And William Pitt, the very
embodiment of the Englishman's prejudice against things French,
returned to the ministry of his country. Pitt was unwilling to risk
British armies against the veterans of Napoleon, preferring to spend
liberal sums of money in order to instigate the Continental Powers to
combat the French emperor. Pitt was the real bone and sinews of the
Third Coalition, which was formed in 1805 by Great Britain, Austria,
Russia, and Sweden to overthrow Napoleon.
Austria naturally smarted under the provisions of the treaty of
Luneville quite as much as under those of Campo Formio. Francis II was
aroused by French predominance in Italy and now that he himself had
added the title of "hereditary emperor of Austria" to his shadowy
dignity as "Holy Roman Emperor" he was irritated by the upstart
Napoleon's assumption of an imperial title.
In Russia the assassination of the Tsar Paul, the crazy admirer of
Bonaparte, had called to the throne in 1801 the active though easily
influenced Alexander I.
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