Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - XVIII. Reign of Chales XIII, 1809–1818 - C. Administration of Charles John as Crown Prince
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320 A History of Siveden
was established, making every young man from twenty
to twenty-five years of age liable to military service.
The Battle of Leipsic, 1813. Sweden did not have to
fight alone. The alliance between Napoleon and Alex-
ander was of short duration. In 1812 Napoleon in-
vaded Eussia to add even this great state to his mighty
empire. He advanced at the head of the grandest army
the world had ever seen, a force of about a million
men. The Russians employed the same plan of cam-
paign as against Charles XII, turning their country
into a wilderness. Nearly the whole of the grand army
perished from hunger and cold.
One oppressed people after another now rose in re-
volt. England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Sweden
formed a grand coalition against Napoleon in 1813.
As a reward for the valuable assistance of Charles
John, the allies promised that for the loss of Finland,
Sweden should be compensated by the. acquisition of
Norway, which was to be torn from Denmark. The
latter state still remained in alliance with Napoleon.
By this acquisition Sweden would escape from her un-
favorable situation, hemmed in between her two hered-
itary enemies, Russia on the one side and Denmark-
Norway on the other. Old plans in Swedish politics
were now to be realized, plans reaching back to Charles
X and Charles XII, and which had more recently ap-
pealed to Gustavus III and Gustavus IV Adolphus.
At the head of 30,000 men Charles John landed in
Germany in the spring of 1813. The allied forces now
advanced from three directions against Napoleon, who
appeared in Saxony with a newly recruited army.
Charles John commanded the Northern Army, com-
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