Battle of Copenhagen (1801)

First Battle of Copenhagen
Part of War of the Second Coalition
The Battle of Copenhagen, as painted by Nicholas Pocock. The British line is diagonally across the foreground, the city of Copenhagen in the background and the Danish line between. The ships in the left foreground are British bomb vessels.
Date 2 April 1801 Location Copenhagen roads Result British strategic victory Tactically indecisive
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Denmark-Norway
Commanders and leaders
Sir Hyde Parker Lord Nelson Thomas Graves	Olfert Fischer Steen Bille
Strength
Nelson: 12 ships of the line 5 frigates 7 bomb ships 6 sloops	Fischer: 9 ships of the line 11 sloops Bille: 17 ships, 1 land battery, 2,000 Danish troops
Casualties and losses
1,200 killed and wounded	1,600 killed and wounded

British strategic victory

The Battle of Copenhagen 1801 (Danish: Slaget på Reden) was an engagement which saw a British fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and Horatio Nelson, a Vice Admiral in 1801, fight a huge Danish fleet anchored just off Copenhagen on 2 April 1801. The Danish fleet at the inlet to Copenhagen harbour formed a blockade preventing the British fleet to enter the harbour. All these ships were old anyway. Denmark should defend her Capital with these ships and bastions on both side of the harbour inlet, Kastellet, Trekroner, Lynetten (which all still exists) as well as Quintus, Sixtus and Strickers. It was the second attempt from the Brittish to scare Denmark, as The Brittish already in August 1800 had entered Øresund with a navy, in order to force Denmark to sign an alliance with Denmark. Now Britain would have Denmark's entire navy and merchant fleet, so it wouldn't fall in to the hands of the French. But the British were not aware that of the fact that the modern Royal Danish Navy and many merchant ships were well hidden in the Roskilde fjord, a bluff which never was called by the British. .

The battle was the result of multiple failures of diplomacy in the latter half of the 18th century. At the beginning of 1801, during the French Revolutionary Wars, Britain's principal advantage over France was its naval superiority. The Royal Navy searched neutral ships trading with French ports, seizing their cargoes if they were deemed to be trading with France. It was in the British interest to guarantee its naval supremacy and all trade advantages that resulted from it. The Russian Tsar Paul, after having been a British ally, arranged a League of Armed Neutrality comprising Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, and Russia, to enforce free trade with France. The British viewed the League to be very much in the French interest and a serious threat. The League was hostile to the British blockade and, according to the British, its existence threatened the supply of timber and naval stores from Scandinavia.

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