Battle of Copenhagen: The Royal Navy and the Danish Fleet, 1801

today's episode of the history guide brought to you by magellan tv [Music] the period of the french revolutionary wars which then gave way to the napoleonic wars was an incredibly chaotic time in europe fear that the republican ideals of the french revolution would spread drove large coalitions and alliances which constantly shifted based on diplomacy changes in leadership economics and battlefield defeats peace was repeatedly negotiated only to be broken again and perhaps no single event better represents the complexity of the diplomatic and military situation in europe at the time than the attack by the british royal navy on neutral denmark in the 1801 battle of copenhagen it is history that deserves to be remembered if you're a fan of the history guy you know that i love my subscription to magellan tv and i know many of you have signed up and i hope you love it as much as i do i want to thank the good people at magellan tv for sponsoring our channel and today i'm very excited to announce that magellan tv is offering a special buy one get one free gift card for the people in your life to whom you want to give the gift of knowledge and if you go to our link which is in the description you'll see a banner about how to take advantage of this special offer which is just for our youtube viewers and if you buy a gift card any time of the year you get a free additional month a magellan tv even if you're already a member so if you haven't signed up now is the time and you can share it with your friends and family and if you are a member i can't recommend enough the new release in the steps of nelson you often hear details about nelson's extraordinary naval career which included of course the battle of copenhagen but in the steps of nelson delves into a deeper understanding of horatio nelson as a person and gives a provocative account of nelson's life and times i really appreciated the documentary visits the actual locations that were part of the life and development of 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attack neutral denmark it was politically risky and embarrassing for the british to attack a neutral power the real question of the battle was why it was fought and more specifically whether it needed to be fought at all the answer to that question revolves around both the political and the military situation at the time the battle itself represented a significant reversal in 1799 revolutionary france seemed to be on the brink of defeat napoleon had invaded egypt with a grand plan to cut off and take british india but the french navy had been suddenly defeated in the 1798 battle of the nile and then napoleon himself had been decisively defeated at the 1799 siege of acker but napoleon had managed to escape from egypt with his reputation intact and on november 9th overthrew the directory in a coup d'etat naming himself first consul most importantly britain soon lost its major allies on the continent austria and russia austria had been defeated in the battles of moringo in june and holandan in december 1800 and had been forced to sue for peace at the outset of the war of the second coalition tsar paul the first of russia successor to catherine the great had enthusiastically opposed the french and joined britain and austria in a coalition lazar had been shocked by french gains in the war of the first coalition and felt that russia needed to play a more active role in restoring the previous order paul saw britain as a natural ally since he generally opposed wars of expansion and saw the british as like him more interested in defeating france than expanding territory paul had also been named protector of the order of the knights of malta in 1897 and been particularly offended when napoleon invaded and claimed malta from the order in 1798 as part of his egyptian campaign but the war had gone badly for russia in 1800 and defeats in italy and switzerland had broken paul's alliance with the austrians and his relationship with the british soured part of that break had to do with the neutral state of denmark the royal navy was of particular importance to britain during the french revolutionary and napoleonic wars the british army while professional was small and on land britain relied on allies many supported by british funds to match the french but the british had a great advantage at sea the french revolution had devastated the french fleet whose officers had almost exclusively been taken from the aristocracy and had either fled or been purged during the revolution the french fleet suffered from neglect and officers could not gain experience bottled up under a british blockade britain very much relied on its naval superiority called the blue water strategy which protected the island from invasion allowed the landing withdrawal of troops and offered perhaps their best strategy against the french an economic blockade the baltic states were one of the few areas where great britain could still engage in trade on the continent and was perceived to be an important place to acquire materials like lumber flax hemp resin tar and mass that were necessary to maintain the british fleet and denmark's strategic location across the entrance to the baltic was therefore of particular concern to the british denmark had prospered on war as a neutral state with the ability to trade with all powers denmark's merchant fleet expanded greatly during the wars surpassing the dutch to become the second largest in the world but the british blockade of france prohibited neutral states from taking contraband that is materials of war to france at first denmark had benefited from the british blockade as britain had a vested interest in keeping the baltic open danish vessels were offered relative freedom when holland was defeated and occupied during the war of the first coalition holland fell under britain's blockade and danish ships had benefited but tensions between the two nations grew as britain became more strict in enforcing the blockade and in searching danish ships for contraband in june 1800 this had led to a fight between a danish frigate escorting a merchant convoy and royal navy ships the danish ship was forced to surrender and interred as russia saw itself as the defender of the baltic states the attack offended paul while diplomats were able to smooth the situation the relationship between russia and britain was at a breaking point in september the french garrison of malta surrendered to the british but the british refused to return the island to the knights of malta this caused a final break with paul the first who had all britons in russia arrested paul then instigated the creation of a league of armed neutrality which consisted of russia prussia denmark and sweden whose goal was to counter the royal navy and protect neutral trade denmark despite their previous conflict with great britain might have been lowed to irritate the british because that would threaten their world trade but denmark's own defense depended upon their alliance with russia and so denmark had little choice but to join the league the league of armed neutrality was a particular problem for the british not only did britain see both access to baltic trade and maintaining the french blockade as crucial but french overtures towards russia and a perceived affinity for republican ideals in denmark left the threat that the ships of the league might come under napoleon's sway the combined fleets of the league amounted to more than 120 ships of the line if napoleon got control of those vessels it would seriously threaten british dominance of the sea it could even open up britain to the threat of invasion the admiralty realized that time was of the essence choosing to attack before the fleets of the league could combine a large fleet was collected at yarmouth with the goal of defeating the league before coalesce into a real naval threat the british fleet of the command of admiral hyde parker included 19 ships of the line five frigates and numerous smaller craft their goal was to defeat the league before the baltic thaw to release the large russian fleet which was icebound in winter after some disagreement the fleet decided to first attack the danish fleet which had combined in the harbor of the danish capital of copenhagen the danes were given an ultimatum withdraw from the coalition or be attacked they refused copenhagen would not be easy to attack denmark maintained a sizable fleet of state-of-the-art ships and the harbor was too shallow for many of the largest british ships of the line the harbor was well protected by a series of fourths especially the large fortress of trek croner on the north and the danes had armed several hulks ships that weren't seaworthy as floating gun batteries while parker was a naturally cautious man he was convinced to attack by his second-in-command to whom he gave command of the battle fleet that would enter the harbor that officer was vice admiral horatio nelson the admiral had defeated the french at the battle of the nile the largest of the british ships had too deep a draft into the harbor parker would take the larger ships and bombard the forts from the north and block any attempt to reinforce the danes that may come from sweden or russia nelson took 12 ships of the line with shallower drafts and the smaller vessels to attack from the south where the fortifications were weaker nelson shifted his flag to the 74 gun third-rate hms elephant for the attack nelson's strategy was to take the fleet in line and have each anchor off a danish vessel and slug it out he was counting on superior british gunnery skills to win out the third-rate 74-gun hms edgar captained by sir george murray led the battle line but nelson's attack was in trouble from the start as the second ship in the battle line hms agamemnon grounded on a sand bar two more of nelson's ships of the line hms bologna and russell also grounded further limiting the firepower of a fleet that was already outgunned the danish battery started firing around 10 am and nelson's fleet was fully involved by 11 30. the danish fleet put up a stiff fight and the battle dragged on at about 1 30 parker on board hms london two miles away and unable to see the full battle due to the smoke but able to see the three ships that had grounded thought the battle was going badly and used a visual order firing a rocket to order nelson to withdraw this is one of the more controversial parts of the battle was parker sending a direct order or merely offering deson an opportunity as parker was concerned that nelson could not disengage without an order he was reported to have said to william donate captain of hms london i will make the signal of recall for nelson's sake if he is in the condition to continue the action he will disregard it if he has not will be excused for his retreat and no blame can be imputed to him in any case nelson acknowledged the order but did not follow it saying to captain foley of hms elephant you know foley i have only one eye i have the right to be blind sometimes and theatrically held his telescope to his blind eye and said i really do not see the signal part of the decision might have been that nelson had no easy way to withdraw and withdrawing would have left the three ships that had been grounded but nelson could see what parker could not the tide of the battle was turning the danish ships while fighting valiantly were largely men by volunteers and the british were simply making better use of their guns the guns of some of the danish ships that had been engaged first were already falling silent due to damage nelson's fleet had taken significant damage but his ships were still afloat and firing and with each minute more danish ships were being disabled by nelson's account the danish fleet had largely been silenced by 2pm although the danes insist the fleet continued to fight until 2 30. as danish resistance faltered nelson was able to bring up his bomb ships ships that were outfitted with mortars designed for bombardment the british had sent some boats to danish ships that had struck their colors and surrendered and other danes likely inexperienced volunteers and accustomed to battle conventions had fired on those boats this was contrary to rule and nelson used that as a pretense to open communications with crown prince frederick of denmark essentially nelson threatened to bombard the city if the danes did not surrender nelson's note finished with a compliment intended to make surrender less distasteful to his enemy lord nelson with humble duty to his royal highness the prince of denmark will consider this the greatest victory he has ever gained if that may be of cause of happy reconciliation and union between his most gracious sovereign and his majesty the king of denmark a ceasefire was called at 4 pm and negotiations continued through the next two days at one point the negotiations seemed to falter and nelson again threatened to bombard the city so the danes acquiesced in the end three danny ships were sunk including the 64 gun danish flagship denim brock which had been set a fire which exploded after the ceasefire killing some 250 people on board another dozen danish ships of the line were captured well nelson's fleet had been battered no ships were lost british casualties were around a thousand killed at wounded danish casualties are harder to figure but probably around twice that the british ammunity reported this is one of the most glorious important events that has ever distinguished the naval exploits of britain our gallant fleet has once more completely triumphed and by its splendid achievements over the united forces of denmark furnished another fair page to the bright annals of the british navy thus has the daring confederacy been crushed which was formed through envy of our maritime greatness and justly received its death blow from the naval preeminence it meant to humble among the ships in nelson's fleet that day was the 54 gun 4th rate hms glatton captained by william bly who would later gain notoriety as the captain of hms bounty the battle burnished the reputation of nelson who was raised to appearage as v count nelson of the nile parker on the other hand was criticized for his timidity and was recalled and his career ended denmark agreed to a 14-week armistice which would have given britain time to regroup their fleet and go to deal with the russian fleet but denmark did not withdraw from the league of armed neutrality for fear of reprisal from russia in the end the saddest part is that the entire battle could have been avoided on march 23rd officers who were disgusted that the czar was treating with the french had assassinated zarpal when he refused to abdicate they had repeatedly stabbed him with their swords and kicked him to death his official cause of death was listed as apoplexy meaning internal bleeding his successor his 23 year old son alexander had no taste for the war he denounced the league and made peace with britain had the belligerence known of paul's death before the battle the entire battle might have been avoided but the tensions had not gone away britain would attack denmark again in the second battle of copenhagen six years later for almost the exact same reasons another chaotic event in a chaotic time i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 108,556

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, denmark, great britain, horatio nelson, French revolutionary wars, naval battle

Id: oJy0ZM8z9pM

Length: 15min 8sec (908 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 11 2020