The Battle of Lissa was fought on 13 March 1811 in the Adriatic Sea. It was fought over the strategically important Croatian island of Vis. The battle has been hailed as an important British victory, due to both the disparity between the forces and the signal raised by Captain William Hoste.
About Battle of Lissa (1811) in brief
The Battle of Lissa was fought on 13 March 1811 in the Adriatic Sea. It was fought over the strategically important Croatian island of Vis. The battle has been hailed as an important British victory, due to both the disparity between the forces and the signal raised by Captain William Hoste. Hoste sank the French flagship, captured two others, and scattered the remainder of the Franco-Venetian squadron. The French and Italians burnt several vessels in the harbour and captured several others, but remained on the island for no more than seven hours before retreating. The British and French frigate squadrons engaged in a campaign of raids and counter-raids during 1810. Early in 1811, the British squadron gained superiority after being reinforced by the third-line ship of line HMS Montagu. The Italian troops were left in possession of the deserted main town, Port St. George, and the island was left in the control of James Lew and George Kingston. The island had been left in control of two midshipmen, who withdrew the entire population of central Lissa into the mountains along with their supplies. The Treaty of Schönbrunn that followed the war gave Napoleon control of the final part of the AdRIatic coastline not under his control: the Illyrian Provinces. In the Treaty of Tilsit, Russia granted France control over the Septinsular Republic and withdrawn their own forces from the region. This formalised the control the French had exercised in Illyria since 1805 and over the whole Adriatics Sea since 1807.
If unopposed, this would allow him to transport troops and supplies to the Balkans. French army forming in theIllyrianprovinces was possibly intended for an invasion of the Ottoman Empire in conjunction with the Russians; the two countries had signed an agreement to support one another against the Ottomans at Tilit. To disrupt the preparations of this army, British Royal Navy seized the Dalmatian Island of Lissia in 1807 and used it as a base for raiding the coastal shipping of Italy and Illyrians. In October 1810, Dubourdieu landed 700 Italian soldiers on Lissa while Hoste searched in vain for the French squadron in the Southern Adratic. The second invasion prompted DubourDieu to mount a second attack along the Italian coast. This prompted the French to assemble six frigates and 500 Italian soldiers and embarked over 500 smaller craft and embarked on the Italian island of Montagu, taking over the harbour of Port St St George for a few days. This has been described as “one of the most brilliant naval achievements of the war”. It has also been called one of the greatest naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars, with both sides claiming victory in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The Battle of the Lissa has been called the most important naval battle of the War of the Fifth Coalition, with the British and the French both claiming victory.
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