The Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III, influenced…

September 1806 CE

The Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III, influenced by his wife Queen Louise and the war party in Berlin, had made the decision in August to go to war independently of any other great power, save the distant Russia.

Another course of action might have involved openly declaring war the previous year and joining Austria and Russia in the Third Coalition.

In fact, the Tsar had visited the Prussian king and queen at the tomb of Frederick the Great in Potsdam that very autumn, and the monarchs had secretly sworn to make common cause against Napoleon.

Had Prussian forces been engaged against the French in 1805, this might have contained Napoleon and prevented the eventual Allied disaster at Austerlitz.

In any event, Prussia had vacillated in the face of the swift French invasion of Austria, then hastily professed neutrality once the Third Coalition was crushed.

When Prussia does eventually declare war against France on September 25, its main ally Russia still remains far away, remobilizing.

The electorate of Saxony will be Prussia's sole German ally.

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Berlin Berlin Germany View →

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Alexander I of Russia View → Charles XIV John of Sweden View → Frederick William III of Prussia View → Joachim Murat View → Johann Philipp Palm View → Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz View → Napoleon View →

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Saxony, Electorate of View → Berg, Duchy of View → Sweden, (second) Kingdom of View → Bavaria, Electorate of View → Brunswick-Lüneburg, Electorate of (Electorate of Hanover) View → Prussia, Kingdom of View → Russian Empire View → Britain (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) View → Austrian Empire View → France, (first) Empire of View →

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Napoleonic Wars View → Fourth Coalition, War of the View →

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