User:Lord Cornwallis/Liberation of the Netherlands (1813)

The Liberation of the Netherlands was an uprising and military campaign to liberate the Netherlands and Belgium from French occupation during the Napoleonic Wars.

Part of the War of the Sixth Coalition the rising was successful in ending French rule over large swathes of the Low Countries although Antwerp continued to hold out until the end of the war. A popular uprising organised by the Triumvirate of 1813 combined with the landing of a British expeditionary force and the arrival of Prussian and other allied forces from the east.

The fighting ended with the Treaty of Fontainebleau in April 1814. The United Kingdom of the Netherlands, including both the Netherlands was created by the Congress of Vienna. Subsequently, Napoleon's attempt to invade the territory and overturn the peace settlement ended with his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Background

Further information: Batavian Republic and Kingdom of Holland

Following the Flanders Campaign of the mid-1790s the old Dutch Republic had been conquered by French Revolutionary forces and the satellite Batavian Republic established. Napoleon subsequently replaced this with the satellite Kingdom of Holland, ruled by his younger brother Louis.

In 1810 Napoleon abolished the separate Kingdom of Holland and annexed its remaining territory into the French Empire. In 1812 Napoleon launched a disastrous invasion of Russia. In the wake of the formation of the Sixth Coalition

Duke of Wellington's victory at the Battle of Vittoria in the Peninsular War meant that France was threatened with the prospect of invasion on two fronts.

Uprising

Further information: Triumvirate of 1813

The Triumvirate Assuming Power on Behalf of the Prince of Orange by Jan Willem Pieneman.

Preparing for the coming campaign in Germany Napoleon withdrew French troops from the Low Countries leaving its garrisons reduced. As early as April 1813 protesting locals briefly seized control of Leiden. The National Guard failed to act and French regular forces were needed to restore order.

The popular nature of the Leiden uprising alarmed some members of the upper classes who began to plan for a more orderly transition of power should further French losses provide the opportunity for Dutch independence. In the wake of Napoleon's catastrophic loss at the Battle of Leipzig in 16-19 October 1813 French forces were in full retreat in Germany. By early November with advance guards of raiding Russian cossacks reaching Dutch territory the leaders decided the moment was right to act.

On 9 November the Triumvirate of 1813 consisting Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, Frans Adam van der Duyn van Maasdam and Leopold Karel, Count of Limburg Stirum held a meeting at van Hogendorp's home at The Hague in which they planned to seize control. A major goal was to secure the support of the Dutch-manned National Guard.

The French Governor Charles-François Lebrun was caught off guard. The only forces he had available to hand were a battalion composed of Prussian deserters. This now mutinied and went over to the insurgents.

William I of the Netherlands. He returned from exile in England to head the rising.

With Amsterdam and The Hague fully in their control on 19 November 1813 the Triumvirate issued an invitation to the Prince in exile in England to

He accepted on the condition that he not be made stadholder as his predecessors had been during the old Dutch Republic but declared a sovereign ruler. He may have been encouraged to do so by the British Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh.

Orange crossed the North Sea aboard the British warship HMS Warrior and accompanied by the newly-appointed British ambassador the Earl of Clancarty. The Prince landed at Scheveningen on 30 November to popular

British intervention

Thomas Graham commanded British forces landed to support the Dutch rising.

Britain had a close relationship with the Prince and particularly his son William, the Hereditary Prince of Orange who had served as an ADC to Wellington in the Peninsular and was considered a prospective husband to Charlotte, Princess of Wales, the only daughter of the Prince Regent. In late December 1813 on his way towards a meeting with Allied Powers about the future war strategy, Lord Castlreagh stopped in the Hague for consultations with the Prince William

As well as a desire to liberate the Netherlands and cultivate it as an ally, there Was a major British fear that Antwerp and the Scheldt River would remain in French hands in any negotiated peace settlement. Considering this a vital area to Britain, it would provide a base for any future French invasion of Britain. For a number of years Napoleon had been constructing a fleet at Antwerp to replace the ships of the line lost at Trafalgar.

Napoleon considered the city equally important to retain. Muir p. The peace terms he offered at the Frankfurt proposals would have kept Antwerp in French hands, something unacceptable to Britain which considered it the "the single greatest threat to her national security".

Castlreagh encouraged William and his advisors to try and occupy Belgium which before the 1790s had been a part of the Austrian Netherlands. However, he rejected a suggestion by von Hogendorp that Britain should itself annexe the French port of Dunkirk just south of Belgium. Castlreagh left on 9 January 1814 to travel to Allied headquarters in Switzerland.

In order to support the Dutch Britain had scrambled together a scratch force with a paper strength of 8,700. This consisted of

Troops that had been intended to be dispatched to Wellington in Spain, second battalions of regiments and xxxx Brigade of Guards. Command was given to Thomas Graham, a Peninsular veteran, with Major General George Cooke as his deputy.

began arriving

Winter campaign

Graham's force was bracketed as part of the Army of the North under the overall command of Bernadotte the Crown Prince of Sweden and a former Marshal of France. Bernadotte was distrusted by the other Allies, accused of holding his own Swedish troops back from combat to preserve them for his own planned attack on Denmark

Cooperated more closely with Prussian forces under Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow who has crossed into Dutch territory xxxx. On 30 November 1813 he defeated the French at the Battle of Arnhem allowing him to take Utrecht on 2 December.

The Battle of Hoogstraten on 11 January 1814 was fought

As well despatching troops, London sent a consignment of 25,000 muskets to arm the Dutch forces.

Von Bulow was withdrawn to join the forces of Marshal Blucher who had crossed the Rhine as part of the Invasion of France.

Napoleon sent orders urging his commander at Antwerp xxxxx to go on the offensive. During the Congress of Châtillon in February 1814 he again insisted "I shall never cede Antwerp or Belgium".

On 8 March an attempt to storm the town during Siege of Bergen op Zoom badly miscarried. Although British forces were able to get inside the city walls they were surrounded and killed or forced to surrender.

The Battle of Courtrai was fought on 13 March not far from the historic border with France. General Maison defeated a force largely composed of Saxon troops. This was many miles to the southeast of the Anglo-Dutch forces on the River Scheldt.

Aftermath

The Prince of Orange at Quatre Bras by Jan Willem Pieneman.

The war ended with Napoleon's abdication in April 1814. Antwerp was ordered to be surrender by the

The fact that the Netherlands has owe it's Liberation entirely to the Allies left it in a much stronger position in the postwar situation. . Europe was redrawn at the Congress of Vienna which raised it to the status of a Kingdom also incorporating Belgium. The Prince became William I of the Netherlands with his son succeeding him as Prince of Orange.

British troops remained in the area With newly raised Such regiments.

When Napoleon escaped from Elba and launched the Hundred Days campaign these troops formed the nucleus of the centred on Brussels under the command of the Duke of Wellington. As a British Lieutenant General the Prince of Orange was given a command as corps

See also

• Liberation of Hanover, shorter campaign in 1813 to liberate neighbouring Hanover

Bibliography

• Bamford, Andrew. A Bold and Ambitious Enterprise: The British Army in the Low Countries, 1813-1814. Frontline Books, 2013.
• Marks, Harry J. The First Contest for Singapore, 1819–1824. Springer, 2014.
• Muir, Rory. Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1807-1815. Yale University Press, 1996.
• Zamoyski, Adam. Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna. HarperCollins, 2012.