Prince Schwarzenberg: The General who Defeated Napoleon

thank you to Dollar Shave Club for sponsoring this video go to dollarshaveclub.com /bi graphics and you'll get your starter set for just $5 let's get into it [Music] pop quiz which general defeated Napoleon if you grew up speak English chances are you answered Wellington the Duke you commanded British forces at the Battle of Waterloo Wellington was indeed the man who oversaw Emperor Napoleon's bitter ends but while Waterloo may have been the epilogue to the Napoleonic Wars it wasn't the grand finale no that had come over a year earlier when one general managed to smash Napoleon's Grand Army invade France capture Paris and forced the petty corporal to abdicate his throne and go into exile the identity of that man while that was Prince Carl Philip Vaughn Schwarzenberg the former supreme commander of the Allied forces Schwarzenberg was the first man in history to defeat Napoleon in the field when his army won the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 but Schwarzenberg wasn't merely a good general just months before he'd been a Grand Army Field Marshal fighting alongside Napoleon in Russia it even helps arrange the Emperor's marriage yet when the time came he would be only too happy to deliver his former comrade the killer blow an epic tale of brotherhood and betrayal this is the life of Prince Schwarzenberg the man who defeated Napoleon at the moment Carl Philipp von Schwarzenberg was born on April the 15th 1771 there was little in the air to suggest history was on the cusp of changing his family were old-school aristocrats comfortably settled in the kingdom of Bohemia or as that point controlled by Europe's most powerful Royals the hapsburgs rulers of both Austria and the Holy Roman Empire the Habsburgs were also super big fans of the Schwarzenberg seriously they got on like an imperial house on fire and it seemed karl was destined for a stable life in their stable Empire even though karl underwent military training as a young man no one really expected him to do anything beyond fight the odd small war for the glory of the emperor but had coal been born with second sight he might have picked a different career over in western europe a time bomb was ticking a gigantic time bomb of resentments and anger that was destined to explode with enough force to reshape the continent the name of that time bomb France and went finally went off it would very nearly destroy the stable Empire that Karl called home not that anyone in the Habsburg lands was paying attention to France right now in 1788 war broke out between Austria and the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans just as seventeen-year-old Carl von Schwarzenberg was graduating from Military Academy this being the olden days Carl immediately purchased a lefthand and ship in the Imperial cavalry and rode off to fight for the subject of the video subtitles the general who defeated Napoleon Karl's first experienced war was a bit of a mixed bag on the one hand he turned out to be a courageous leader of men on the other hands he also turned out to be a sickly weed who would spend most of his adult life or laid up with illness a year into the war Karl fell badly sick and we mean badly he was discharged and sent time to recuperate Wade spent almost two years there pestering people for news from the war however air was the news from France which would really decide his future on July the 14th 1789 an angry Persian mob stormed the Bastille lynching its command it was the first sign that something was seriously wrong with the Holy Roman Empire's Western neighbor the first spot of rain felt before an apocalyptic storm we can only see this with hindsight though in 1789 the Habsburg subjects were way too focused on the school that was the Ostrow turkish water make preparations for the oncoming hurricane come 1791 Schwarzenberg had recovered enough to return to active service at first he was posted to the Latorre dragoons but everyone knew had only got the job due to his high birth and basically ghosted him until he stormed off in a sulk so it was a quick promotion to squadron commander and then assignment to a different regiments just in time for the water ends that summer the Osman War concluded with a technical victory for Austria but so little to show for it that they might as well of stayed home for Karl this was likely a disappointment here it was his first war and it turned out to be one of those small boring was that even your history teacher forgets bar there was no need to worry another much much bigger war was just around the corner known as the War of the first coalition it would kickstart a period of turmoil that wouldn't end for another 23 years if the last few years in the Habsburg lands had been spent around with pointless Wars the last few years in France had been spent making history by 1792 the Revolution was well underway the National Assembly had deposed the king and war mongering radicals are in the ascent it was on to this potential powder kegs that the hapsburgs dropped a flaming match the declaration of pillnitz was supposed to blackmail revolutionary France into behaving by threatening war if they killed their king or attacked their neighbors but this massively backfired when the French National Assembly was all like you know what actually sounds like a great idea France declared war on April the 20th 1792 beginning what would become known as the War of the first coalition it was also the beginning of Karl von Schwarzenberg stunning career as a squadron commander for the Hapsburgs karl was perfectly placed to get stuck right into this new war he was there at the Battle of near windin on March the 18th 1793 helping to beat back the French from the Austrian Netherlands modern-day Belgium it was also there at the Battle of Licata on April the 26th 1794 leading his regiments on a near suicidal charge right into the French lines that smashed them to pieces it was this latter battle that first established Schwarzenberg name as a soldier netting him the order of Maria Theresa the Habsburg highest military honor however Schwarzenberg wasn't the only one making a name for himself in this war across the lines on the French side a brilliant young commander from Corsica was rising through the ranks pulling off impossible victories wherever he went as you've probably already guessed that brilliant young Corsican x' name was napoleon bonaparte and in just a handful of years he would go from fighting for france to ruling it the War of the first coalition finally ended in October 1797 with the Habsburg humiliated but not yet down as the name suggests peace did not last within just a little over a year the war of the second coalition had broken out and just a forewarn you there's gonna be seven of these coalition wars across this video you would really think that Europe would have gotten the don't screw with France message after just but apparently not they needed seven sadly for Schwarzenberg er to sit out the first couple of years of coalition war to war harder after falling deeply ill again in March of 1799 it's interesting to speculate where his career might have gone without this illness although he eventually became Europe's Tom general Schwarzenberg spent something like a collective decade parked on the bench due to his ill health maybe he got lucky maybe he'd have been killed in battle and vanished from history if it simply kept fighting all these coalition Wars or maybe hid now be remembered in the same breath as Napoleon himself instead of as a supporting character in the Emperor's story speaking of Napoleon it was the war of the second coalition that saw him finally explode onto the international stage on November the 9th 1799 the general overthrew the French directory in a coup taking over as first console it was the beginning of the Napoleonic era an era that would transform the entire world it was also the beginning of Schwarzenberg own journey to greatness [Music] [Applause] despite his illness Schwarzenberg was back in the fields before 1800 was out the hapsburgs must have been pretty sure that he was their ticket to victory because they promoted him to division general and assigned him to Archduke Charles the younger brother of Holy Roman Emperor Francis the seconds it was a huge promotion for a man not yet 30 and shows the confidence that was already being placed in Karl but alas one man does not an army make well unless his name is Napoleon although she Wattenberg pulled off miracles at the Battle of Hoenn Linden turning what might have been a route into an ordered retreat this was never a war the Hapsburgs could win on February the 9th 1801 francis ii signed a treaty with France ending his involvement with the war although France had essentially beaten Austria and the Holy Roman Empire the terms were still quite lenient lenient and after maintain peace for a few years in the wake of this honorable defeat Schwarzenberg stepped back from military duties to begin his second major career is that of a diplomat his first assignment was to travel to some petersburg and represent austria at the coronation of alexander the first but this was just a minor detour in his life history because well let's be honest the whole of Schwarzenberg his existence revolved around one thing and that was war and his most significant war yet was already gearing up on December the 2nd 1804 Napoleon had himself coronated Emperor in Paris around this same time Europe's other powers decided to finally put a stop to this French nonsense once and for all the third coalition formed over the winter of 1804 to 1806 Charles again sent for Schwarzenberg appointing him vice-president of the Habsburg war Council however he then proceeded to ignore all of Karl's advice which included staff along the lines of don't go to war and seriously just don't is anyone even listening to me as someone who knew warp Schwarzenberg knew the Holy Roman Empire and Austria were too weak to take on Napoleonic France yet he couldn't stop the inevitable in mid 1805 Austria joins the War of the third coalition it would be a disaster of history-making proportions the first thing seemed to be going well in battles such as Gunzburg and Hassler French forces were handily defeated allowing the Austrians to advance unfortunately what they advanced into was a trap by rights the Battle of Ulm should be a synonym of Omni shambles under the leadership of karl max the austrians advanced on were promptly encircled by Napoleon's forces and they immediately surrendered over 25,000 men were captured alongside 18 generals and basically the whole Austrian High Command the only reason we had the qualifier basically is because Schwarzenberg managed to escape when he saw what was about to happen Karl pulled together his cavalry squadrons and smashed them through the French lines and away to safety that is even more remarkable when you realize that Schwarzenberg had fallen ill again and should have been laid up in bed instead of escaping the French ill or not those Schwarzenberg made it back to Vienna where he desperately warned everyone not to repeat not to engage Napoleon's forces again if only they had listened on December the 2nd 1805 the Holy Roman Empire and Russia faced Napoleon at the battle of Austerlitz outside the city of Bruno there's a French smash their opponents so thoroughly that nothing could be salvaged in the aftermath of its defeat the holy roman empire an empire that had stood for roughly a thousand years was dismantled while the Hapsburgs were able to consolidate some of their lands including Schwarzenberg home kingdom of bohemia into the austrian empire the scale of defeat was still colossal the holy roman empire ended on the 6th of August 1806 when Schwarzenberg received the news he was so ill he appeared to be a death's door yeah the shock of the Empire's fall didn't finish him off instead he slowly began to rally although it would take three whole years before he could return to active service but this time he wouldn't be fighting against Napoleon he'll be working with him and just before we continue with today's video maybe you should consider working with Dollar Shave Club Dollar Shave Club covers all of your grooming needs shower oral care deodorants and of course most importantly shaving now I don't shave my beard that's pretty evident well actually I do shave here and here and a little bit on the neck but I do shave my head and since I switch dollar shave club that has become just a better experience because of these high-quality blades now Dollar Shave Club sent me their ultimate shave starter set which is courses you know the blades also this really weighty executive handle and unless you really fill these you don't get a good idea of you know the heft of this thing it feels really good and the weight really gives you better control then there's also these three things that come along with it and you get these in the right order of course there is the prep scrub that's what you do first then there is the shave butter which of course you put on and then you shave with the shaved butter and then afterwards what I do I rinse my head off I guess your dress rinse your face off your shaving your face and then you put on this post shaved view which is really great I like this stuff because I get a little dry on my head after a shave so this helps keep it moisturized it's fantastic you don't wash that off you just stick it on and you're done so visit dollarshaveclub.com /bi graphics and yet the ultimate shave starter set for only $5 and why not round out your grooming routine by adding any of their other high-quality products after that the restock box ships full-size products at the regular price and let's go back to the video [Music] as Prussia Russia and France Dukes it out Carl von Schwarzenberg spent his time back on light duties as an Austrian diplomat well that meant he was in st. Petersburg when Matunuck decided that Austria joining the war of the fifth coalition would be a splendid idea the future foreign minister of austria matin air would soon become an arch manipulator seriously we've done a video all about him I'd definitely check that video out for more but he wasn't quite there yet so his brilliant plan of getting Schwarzenberg to convince Russia to join the fray collapsed when Tsar Alexander said you know what I'm cool guys thanks for the offer gonna sit this one out the war of the fifth coalition would turn out to be even worse for Austria than the last one Napoleon smashed their army occupied Vienna and forced Austria to surrender a ton of territory even though Schwarzenberg managed to drag himself back to the field for the Battle of Wagner among the 5th and 6th of July 1809 air was still a humiliating defeat in the aftermath Metternich recalibrated his empire stance no longer would Austria be fighting France it would now be cozying up to it there was a whiplash inducing reversal for everyone involved within a month of Napoleon imposing a humiliating treaty on Austria Schwarzenberg was rocking up in Paris as the new ambassador coal presented his credentials to the Emperor on November the 26th it was the first time the two had ever met but Napoleon seems to have responded to the soldier within Schwarzenberg because they immediately got on like old BFFs it probably helps that Schwarzenberg was there in part to help arrange Napoleon's marriage to Archduchess Marie Louise with Austria now beat Matunuck decided to offer the eighteen-year-old Archduchess as a sacrifice guarantee Napoleon wouldn't just dismantle their empire it was Schwarzenberg job to make sure that the Union came together and he delivered in the spring of 1810 Napoleon and Marie Louise were married that summer Schwarzenberg organized a huge ball to celebrate it was a drunk happy occasion with ambassador's princes and queens all in attendance unfortunately the end of the evening would be anything but cheerful at some points a candle set fire to a curtain causing an inferno that's wept through the packed Hall 19 guests were killed in the fire among them Schwartz invokes sister in another age the tragedy might have been seen as an omen a portent of Napoleon's future but this was an enlightened era the disaster was written off as bad luck nothing more a year and a half later the Emperor began drawing up plans for his grand invasion of Russia when it came time to assemble his grand Army's foreign auxiliaries he offered Schwarzenberg the chance of leading them the Austrian accepted without even batting an eyelid it's one of the oddities of history that the man who defeated Napoleon spends the preceding year as the Emperor's comrade in arms on the 24th of June 1812 the Grand Army marched into Russia it was one of the biggest fighting forces ever assembled an international army over 600,000 strong down on its southern flank Schwarzenberg shattered the head of an Austrian force of 30,000 intending to keep an eye on things around Warsaw as Napoleon headed east to give the Russians hell but first the Emperor would have to find some Russians to actually fight you probably already know the story of the Grand Army's invasion of Russia out the Russians fell back without fighting burning crops and cities until even Moscow was in flames how they let Napoleon take the dead capital and then just sat back and waited for winter to do its work it's curious to imagine how this must have appeared to Schwarzenberg stuck cooling his heels on the very edges of the action he witnessed a whole ton of soldiers marched off across the Berezina River in summer confidence a victory just a few months later he got to watch as that Army's frozen bedraggled remnants tried to Scrabble back to safety the Russian army snapping at their heels it was a hideous reversal of fortune one only made possible by temperatures so low that Napoleon's troops had died in droves but Schwarzenberg didn't gloat over his former enemies comeuppance instead he sprang into action it was his Austrian auxiliaries who formed the rear guard for the retreating Grand Army keeping the advancing Russians at bay allowing Napoleon to regroup it was a courageous stand but also dare we said it was a bit of a stupid one for the first time ever napoleon was losing wasn't this the exact right time for the Austrians to turn on the French but then that was Carl Philipp von Schwarzenberg he was a soldier not a leader if it was his duty as a soldier to fight alongside France then by God hit fight alongside her until he drew his final breath for saving his retreat Napoleon promoted Schwarzenberg to Field Marshal a huge honor for a foreigner in the Empress forces yet Schwarzenberg would soon no longer be a part of the French war machine with Napoleon's Russian venture blowing up in his face meta knew who is back in Austria being all like hey guys we don't have to worry about their guy anymore great yes as Austria shifted to an officially neutral position Schwarzenegger led his soldiers south away from the action back onto Austrian territory his men say if he then hightailed it back to Paris to try and broker peace by now Napoleon was back in the French capital even as his army continued to suffer in Central Europe Schwarzenberg begged his former comrade begged him to do a deal maybe he was just following Matan ex orders or maybe Col really didn't want to see the French Empire the place it now lived for years totally collapse either way Napoleon rebuffed him Emperor still certain he could win this war at last Schwarzenberg gave up shortly after in August 1813 meta Nick brought Austria into the newly formed sixth coalition alongside Russia Prussia and Belgium it was decided this huge Allied Force needed a supreme commander someone who could head its vast operations across Europe someone even Napoleon might respect you can almost imagine Matunuck giving a smirk glancing at Schwarzenberg and saying I've got just the guy [Music] although she wattenberg technically became supreme commander of the Allies that summer in reality he wasn't as supreme as he may have liked for one thing every nation fighting the war had wildly different goals and different ideas of how to achieve them for another call zone Emperor + Tsar Alexander and precious King were also on the war council and you better believe they expected Carl to defer to them this would lead to disaster at Dresden in August of 1813 the war council decided to advance on the city despite Schwarzenberg basically saying dudes it's definitely a trap but the war axe refused to listen so the Allies advanced Napoleon sprang his trap and the sixth coalition was nearly destroyed it was only Napoleon's own screw-ups that meant the war didn't just finish there with a French victory but Schwarzenberg was in charge of general strategy and after The Dresden debacle people started to listen shorten Berg's plan was simple go slow don't split our forces pick off Napoleon's field marshals one by one and for God's sake don't go prancing into any more bloody traps in effect it became a war of attrition with Schwarzenberg huge army grinding slowly on denying napoleon the epic battles had been expecting until the grand army no longer held the advantage finally in mid-october Schwarzenberg was ready to meet his former comrade on the field the Battle of Leipzig also known as the Battle of Nations was the largest single engagement of monopoly onic Wars likely the largest European battle prior to World War one across four days I have a half a million men fought to decide the fate of Europe it was a titanic punch up the Avengers end game to all these coalition war sequels and at the end of it the Allies stood victorious it was a close thing on the first day Napoleon nearly broke Rosenberg's Royal Army of Bohemia before reinforcements could arrive but the tired soon turns the turning point was Schwarzenberg personally leading a suicide or counter-offensive cavalry charge that drove Napoleon's troops back breaking as advantage it was the same ballsy move had pulled way back during the war of the first coalition a war that now must have seemed like a distant memory and once again it worked by October the 18th the battle was over there had been a hundred and twenty seven thousand casualties that the Allies had done it for the first time ever Napoleon had been defeated in the field not by Russian weather but by another general Carl Philipp von Schwarzenberg had just made history in the aftermath Schwarzenberg pushed for an invasion of France only to be rebuffed by nationair who wanted to give the whole peace thing another try but Napoleon's ego wouldn't allow it so On January the 1st 1814 Schwarzenberg divided the Allied army in two and marched half of it into southern France the French campaign is today a great what if the Bonaparte ists Napoleon fought so well and won so many battles that you almost want to declare him the moral victor had he been up against a slightly weaker opponents the war could have ended very differently but Schwarzenberg wasn't weak he held his nerve as his forces inexorably moved across France ignored the cries to press his advantage and go storming ahead and traps it was only when Napoleon had ceased to cut the Allied lines of communication that Schwarzenberg rolled everything on the biggest gamble of his career instead of pursuing his enemy he raced north for Paris on March the 31st 1814 coalition troops entered the French capital realizing his mistake Napoleon tried to double back and lead the city's defenses but it was too late Schwartz invoked the city two days later on April the second the French Senate deposed Napoleon four days after that and the Emperor abdicated ending his reign of course this wasn't the end of Napoleon in February 1815 the Emperor escaped his island's prison and returned to France kicking off a period known as the hundred days it was this period that ended with Waterloo with Wellington defeating Napoleon for the final time but by then carve on Schwarzenberg part in this story was already over it ended with him marching into Paris that day triumphant the first man to have ever bested Napoleon yet his triumph it didn't last long in October of 1820 Schwarzenberg was back at Leipzig revisiting the very site of the battle at 14 seven years earlier while surveying the battlefield the former general suffered a catastrophic stroke he died just days later he wasn't yet even 50 when the news broke Austria declared three days of mourning the Russian Tsar said Europe has lost a hero and I a friend one that I shall miss as long as I live for everyone alive in 1820 it was clear that a legend had just died a Titan passed on yet today some 200 years later who still remembers Carl Philipp von Schwarzenberg while Napoleon Wellington and even Matunuck are still famous Schwarzenberg has slipped through the cracks of history disappearing into the footnotes partly that's because of the hundred days if your major claim to fame is beating Napoleon it kind of puts a damper on things if Napoleon then returns yet the hundred days was just a sad tribute act while Wellington was undoubtedly talented his victory was only so final because Schwarzenberg had already laid the groundwork it already showed the French their emperor's feet were made of clay in learning about history it's all too tempting to only focus on the headline acts to only read about the people whose names still resonate now but the story of Prince trottenberg shows that sometimes it's the most fascinating characters who get forgotten the most talented men who slip into obscurity we will remember Wellington today but we should also take care to remember Karl von Schwarzenberg the general who defeated Napoleon so I really hope you found their video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below also support this show by supporting our fantastic sponsor Dollar Shave Club and I'll see you next time you

Channel: Biographics

Views: 187,001

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, Prince Schwarzenberg, Prince Schwarzenberg bio, Prince Schwarzenberg biographics, Prince Schwarzenberg life, Prince Schwarzenberg Austria, Prince Schwarzenberg Castle, Prince Schwarzenberg vs Napoleon

Id: PavB3om0aQM

Length: 26min 29sec (1589 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 08 2020