However, after receiving the Apulian cities, Ferdinand soon went back on his promise and allied himself with France's enemies Britain and Russia, which landed troops in Naples with his permission in order to guard against a possible French invasion, and to plan an attack on the Napoleonic states in central and northern Italy. The British commander was general
James Henry Craig, who had ill health at the time and had 7,000 troops, while the Russian forces were led by
Maurice Lacy and Roman Anrep. The combined army was too weak and poorly equipped to withstand any serious French attack. When the combined Austro–Russian Army was dealt a severe blow by
Napoleon at the
Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805, 30,000 French troops were freed up for a campaign against Naples. Tsar
Alexander I of Russia ordered his troops to withdraw from southern Italy to
Corfu, which they did after Lacy received the tsar's dispatch on 7 January 1806. Meanwhile, Craig was awaiting orders from
Lord Castlereagh; he wrote on 30 December that he received his most recent instructions on 16 October. Against the wishes of ambassador
Hugh Elliot, who warned evacuation would provoke the French to attack, Craig had the vastly outnumbered British troops depart Naples and set sail for the island of Sicily on 10 January 1806, ending the Anglo-Russian occupation and leaving the Neapolitan army to defend the kingdom on its own. The British fleet reached
Messina on 22 January and the soldiers disembarked. ==British Expeditionary Force==