
• Hodgson, William (1841), The life of Napoleon Bonaparte, once Emperor of the French, who died in exile, at St. Helena, after a captivity of six years' duration, Orlando Hodgson
• Lamartine, Alphonse de (1854), The History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France, H. G. Bohn (New York Public Library), pp. 202–207
• Nofi, Albert A. (1998), The Waterloo Campaign, June 1815, Da Capo Press, p. 20, ISBN 9780306816949
• Turk, Eleanor L. (1999), The History of Germany (illustrated ed.), Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 68, ISBN 9780313302749

Attribution

• This article incorporates material derived from the "1814 Campaign in France" article on the Napoleonbonaparte wiki at Fandom (formerly Wikia) and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License (26 February 2014).