page_title: Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814
section_title: French reinforcements
hierarchical_section_title: Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814 / Campaign / French reinforcements
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Captain Bernard Dubourdieu, killed during the Battle of Lissa, on 13 march 1811. He wears the medals of the Legion of honour and the Crown of Iron. Français&#160;: Lithographie représentant le capitaine de vaisseau Bernard Dubourdieu, décédé à la bataille navale de Lissa le 13 mars 1811. Celui-ci arbore ses décorations&#160;: la légion d'honneur et l'ordre de la couronne de fer.
context_page_description: The Adriatic campaign was a minor theatre of war during the Napoleonic Wars in which a succession of small British Royal Navy and Austrian Navy squadrons and independent cruisers harried the combined naval forces of the First French Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Illyrian Provinces and the Kingdom of Naples between 1807 and 1814 in the Adriatic Sea. Italy, Naples and Illyria were all controlled either directly or via proxy by the French Emperor Napoleon I, who had seized them at the Treaty of Pressburg in the aftermath of the War of the Third Coalition.
  Control of the Adriatic brought numerous advantages to the French Navy, allowing rapid transit of troops from Italy to the Balkans and Austria for campaigning in the east and giving France possession of numerous shipbuilding facilities, particularly the large naval yards of Venice. From 1807, when the Treaty of Tilsit precipitated a Russian withdrawal from the Septinsular Republic, the French Navy held naval supremacy in the region. The Treaty of Tilsit also contained a secret clause that guaranteed French assistance in any war fought between the Russians and the Ottoman Empire.
context_section_description: The conclusion of the War of the Fifth Coalition in late 1809 had changed the political situation in the Adriatic, confirming French possession of the Illyrian Provinces and removing any threat to the Adriatic seaports from Austrian-held territory. It also freed the French Army to operate against the Ottoman Empire, as intended in the Treaty of Tilsit. It did not however affect the British frigates raiding in the Adriatic under the command of William Hoste, who was now launching coordinated raids against coastal convoys, towns and forts along the Italian coast.
  In the late summer of 1810 the French Navy made their first serious effort to contest British operations in the Adriatic, with the despatch of Bernard Dubourdieu from Toulon in Favorite. Dubourdieu was considered one of the more successful frigate commanders in the French Navy, and he collected the French and Italian forces scattered across the Adriatic into a squadron that significantly outnumbered Hoste's forces. Hoste was aware of Dubourdieu's movements and maintained a careful watch on the French-led squadron in its base at Ancona.
  In early October, having failed to draw Dubourdieu into battle the previous month, Hoste resupplied at Lissa and returned to the blockade of Ancona, now accompanied by HMS Cerberus. Discovering Dubourdieu and his squadron missing, Hoste gave chase in the direction of Corfu, acting on inaccurate information supplied by a passing Sicilian privateer. As Dubourdieu had planned, this detour opened Lissa to attack. Landing on the island with overwhelming force on 21 October, the French seized the shipping in the harbour but were unable to find the island's garrison, which had retreated to the mountains. Dubourdieu remained on Lissa for seven hours, but withdrew to Ancona when local fishermen informed him that Hoste was returning from the south. To defend against a repeat of this raid and to guard against intervention by the French ship of the line Rivoli, which was completing at Venice, the British Mediterranean Fleet sent the third-rate HMS Montagu to Lissa. The arrival of such a powerful vessel stifled any further French initiatives during the year, allowing Hoste to conduct limited raids on the Italian coastline.
caption: Captain Bernard Dubourdieu.
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "2098", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}