1805–1812 In the
War of the Third Coalition he held command of a division under
Mack and when Napoleon surrounded
Ulm in October, Schwarzenberg was one of the band of cavalry under the
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este which cut its way through the hostile lines. Although Schwarzenberg and Archduke Ferdinand were able to extricate their units, the unfortunate army of General Mack had to surrender to Napoleon's army, which struck a blow to Austria's military morale and led to its eventual defeat. In the same year, Schwarzenberg received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa and in 1809 he was awarded the
Order of the Golden Fleece. In 1809, war once again broke out between Napoleon and Austria, due to Austria's frustration with their territorial concessions to Napoleon and to avenge the humiliations suffered by Austria during previous wars of the coalitions. During the early stages of the war, Austria was successful in defeating Napoleon at the
Battle of Aspern-Essling, under the command of
Archduke Charles of Austria, and was confident in its victory. Schwarzenberg took part in the
Battle of Wagram (July 1809), which the Austrians lost and in which he led a cavalry division in the Reserve Corps and was soon afterwards promoted to general of cavalry. In 1812, Schwarzenberg signed the
Treaty of Paris, making Austria an ally of France. The Austrians were forced by Napoleon to send Schwarzenberg (whom Napoleon held in high esteem), commanding an Austrian corps of around 30,000 men, to the
Grande Armée for the
French invasion of Russia. He had to show enough commitment to please Napoleon without angering Russia. In the end he failed to protect the Grande Armée from a flank attack
at the Berezina. His troops fought bravely and with courage, and he led his armies to victory at
Gorodetschna and
Wolkowisk. In late November his soldiers withdrew into winter quarters at Bialystok under a verbal agreement with the Russians. Of the 30,000 soldiers who entered Russia under Schwarzenberg's command, 7,000 were killed in battle and another 4,000 died of disease and exposure. Napoleon said in his memoirs, that Schwarzenberg, instead of advancing to Minsk, retreated to Warsaw and abandoned the French army thus allowing
Chichagov to seize Minsk. Afterwards, under instructions from Napoleon, he remained for some months inactive at
Pultusk.
1813–1815 In 1813, after Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia failed, the allied nations, which included Russia,
Prussia,
Sweden, and
Britain, formed
the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon. At first, Austria did not join the Coalition, instead trying to negotiate a peace treaty with Napoleon, with
Klemens von Metternich the Austrian
Foreign Minister being sent to personally meet the Emperor of the French. The conditions set by Austria were that the French puppet states, such as the
Confederation of the Rhine and client kingdoms in
Italy, be dissolved,
Poland be re-partitioned, and the
Illyrian Provinces and other French-occupied Austrian territories (since 1797) be given back to Austria. Napoleon refused the deal, considering it a "humiliation" rather than a peace treaty. When Austria, after many hesitations, then joined the coalition against Napoleon, Schwarzenberg, recently appointed to the supreme command the
Austrian army, was appointed commander-in-chief of the allied
Army of Bohemia, numbering around 230,000 men. This was the first time Schwarzenberg held senior command of a large army in his career and he could now lead this army in ways that he deemed necessary, taking more decisions and deciding strategy for the allies. ''
Johann Peter Krafft. This painting depicts the aftermath of the
Battle of Leipzig, in which Prince Schwarzenberg (on horseback) reports to
Alexander I of Russia (right),
Francis II of Austria (middle) and
Frederick William III of Prussia (left) of the allied victory. As such, he was the senior of the allied generals who conducted the
campaign of 1813–1814. The allies faced many odds, including Napoleon's bold tactics, so the allies were in a dilemma; either to face Napoleon in battle or retreat. The allied commanders then came up with an idea to defeat him in battle and Schwarzenberg was a major pioneer of this strategy, which is now known as the
Trachenberg Plan. The idea was that rather than facing Napoleon directly, they would split their respective armies and attack where Napoleon wasn't or when they could combine their armies against him. The plan proved a success and led to several allied victories. Under his command, Schwarzenberg disobeyed the plan not to engage Napoleon directly in battle and the allied Army of Bohemia was mauled by Napoleon at the
Battle of Dresden on 26–27 August and driven back into Bohemia. However, his army defeated pursuing French forces at the
Second Battle of Kulm (17 September 1813). Returning to the fray, he led his army north again and played a major role in Napoleon's decisive defeat at the
Battle of Leipzig, also known as the "
Battle of the Nations" on 16–18 October. At the battle, together with the monarchs
Emperor Alexander I of Russia,
Emperor Francis of Austria, and
Fredrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Schwarzenberg directed the battle and because of the cooperation of the allies against Napoleon at Leipzig, this turned the tide of the war in the allies' favour. After the Battle at Leipzig, during the invasion of France in 1814, he attacked through Switzerland and defeated a French force at the
Battle of Bar-sur-Aube on 27 February. It marked the first in nearly 20 years that a foreign army had invaded the French homeland. He repelled an attack by Napoleon in the
Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube on 20–21 March and overcame the last barrier before
Paris by winning the
Battle of Fère-Champenoise on 30 March. Schwarzenberg's Austrian army, together with Marshal
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's Prussian army and General
Barclay de Tolly's Russian army besieged the city of Paris on 26 March. After a day of fighting, the French Marshals
Auguste de Marmont and
Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey, realized that all hope was lost and sensing that Paris could not survive a siege by a superior army, surrendered the city to the allied army. The capture of the French capital on 31 March after the
Battle of Paris resulted in the overthrow of Napoleon and subsequently his abdication at the
Treaty of Fontainebleau signed on 11 April. This eventually led to Napoleon's brief exile in the island of
Elba in 1814. The capture of Paris successfully ended Napoleon's rule and domination of
Europe, and after, the
Great Powers began the rebuilding of Europe's political and geographic structure at the
Congress of Vienna. The next year, during the
Hundred Days, when Napoleon escaped from
Elba and regained the French throne, Schwarzenberg commanded the Army of the Upper Rhine (an Austrian-allied army of about a quarter of a million men) in the
hostilities that followed. However, as the allies amassed their forces, the Austrians did not have to fight a single battle, because the Anglo-Allied Army, under the
Duke of Wellington and the Prussians under Field Marshal Blücher, jointly defeated Napoleon at the
Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Thus the twenty year period of instability and conflict in Europe came to an end and the Congress of Vienna was able to complete its work. The agreements and conditions of the congress led to the redrawing of the map of Europe and creating a new balance power between the
Great Powers of the continent, aiming to prevent further major conflicts in Europe. This turned out to be successful and led to a period of relative calm and peace between the European nations for half a century. ==Diplomatic career==