La Bataille d' Eggmuhl 1809

Austrians Cannot Control Uprisings

Hapsburgs Unable To Harness German Anti-French Sentiment

The Fifth Coalition had a grand master plan to defeat Napoleon in Central Europe in 1809. Not only did they count on Archduke Charles to defeat Napoleon in the Danube Valley; but Austrian arms led by Charles’ brother, the Archduke John, would defeat the French in Italy and the Dalmatian coast; the British would successfully invade the Low Countries; and Germans would rise in rebellion against the French Empire in Central Germany. But what would happen instead? The Austrians more than held their own against the French in the Danube valley until Napoleon overwhelms Charles at Wagram in July of 1809. Archduke John was neutralized by Viceroy Eugene, who aided by Generals MacDonald and Marmont, learned quickly on his first command assignment; and maneuvered the Army of Italy to Vienna and beyond. He was able to assist his stepfather in the decisive victory at Wagram. The British, dawdled for too long and did not invade Holland at Walcheren until after Charles loses the Battle of Wagram. Plagued by bad weather and disease, the British were loosely watched by Bernadotte till they realized the Dutch adventure was no treat, and the Walcheren failure would lead to the failure and fall of the British government. Finally, the German insurrections, which the Austrians had hoped to harness, would sputter and exhaust themselves without igniting any significant sparks among the Germans. There was a reason for this. The German anti-French sentiment the Austrians had hoped to stimulate was only a mist—not enough to generate the true feeling necessary leading to threatening activity. For example, Frederick William, the Duke of Brunswick, was one of the great instigators in stirring the proverbial pot. He and his Black Brunswickers were motivated by anger that their little duchy was part of the Westphalian amalgamation. He raised 2300 troops as a sort of freikorps which ripped through central Germany and liberated Braunschweig for a few days, before escaping to the German coast, where they were picked up by the British fleet and eventually deposited in Spain as cannon fodder for the British crown Stirring The Proverbial Pot However, their anger was not shared by the typical citizen in central Germany. The Black Duke did not provide his subjects any type of leadership that led them to clamor for more. They would find the Black Duke no better than his replacement, the Westphalian King Jerome, who had not yet worn out his subject’s welcome with his excessive spending and his endless participation in his brother’s wars. The typical Brunswicker or Westphalian saw no reason to leave the Confederation of the Rhine—at least in 1809. Finally, all the Black Duke’s adventures occurred after Wagram. By then, the whole adventure was pointless.

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