Two hundred years after the 'peace' of Tilsit

  • 2007-06-27
  • By Gary Peach

CARVING UP EUROPE: It was 200 years ago that Napoleon and Czar Alexander met in a makeshiftboathouse on the Neman River to sign the Treaty of Tilsit, as depicted in this 1807 painting by Adolphe Roehn.

KLAIPEDA - Prussia's Frederick Wilhelm III and his wife, Louise, first hosted Russia's Alexander I in 1801 in Memel (now Klaipeda), at the time a Prussian backwater on the edge of a vast Russian empire. Apparently the town failed to impress the palace-spoiled czar. So when Frederick Wilhelm asked the newly crowned Russian emperor what he liked most about Memel, Alexander responded by saying, "Your wife!"

There's every reason to believe it's true. We know that Alexander was unhappily married 's one result of which was nine illegitimate children 's and at the time more than a bit jittery: a few months earlier his father, Paul I, was assassinated in St. Petersburg. What's more, Frederick Wilhelm, though Alexander's senior, sorely needed Russia as an ally, and Alexander knew it. So the czar could allow himself the impertinence.

Most of all, history tells us of Queen Louise's charm, aplomb and physical attractiveness. In her era she was a living legend. Her forceful personality and strength of character contrasted with her husband's indecision and lack of confidence. Seeing the apathy among Prussian troops at the battle of Jena, Louise even hopped on a steed and rode among the soldiers, rallying them to battle (this led one observer to quip that the only man on the battlefield that day had been a queen).
Louise was, in short, irresistible. Well, almost. In July 1807, she met her match. Traveling to occupied Tilsit (now Sovetsk in the Kaliningrad region), which just weeks earlier had been her territory but was now occupied, Louise turned on all the charm she could muster in order to save even a parcel of Prussia from the conqueror himself 's Napoleon.

The luncheon between the Prussian queen and French emperor was part of the Treaties of Tilsit signed in July 1807 's 200 years ago next week 's in the middle of the Neman River between contemporary Sovetsk and the Lithuanian village Panemune, about 130 kilometers south of Klaipeda. Today a bridge spans the river near the location. Its name: the Queen Louise Bridge.
Though the curious anniversary will likely pass without a blip, the significance of those pacts 's as well as the meal shared by Louise and Napoleon 's would have an impact on Europe for nearly a century.

Youthful endeavor
Perhaps what is most striking about the peace of Tilsit 's consisting of two treaties, between France and Russia on July 7 and France and Prussia on July 9 's is the age of the principal players. Alexander was 29, Frederick Wilhelm was 36, Louise was 31, and Napoleon was 37.
No less amazing was the setting for the treaty with Russia: a makeshift boathouse in the middle of the Neman River, between contemporary Lithuania and the Kaliningrad enclave. It was here, while floating, that Alexander and Napoleon 's not unlike Molotov and Ribbentrop in 1939 's divided Europe between themselves.
Also, like the nefarious pact of 1939, the treaties of July 1807  proved ineffective in preventing a history-altering clash of two opposing systems of government. Inevitably, the Baltic nations were caught in the middle.

For Napoleon, the Tilsit treaties provided a respite after a grueling, blood-soaked campaign across the continent, from Paris to Memel. After the beating, his troops incurred at Eylau (now Bagrationovsk in the Kaliningrad region) in February, the emperor needed time to recuperate.
The Prussian royalty 's the Hohenzollern dynasty 's had already moved its capital from Berlin to Memel (Klaipeda). In fact, Frederick Wilhelm III abolished serfdom in 1807 in Memel in the hope of galvanizing the Prussian peasantry against the Napoleonic invaders. Today there is a plaque on the building where the decree was signed.
It was Alexander who had requested that Napoleon meet with Louise. At first the Frenchman was reluctant, but finally he consented. Louise wanted to save at least part of the kingdom of Prussia (which was only 106 years old and therefore the youngest in Europe), and to do that she had to enchant Napoleon, despiser of all things aristocratic.

Her impassioned pleas had no influence on the emperor. At first she tried to maintain the Prussian kingdom, at least in name, and when that failed, she attempted to hold onto a province or two. Still refuted, Louise finally blustered: "Well, at least let me have Magdeburg!"
Napoleon refused. Later he would admit in a letter that he knew in advance that he had to be on guard against the queen and that the entire purpose of the meeting was so that she could manipulate him. His keen insight shielded him from the queen's entreaties, which may have even backfired. In the end, Napoleon forced the Prussian royalty to reduce the size of their army by half and to pay indemnities of 100 million francs to France.

Understandably, Louise wept with her whole heart and soul. She was now a queen confined to remote Memel. Talleyrand, Napoleon's chief diplomat, was so moved that he tried consoling her. So indignant was he by the draconian treatment of the Prussian royalty that he later resigned as foreign minister. The relationship between Talleyrand and Napoleon would never be the same.

Volunteers
Napoleon's 600,000-strong Grand Army marched into Russia five years later. For many Lithuanians, the invasion represented a long-awaited opportunity to revolt against the despotic czarist regime. In fact, from 1807 to 1812, some 20,000 Lithuanians volunteered to fight in the armed forces of the Duchy of Warsaw, a region created by the Treaties of Tilsit.
The rest is well-traveled history. Napoleon entered Lithuania on June 27, 1812, and spent 18 days. The Grand Army returned almost six months later 's on Dec. 9 's a threadbare, weather-worn shadow of its former enormity. Vilnius' streets filled with hungry, diseased soldiers. Local residents were so terrified by the sight that they barricaded themselves indoors. It is believed some 20,000 Napoleonic soldiers died in the Lithuanian capital.

Fate was also cruel to Queen Louise. Of the four Tilsit negotiators, she was first to die. In fact, she passed away at the age of 34, three years after her luncheon with Napoleon. She did not live to see the ruin of the French emperor whom she so deeply loathed.
She did, however, get the last laugh through progeny. Alexander's brother, Czar Nikolai I, married Louise's daughter, Charlotte, who after accepting Orthodox Christianity became Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova. She would be the mpress consort of Russia for 30 years.

Best of all, Louise's son, Wilhelm, would become the first kaiser of a united Germany in 1871 after Prussia defeated France in 1871. As if to avenge the cruelty played against his mother in Tilsit, Wilhelm had the coronation held in Versailles, for all of France to witness.