The Twilight Era: The End of the Common Cause and the Shadow Alliance between Sweden and Britain, March 1809–October 1810

Abstract

The king’s removal from power saved the country from a civil war but little else. In fact his removal only lowered her international standing when she was about to begin negotiations for peace with her enemies. Never had Sweden been in a more perilous position than in March 1809 as Stockholm was threatened by a Russian attack from the east while a vainglorious rebel general approached at the same time from the west. The greatest threat came from the three-pronged Russian attack against Torneå, Umeå and Stockholm that was launched in early March. This over-ambitious and far-flung operation was the brainchild of the unpopular Russian Minister of War, General Count Alexei Andreevich Arakchayev. Buxhöwden and his military colleagues opposed this operation and found the Tsar’s ambition to seize Stockholm quite arrogant. But the only thing that stood between General Bagration’s 17,000 fresh troops and the Swedish capital was Döbeln’s small, frozen army of 3,500. Döbeln, who realized that military resistance was pointless on the exposed Åland islands, tricked the Russians into believing that the new revolutionary regime — which he detested — would begin negotiations for peace. While the Russians mulled over Döbeln’s claim, the crafty general had saved his army by retreating across the ice to the Swedish coast at Grisslehamn by 18 March.