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League of Armed Neutrality of the North 1800–1801

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League of Armed Neutrality of the North 1800–1801

Generated illustration. Not a historical photograph. Ships in Baltic ice. Not a portrait.

Overview

The Battle of Copenhagen 1801 — Overview already names this as the Second League of Armed Neutrality. Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Prussia formed it in December 1800 under Tsar Paul I. It asserted neutral shipping rights against Royal Navy stop-and-search and threatened to close the Baltic to British trade.1

The League

This note covers that league only. The 1780 first league and the 1807 bombardment stay on RESEARCH_QUEUE. Tsar notes now cover the league role only.

Britain depended on Baltic timber, hemp, tar, and pitch. The Pitt and Addington governments sent a Baltic fleet to break the league before Russian and Swedish ships could escape the spring ice. The Battle of Copenhagen 1801 — Overview on 2 April 1801, and the Danish armistice signed 9 April, broke it. Paul I had been assassinated ten days before the battle; news had not reached either fleet. Alexander I withdrew, then Sweden.2

The Baltic reopened to British naval stores.

Sources

Same Campaign

Cross-Domain

Footnotes

  1. Second League; Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Prussia; December 1800; Paul I; stop-and-search; close the Baltic: Battle of Copenhagen 1801 — Overview. ↩

  2. Naval stores; ice; 2 April; armistice 9 April; Paul’s death ten days earlier; Alexander then Sweden: same battle note. Do not add 1780 terms. Tsar notes now cover the league role only. ↩

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