Armistice of Znaim The Armistice of Znaim was a ceasefire agreed between Archduke Charles and Napoleon I on 12 July 1809 following the Battle of Znaim , effectively ending hostilities between Austria and France in the War of the Fifth Coalition . Following defeat at the Battle of Wagram , Archduke Charles retreated north into Bohemia hoping to regroup his battered forces . The French army had also suffered in the battle and did not give immediate pursuit . But two days after the battle , Napoleon ordered his troops north intending to defeat the Austrians once and for all . The French eventually caught up the Austrians at Znaim ( now Znojmo , Czech Republic ) on 10 July 1809 . Realising they were in no position to give battle , the Austrians proposed a ceasefire as Archduke Charles went to begin peace negotiations with Napoleon . However , Marshal Auguste de Marmont refused to observe the ceasefire and committed his XI Corps of around 10 , 000 men into battle . With Marmont greatly outnumbered , André Masséna had no choice but to support him . By 11 July , Masséna ' s corps had joined Marmont ' s in battle but the Austrians had also reinforced their position around Znaim . After two days of futile fighting , with both sides suffering similar casualties and neither side gaining any advantage , Napoleon finally arrived with news of an armistice and ordered Marmont to end the battle . Although the Battle of Znaim was the last action between Austria and France in the war , a formal peace was not agreed until the Treaty of Schönbrunn was signed on 14 October 1809 , which finally ended the War of the Fifth Coalition . Prelude . The immediate cause of the two - day Battle of Znaim was the decision of the Austrian commander in chief , Archduke Charles , to stage a rearguard action near the town of Znaim , about 80 kilometers north of Vienna , in order to give his army time to withdraw its baggage train in safety toward Moravia . Marmont ’ s two combined French and Bavarian corps were the first of Napoleon ’ s troops to arrive on the field following the course of the river Thaya . Believing that he faced only a rear guard , Marmont ordered his Bavarian troops to take the village of Tesswitz south of Znaim , while the rest of his troops attacked the village of Zuckerhandl . Battle . The Bavarians succeeded in storming Tesswitz but were then thrown out by Austrian reinforcements . Marmont renewed the Bavarian attack , and Tesswitz was retaken , only to be lost soon after . The village changed hands a number of times during the day , this contest constituting the heaviest fighting the Bavarians saw in the whole campaign . Marmont had hoped to swing his cavalry in behind the Austrian rear guard , but on reaching high ground above Tesswitz , they were faced with five enemy corps . The French cavalry was forced to withdraw in the face of a large body of Austrian cuirassiers . Marmont was now engaged by 40 , 000 Austrian troops and was heavily outnumbered . His men nevertheless managed to hold on to both Tesswitz and Zuckerhandl overnight . Archduke Charles withdrew his forces into a strong defensive position situated so as to hold the north bank of the Thaya and Znaim . Napoleon arrived at Tesswitz at 10 : 00 A . M . , and despite the fact that he had brought with him reinforcements of cavalry and artillery , he believed that his force was too weak to launch a full - scale attack . His plan therefore was to employ Masséna ’ s corps to pin the Austrians throughout the day and to await the corps of marshals Louis - Nicolas Davout and Nicolas Oudinot , which would be able to arrive early on the twelfth . Masséna launched his attack on the extreme right of the Austrian position during midmorning and quickly seized the main bridge across the Thaya south of Znaim . His troops took two small villages and then advanced directly on Znaim . Charles meanwhile reinforced the Austrian position with two grenadier brigades , which advanced during a thunderstorm and initially threw the French back . The situation was stabilized by a body of French cavalry at approximately 7 : 00 P . M . , when French and Austrian staff officers rode along the opposing lines announcing a cease - fire , which led to the signature of an armistice on the twelfth . Znaim was to prove the last action of the 1809 campaign . The two sides signed a treaty of peace at the Schönbrunn Palace on 14 October .