And what about Constantine as a “strategic factor”? In OTL Alexander made some, rather formal, moves against Austria but Constantine is much more pro-Napoleonic and much less pro- everybody else so shouldn’t he be more energetic? After all, he is not a dedicated pacifist and a little victorious war is good for the nation’s morale. But if he is “in”, the Austrians are in a pretty much hopeless strategic situation unless they manage to score a decisive victory over Napoleon.
L’Aigle Triomphant: A Napoleonic Victory TL
- Thread starter KingSweden24
- Start date
But, in theory, Prussia is within Russian sphere of influence and while it must be punished, the situation is anything but straightforward and Nappy can’t change the existing system too severely without a risk of breaking it and, if anything, from the Russian perceptive Prussia and Pomerania are more important than the pieces of Brandenburg because of the Baltic issue and because Poland is Napoleon’s client and, by definition, not friendly to Russia. Which means that giving to it the Prussian Baltic territories will be considered as anti-Russian act. Of course, splitting the kingdom into pieces (leaving part of Brandenburg with the royal title to the Hohenzollerns) and giving these pieces to the German princes would be a completely different story. For example, if the Duke of Oldenburg gets Prussia as a compensation for his Duchy (and a proper paperwork resolving a touchy issue over which Alexander raised a diplomatic Hell), then Constantine should be quite happy.
Last edited:
To your point (and earlier comment re: Constantine) this is more or less why Russia has elected to sit on the sideline for now; for all his pro-Napoleonic fervor, Constantine wants to make sure Russia's interests are taken care of before he commits to anything.
Perhaps people will say in this timeline. "Alas poor Prussia, so far from God, and so close to France."
This, of course, one of the valid courses of (in)action but it involves a certain risk: if everything is over before the issue of his interests is settled, he has no leverage for pushing them through. OTOH, with the alt-Nappy in place of a real one, it also cam be assumed that he would keep interests of his biggest ally in mind anyway. Decision, as always, is up to you. 😉
Correct me if I'm wrong but Constantine has always struck me as quite mercurial, much like his brother, only in a much more slapdash, indecisive way. It could always be the case that he dawdles and plays Hamlet on the Neva trying to decide on a course of action until Napoleon has imposed a harsh peace on Prussia?
That's a good q. To be honest, I hadn't given it a ton of thought, for Northern Italy is a bit of a sideshow; Austria and Prussia are going to war over Germany and Poland, after all. The key theather in Italy is in the South, where Wellington is coming ashore in Calabria and has both Joseph and Bernadotte, the Duc de Rome, nearby to contest his march up the Boot.
Bernadotte v Wellington in particular is a premier 19th century field general matchup, and one I'm not even sure we got in the OTL Napoleonic Wars, though I'm happy to stand corrected there
Not that I’m a big expert on Constantine’s personality but while his father was, indeed, compared to Hamlet it was mostly related to the circumstances of his father’s death and his mother’s behavior.
As for being mercurial, I would not agree that this applied to Alexander: obviously, he changed his views more than once but this was mostly a pure opportunism domestically (it seems that only later in his reign he went into all that mysticism) and especially internationally: no matter what he could be forced to do and declare within a current set of the circumstances, he was staunchly anti-Napoleonic even when forced to claim him a friend.
Constantine was mercurial on the minor issues, mostly behavioral ones, but on the bigger issues he was pretty consistent: his pro-Napoleonic position lasted for years and changed only at the face of a direct confrontation. His obsession with a drill also lasted through his life. He could be elusive when this suited him as was the case after the death of AI but his exchange with Nicholas at that time looks quite intelligent: he was clearly minimizing a personal risk without burning any bridges.
I’d guess that his behavior in your scenario would involve less rather than more thinking because from his perspective situation is beautifully simplistic and ideally clear:
1. Napoleon is ally so if he is attacked Russia is under obligation to come to his defense.
2. Prussia was under Russian protection and supposed to behave as the Russian client but it decided to break this dependency, clearly to the determent of the Russian interests. It also broke a peace treaty with Napoleon. It must be severely punished for its double betrayal but in a way that does not rock the European boat too much, aka, there must be a “kingdom” with Hohenzollern king.
3. Russian interests must not suffer, which means that the Duchy should not be excessively expanded, especially on the Baltic coast.
4. The boring details can be discussed later with his dear friend Napoleon in the terms of a mutual understanding. If Prussia (and Pomerania) can be made into a separate state ruled by a friendly/relative German prince and becoming a de facto Russian ally - perfect.
😉
It is honestly quite strange. While reclaiming Dalmatia and Northern Italy was one of Austrian main goals, both in 1809 and later, the amount of troops commited was really low. In 1809, the main focus (as here) is Germany of course, but even the invasion of Poland had twice the troops Archduke John had in Italy, and didn't bother with a large force in 1813. They only really brought big forces in 1814.
As for the commanders, with the Prince of Ponte-Corvo bussy in the south, MacDonald or Marmont still seem the likeliest option. For the Austrians, one of the corps commanders from 1809 seem the most likely choice, with Rosenberg or Kollowrat(possibly with Radetzky as chief of staff) seem the most probable. Or Nordmann, if you want to make the French angry.
No, I think it didn't happen. Will have to go through my biographies of the two, but Bernadotte was certainly not in Spain, when Wellington was there (bussy with Walcheran ""campaign"") and then Sweden.
I’m glad you put “campaign” in parentheses because even that may be overstating it 😂
Well, if you can win without the losses it does amount to something. 😜
Wonder if after the War of the Fifth Coalition, London will stop funding anti-French forces?
Last edited:
At some point they have to stop, unless MPs can spawn money out of their asses.
Yeah and the British public will probably be getting sick of their taxes constantly going to continuing what would be seen as a fruitless endeavour against the French Empire.
That would make for a funny French propaganda piece: a British PM dressed like a witch and doing satanic rituals to spawn money, material, soldiers and ships out of thin air.