Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The War of the Spanish Succession Editorial Reviews Review …this book provides an excellent account of a naval battle often times lost in the emphasis placed upon the Battle of the Nile and Trafalgar. Professor Ole Feldbaek is a professional historian and academic at Copenhagen University. He has numerous literary works to his credit. Product details File Size: August 16, Sold by: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Showing of 3 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews.
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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. This book was detailed enough to satisfy the military aspect of the battle and did a good job of revealing what both sides in the conflict faced. Denmark was definitely caught in a bind because of the political machinations involved with the League of Armed Neutrality. This book also deals well with the personalities involved. Good overview book for those who know little about the battle and the politics behind the battle.
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One person found this helpful. This is a slow read but if you have a smidge of Danish blood it is great history mixed with the political background. Definitely only for those fascinated with non-fiction historical accounts. The Danes were easily able to reinforce the ships, even replacing the captain of one ship mid-battle. After three hours of intense fighting, Parker began to worry. His squadron was still slowly edging towards the fighting, but was still some way away from being able play an active part in the battle.
From his distance, the Danish fire appeared to be undimmed.
Three British ships of the line were grounded, and the frigates were under fire from the Trekroner. Parker was beginning to consider giving the signal to discontinue the action. Parker did not expect Nelson to automatically obey the order. While Nelson could be relied on to act as Parker intended, there was always the risk that his captains would see the order and obey it. This is what happened to Captain Riou and his frigates.
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Riou had little choice but to obey, but as his ship was turning to leave the battle, he was cut in two by enemy fire. It was at this point that the famous incident of the blind eye occurred. Our best eyewitness for the events on the Elephant is Colonel William Stewart, the commander of the infantry. This was typical of Nelson. Only a commander with his enormous self confidence would have been willing to ignore a direct order from his commander in chief. His characteristics were well known in the fleet, and Parker was well aware that he could trust his subordinate not to obey the order to discontinue.
What Parker could not see was that the Danish fire had already started to slacken. The men to reinforce the Danish ships had to be taken from the shore batteries, weakening their fire. The ships themselves were increasingly crippled. The first break in the Danish line came at about 2 pm, when the Nyborg , 4th in the Danish line, attempted to make a dash for the harbour, taking the 12th in line Aggershuus in tow. Both ships quickly sank. A third ship, the frigate Hjaelperen managed to escape. By half past two, most Danish fire had ended. This was not quite the end of the battle.
The Trekroner battery was still firing, while the inexperienced crews of several Danish ships kept on firing after their officers had signalled their surrender. If the battle had been against the French, Nelson would have had no qualms about continuing until the enemy was utterly destroyed, but he had no such personal grudge against the Danes.
Many of the Danish ships had actually surrendered, but there was still sporadic firing, making it too risky for the British to take their prizes. If there had been no truce, Nelson would probably have sent in the fire ships and burnt out the Danish ships. Fortunately, it did not come to that. This letter was sent back under a flag of truce, at about three in the afternoon. When this flag reached the battle, all firing stopped. Nelson replied with a second letter Nelson's second letter to the Crown Prince , where he offered to all the Danes to remove their wounded, while the British would take off the unwounded prisoners, and then seize or burn the surrendered ships.
In the event, only one Danish ship was seized the Holsteen. The events of the day did not end with the fighting. The Danish flagship Dannebrog had been reducing to a burning wreck in the fighting. At about half past four she exploding, killing over men. In all the Danes probably suffered killed and wounded, compared to killed and wounded.
Copenhagen was one of the bloodiest naval battles of the entire revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Most of the British ships had sustained serious damage during the battle. The Monarch ran onto a shoal and had to be pushed over it by the Ganges. Both the Elephant and the Defiance ran aground, and could not be pulled free until nightfall. How the already badly damaged British ships would have coped if the Trekroner guns were still firing can only be imagined. Having understandably left the conduct of the battle to Nelson, Parker was now equally willing to let him handle the diplomacy.
All agree that crowds gathered to watch Nelson on his way to the palace. He was offered a carriage, but chose to walk through the crowds. Danish accounts suggest that he was watched in silent respect. Neither account is likely to be entirely true. Nelson had become a hero across Europe after the Nile, and so some popular acclaim was likely. Merchants involved in the British trade were unlikely to have supported the armed neutrality. On the other hand, the British fleet had been threatening to bombard the city on the previous day, and the Danish wounded must have been on many minds.
The negotiations with Crown Prince did not go well. Nelson did not believe that there was much hope of a peaceful resolution to the trade issues. The Danes denied that their actions were aimed against Britain, and refused to budge on their claim to free trade.
Battle of Copenhagen
Leaving the main issue unresolved, the negotiations now moved on to an armistice. The British aim was to get a long enough armistice to give them time to deal with the Russians, seen as the main enemy. Eventually, on 9 April a 14 week armistice was agreed. The armistice allowed the British free access to Copenhagen. The Danes left the Armed Neutrality for the duration of the armistice. In return, Copenhagen was not attacked and the Danish prisoners were returned on parole.
Parker was free to move into the Baltic to confront the main enemy. After recovering at Copenhagen, the British fleet moved on into the Baltic. There, they discovered that events in Russian had already given them the results they had been sent to achieve. On 24 March, Tsar Paul had been assassinated, and replaced by his son Alexander. News of the new Russian ruler and his attitudes spread slowly. By 23 April, the Russian minister at Copenhagen was certain that the new Tsar would not risk war with Britain, but Nelson for one was not convinced. Parker was unwilling to risk the voyage to Russia while the Swedish fleet threatened his rear, and had remained inactive.
On 5 May, orders for his replacement reached the fleet. Parker was recalled, and Nelson given command of the fleet. Amongst his orders was a command not to let the Swedish and Russian fleets combine. The Swedish fleet had taken shelter in Karlskrona, on the south coast of Sweden. The Swedish fleet decided to remain firmly in port.
Having detached six ships of the line to watch Karlskrona, Nelson took the remaining eleven to Reval modern Tallinn , where he hoped to find a Russian fleet. When he arrived on 14 May, he discovered that the fleet had escaped up the Gulf of Finland to the strongly defended Russian naval base at Kronstad, near St. He also discovered that negotiations to end the Armed Neutrality were underway. In order to avoid damaging the negotiations, Nelson withdrew from Reval on 17 May. Two days later, the Russian and Swedish trade embargoes were withdrawn.
A month later Nelson was replaced as commander in chief, largely on grounds of genuine ill health. The long term results of the battle of Copenhagen were unsatisfactory. Even before Nelson was replaced, the Danes were trading with the French. The main issue of free ships vs. Parker gave Nelson the twelve ships-of-the-line with the shallowest drafts, and all the smaller ships in the fleet. On 30 March Nelson, and his second-in-command, Rear Admiral Thomas Graves , accompanied by Captain Domett and the commanding officer of the troops [ who?
Fixed batteries had a significant advantage over ship borne cannon owing to their greater stability and larger guns, [6] and the Danes could reinforce their ships during the battle. Nelson's plan was for the British ships to approach the weaker, southern end of the Danish defences in a line parallel to the Danish one. As the foremost ship drew alongside a Danish ship, it would anchor and engage that ship.
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The remainder of the line would pass outside the engagement until the next British ship drew alongside the next Danish ship, and so on. Troops would land and assault the Tre Kroner fortress once the fleet had subdued the Danish line of ships. With a southerly wind on 2 April, Nelson picked his way through the shoals. The loss of the three vessels required hurried changes in the line and weakened the force's northern end. The Danish batteries started firing at The British ships anchored by the stern about a cable from the line of Danish ships and batteries, which was relatively long range, and the two exchanged broadsides until a ship ceased firing.
The British encountered heavy resistance, partly because they had not spotted the low-lying floating batteries, and partly because of the courage with which the Danes fought. The northern Danish ships, which were rigged and manned, did not enter the battle but remained on station as reserve units, even though the wind direction forced Parker's squadron to approach only slowly. At 1 pm, the battle was still in full swing.
Admiral Parker could see little of the battle owing to gun smoke, but could see the signals on the three grounded British ships, with Bellona and Russell flying signals of distress and Agamemnon a signal of inability to proceed. If he is in condition to continue the action, he will disregard it; if he is not, it will be an excuse for his retreat and no blame can be imputed to him.
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Nelson ordered that the signal be acknowledged, but not repeated. He turned to his flag captain , Thomas Foley , and said "You know, Foley, I only have one eye — I have the right to be blind sometimes," and then, holding his telescope to his blind eye , said "I really do not see the signal! Riou withdrew his force, which was then attacking the Tre Kroner fortress, exposing himself to heavy fire that killed him. It was at this time that the battle swung decisively to the British, as their superior gunnery took effect.
The guns of the dozen southernmost Danish ships had started to fall silent owing to the damage they had sustained, and the fighting moved northward. According to British eyewitness accounts, much of the Danish line had fallen silent by 2 pm. In addition, the reinforcements of the ships from the shore batteries were causing the latter to become ineffective. Nyborg tried to leave the line with Aggershuus in tow, but both sank.
There he engaged three of Parker's ships, [ clarification needed ] which had lost their manoeuvrability after being badly damaged and had drifted within range. Perhaps because of inexperienced crews, several Danish ships fired on British boats sent out to them after their officers had signalled their surrender. Nelson said that he "must either send on shore and stop this irregular proceeding, or send in our fire ships and burn them" and went to his cabin to write a note to the Danes. He sent it with a Danish-speaking officer, Captain Sir Frederick Thesiger, under a flag of truce to the Danish-Norwegian regent, Crown Prince Frederik , who had been watching the battle from the ramparts of the Citadel.
To the Brothers of Englishmen, the Danes Lord Nelson has directions to spare Denmark when she is no longer resisting, but if firing is continued on the part of Denmark, Lord Nelson will be obliged to set on fire the floating batteries he has taken, without having the power of saving the brave Danes who have defended them. Some British and Danish officers [ who?
Furthermore, neither side had deployed the ships which they both held in reserve, of which the Danish reserve was arguably the larger, and the truce effectually prevented this deployment at a moment where the British fleet was exposed. Three British ships of the line had lost all their manoeuvrability and had at the time of the truce drifted within the range of Tre Kroner ' s heavy guns which, like the other fortresses, had until then been out of range of the British ships. If your guns are not better pointed than your pens, then you will make little impression on Copenhagen. Lord Nelson's object in sending the Flag of Truce was humanity; he therefore consents that hostilities shall cease, and that the wounded Danes may be taken on shore.
And Lord Nelson will take his prisoners out of the Vessels, and burn and carry off his prizes as he shall see fit. Lord Nelson, with humble duty to His Royal Highness the Prince of Denmark, will consider this the greatest victory he has ever gained, if it may be the cause of a happy reconciliation and union between his own most gracious Sovereign, and His Majesty the King of Denmark.
Following him there at 4 pm, [ clarification needed ] a twenty-four-hour ceasefire was agreed. After fighting had ended, the Danish flagship Dannebrog exploded at 4: By the end of the afternoon, three more badly-damaged British ships ran aground, including Elephant. The Danish-Norwegian ships had been partly manned by volunteers, many having little or no naval experience, and as they were not all listed after the battle, it is uncertain what the exact Danish-Norwegian losses were.
Estimates vary between 1, and 2, captured, killed or wounded. Of the Danish ships engaged in the battle, two had sunk, one had exploded, and twelve had been captured. The British could not spare men for manning prizes as they feared that further battles were to come. They burned eleven of the captured ships, and only one, Holsteen , was sailed to England with the wounded under surgeon William Fergusson.