1806 | Political Events
Political Events
Former British prime minister William Pitt the Younger dies at London January 23 at age 46, leaving such large debts that the House of Commons has to raise £40,000 to pay off his creditors, but he has contrived to provide his housekeeper, Lady Hester Stanhope, 30, with an annual pension of £1,200. She will sail from Britain with a female companion in 1810, survive a shipwreck off the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean, and eventually settle in the Middle East, where she will wield considerable power for some 20 years. A "Ministry of all the Talents" takes office February 11 under the leadership of Pitt's cousin William Wyndham Grenville, 46, Baron Grenville (of Wotton-under-Bernewood), whose father, George, was prime minister in the 1760s.
Former privateer and Rhode Island patriot Simeon Potter dies at his native Bristol February 20 at age 86.
Admiral de Villeneuve commits suicide in an inn at Rennes April 22 at age 42 while awaiting news of what action Napoleon may take against him for his failure last year at the Battle of Trafalgar; London announces a blockade of the European coast from Brest to the Elbe May 6 but permits ships of neutral nations to pass if they are not carrying goods to or from enemy ports (see 1807).
Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina of Naples flee to Sicily in January, and Napoleon installs his older brother Joseph on the throne of Naples (see 1805). French forces under Gen. Masséna conquer Calabria, and Napoleon makes Masséna duc de Rivoli, but British forces land from the sea in Calabria to support guerrillas opposed to the Bonapartes (by some accounts the guerrillas are an army of brigands whose former chief, Fra Diavolo, has been pensioned and given an estate by Maria Carolina; now headed by Cardinal Ruffo, it plunders the countryside, allegedly with encouragement from Maria Carolina). The Battle of Maida July 4 ends in a British victory over the French, who have 6,440 men to General Sir John Stuart's 5,000 but suffer 1,785 casualties to Stuart's 387.
Napoleon installs his younger brother Louis on the throne of Holland, once the Batavian republic.
The Holy Roman Empire that has existed since Christmas of 800 ends July 12 in the Confederation of the Rhine organized under French auspices. The confederation brings most of the German states under French domination and precipitates a war with Prussia.
Statesman Charles James Fox dies at London September 13 at age 57 while working to start peace negotiations with France and is buried in Westminster Abbey. A longtime political opponent of the Younger Pitt (he also opposed the war with France), he was recalled to his office as commissioner of the Treasury in January following Pitt's death.
Prussia's Friedrich Wilhelm III declares war on France at the instigation of his wife, Queen Louisa, but his forces are no match for those of the French. The Battle of Jena 13 miles east of Weimar October 14 ends in victory for Napoleon over Prince Friedrich Hohenlohe, whose 55,000-man army with 120 guns is routed by 54,000 Frenchmen with 70 guns. Marshal Augereau commands one corps of the French Army, which loses 4,000 killed and wounded in the action (Prussian losses total 25,000 killed, wounded, and captured). Marshal Davout triumphs October 14 at the Battle of Auerstädt, fought some 13 miles north of Jena with 26,000 men and 44 guns facing a Prussian force of 50,000 with 230 guns. Friedrich Wilhelm takes personal command at Auerstadt after Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, sustains a mortal wound (Brunswick dies outside Hamburg November 10 at age 71), but flees to Russia after losing 10,000 killed, wounded, and captured (French losses total 7,000 killed and wounded). The French capture 200 guns in the two engagements. Napoleon occupies Berlin October 27 and proclaims a paper blockade of Britain November 21; his Berlin Decree inaugurates the Continental system designed to deny the British food and supplies from the Continent.
Polish general Jan Dabrowski arrives at Poznan November 6 on orders from Napoleon to promote a rising against the Russians; by year's end he has organized seven Polish units (see 1807).
British troops occupy the Cape of Good Hope.
Mutiny breaks out in the Indian Army at Vellore May 10 following an order by Lord William Bentinck, governor of Madras, who has forbidden troops to wear their traditional beards and turbans or bear caste marks (see Bentinck, 1803). The South Indian troops break into the fort where the sons of Tippu Sultan have been imprisoned since their surrender at Seringapatam in 1799; British troops under the command of Colonel Robert Gillespie suppress the uprising and retake the fort within hours, but only after about 130 of their number (and uncounted numbers of Indians) have been killed; Lord Bentinck withdraws his order, the Mysore princes are transferred to Calcutta, London recalls Lord Bentinck, and although he will be given command of a brigade at Corunna in Spain 3 years hence he will struggle for the next 20 years to clear his name and regain his position in India (see 1827).
The nominal Mughal emperor Shah Alam II dies at his native Delhi November 10 at age 78 after a 46-year reign in which he has legalized the British East India Company's positions in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, been blinded by Afghans, been protected by the Maratha chief Daulat Rao Sindhia and by the British, but has managed to save more than a million rupees.
The Laotian king Anouvong (Chao Anou) unites Vien Chan with Vietnam, whose power in Indochina has grown to rival that of Siam (see 1805; Vietnam, 1802). Anouvong will persuade the authorities at Bangkok to make his son governor of Champassak and thereby expand his realm to the southern frontier of the erstwhile Lan Xang kingdom (see 1827).
Venezuelan Creole leader Francisco de Miranda, 50, fails in an effort to win freedom from Spain (see 1797). Born at Caracas, he purchased a captaincy in the Spanish Army at age 22, was imprisoned for disobeying an order, gained release at age 30, was sent to Cuba to fight against the British, was accused of misusing funds, fled to the United States in 1783, met many of the leaders of the American Revolution, fled to London to escape Spanish agents, and tried to interest Prime Minister Pitt in his vision of an independent empire that would extend from Mississippi to Cape Horn with a descendant of the Inca as hereditary emperor and a bicameral legislature. Miranda served as a general with the French against Prussia and Russia, was jailed on suspicion of treason, won acquittal, and returned to London. He has raised a group of mercenaries at New York but is unable to land on the Venezuelan coast, fails to gain the support of peasants, and is forced to turn back (see 1811).
British forces invade the Spanish viceroyalty of Río de la Plata but will be driven out next year by Argentinian troops who include Manuel Belgrano, now 36.
A French invasion fleet approaches Jamaica but is repelled by a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Admiral Sir John Duckworth. The Caribbean island is at the height of its prosperity, with more than 300,000 slaves engaged in producing coffee and sugar (but see human rights, 1807).
Haitians led by Alexandre Pétion and others revolt against the rule of Jean-Jacques Dessalines (see 1804). They assassinate Dessalines at Jacmel October 17, a military council appoints Henri Christophe provisional head of the country, and he summons a constituent assembly December 18 (see 1807).
Revolutionary War commander and Georgia political leader Lachlan McIntosh dies at Savannah February 20 at age 80; jurist George Wythe at Richmond, Virginia, June 8 at age 79, having taught John Marshall and helped establish the principle that a court can invalidate a law that it considers to be unconstitutional (his grandnephew and heir George Wythe Sweeney is charged with having poisoned Wythe but wins acquittal after a trial in which the only witness is disqualified from testifying because he is black); former U.S. secretary of war Henry Knox chokes on a chicken bone and dies on his Thomaston, Maine, estate October 25 at age 56. He and his wife have each weighed about 300 pounds; Upper Canada's (Ontario's) first lieutenant governor John Graves Simcoe dies at Exeter, Devonshire, October 26 at age 54, having returned home after falling ill while en route to India to take up his position as commander in chief of British forces on the subcontinent; Revolutionary War general and Cleveland, Ohio, founder Moses Cleaveland dies at his Connecticut home November 16 at age 52 (the town will have about 57 inhabitants by 1810 and remain Cleaveland until 1831, by which time its population will have grown to more than 1,000).