Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Baltic in Autumn 1807
- 2 Sir James Saumarez Early Career
- 3 Saumarez takes up his Baltic Command
- 4 The Crisis of Rogervik
- 5 The Conversion to Peacemaker
- 6 The Pea Islands
- 7 Marshal Belle-Jambe Declares War
- 8 The Affair of the Carlshamn Cargoes
- 9 The Von Rosen Letters
- 10 Diplomatic Intrigues Napoleons Fateful Decision
- 11 The Final Year
- 12 Conclusions: the Man or the Situation
- Epilogue
- Appendix 1 Glossary of Place Names
- Appendix 2 Brief notes on some Lesser-known Names
- Bibliographical note
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - The Von Rosen Letters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Baltic in Autumn 1807
- 2 Sir James Saumarez Early Career
- 3 Saumarez takes up his Baltic Command
- 4 The Crisis of Rogervik
- 5 The Conversion to Peacemaker
- 6 The Pea Islands
- 7 Marshal Belle-Jambe Declares War
- 8 The Affair of the Carlshamn Cargoes
- 9 The Von Rosen Letters
- 10 Diplomatic Intrigues Napoleons Fateful Decision
- 11 The Final Year
- 12 Conclusions: the Man or the Situation
- Epilogue
- Appendix 1 Glossary of Place Names
- Appendix 2 Brief notes on some Lesser-known Names
- Bibliographical note
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
‘If I could have any further doubts upon my mind relative to the sincerity of the intentions of this Government, they have been perfectly removed by the conversation I had yesterday with Count Rosen’. Saumarez’ comment at the height of anxieties over the Carlshamn cargoes incident encapsulates the relationship that had built up between Saumarez and his Swedish counterpart, von Rosen.
Saumarez’ cordial relationships with both von Rosen and Admiral Krusenstjerna were fundamental to his judgement of the correct line of action to follow. They encouraged him to follow his own line regardless of the anxieties of London. Just after his final return from the Baltic, he wrote a Secret letter at the request of von Rosen to certify that it was the latter's clarifications and assurances of Bernadotte's friendly intentions and his independence of Bonaparte that persuaded Saumarez to continue to act peacefully towards the Swedes before he received instructions from government, and that those instructions when they arrived were based on the discussions that he, Saumarez, had had with von Rosen. He was delighted to verify von Rosen's zeal in serving the Prince Royal and the cause ‘of all people who detest the Tyrant's system which has inflicted such misery on so great a part of the Continent under his oppressive yoke’.
In a later letter to Ross, Krusenstjerna makes the sardonic comment that:
Our friends the French and Danes express their friendship to us with unremitted zeal in capturing and robbing from us our merchant vessels, whilst our enemies the English let them pass unmolested from one port to another. We did not suffer by one hundred times as much from these two nations, the time we were at war against them, as we do now when they call themselves our friends and allies.
Saumarez, Alquier, and von Rosen and Bernadotte were the lead players for their three respective countries in the Baltic in the three campaigning years 1810–12. Their personal relationships and the ways they went about achieving their objectives were critical to the events there of July 1812. The outcome was the destruction of the Continental System, the failure of Napoleon's attempt to defeat Britain by economic warfare, and his fatal march against Moscow. It is worth looking at each of these characters more closely before moving on to the narrative of the final events.
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- Admiral Saumarez Versus Napoleon - The Baltic, 1807-12 , pp. 141 - 154Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008