Greatest traitor in your nations (or anyone else’s) history?

[Steph]

For that matter, what there's Marmont, who gave his title to a French verb for "to betray" after he deserted Napoleon during the 1814 campaign and later voted to execute Ney.

What verb?

 

[Verbose]

How about Bernadotte? Despite tatooes proclaiming his republican ideals, he leaves Napoleon after being sacked during the 1809 Austrian campaign and gets elected crown prince of Sweeden. He then leads his country's army against Napoleon 4 years later culminating in the fighting at Leipzig. He ends up King of Sweden and his descendants are still on the throne.

For that matter, what there's Marmont, who gave his title to a French verb for "to betray" after he deserted Napoleon during the 1814 campaign and later voted to execute Ney.

Well Bernadotte won, didn't he?

Besides Napoleon himself is on record saying that at least Bernadotte, unlike a lot of his other marshalls, didn't betray him.

Prolly stems from the fact that Berandotte was the shrewdest politician of the lot, possibly even better than Napoleon, and had made no personal vows of allegiance, which Napoleon knew and recognised.

 

[thetrooper]

Norway:

As some of you have posted earlier, Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling is commonly known as one of World War II's most infamous traitors. Quisling was tried for high treason and executed by firing squad after the war. When Germany invaded Norway on April 9, 1940, Quisling became the first person in history to announce a coup during a news broadcast, declaring an ad-hoc government during the confusion of the invasion, hoping that the Germans would support it. The background for this action was the flight northwards of the King and the government.

The term "quisling" has become a synonym in many European languages for traitor.

Taken from wikipedia.

Full article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling

 

[privatehudson]

What verb?

Raguser, it apparently came from his title which was the duke of Ragusa. A number of sites refer to this, so if it's wrong they need to know

Besides Napoleon himself is on record saying that at least Bernadotte, unlike a lot of his other marshalls, didn't betray him

That's probably not what he was saying in 1813

To be fair Napoleon did sack Bernadotte, not least because he felt his performances during the 1806 and 1809 campaign left something to be desired. To then attack Napoleon in coallition with the others wasn't entirely pleasant though

Prolly stems from the fact that Berandotte was the shrewdest politician of the lot, possibly even better than Napoleon

Nah, the best political marshal was the one never to get involved in such nonsense, Davout

Besides, the point is that whatever he was/is to Sweden, he was a traitor to France, either to his republican ideals or to his Emperor.

 

[Steph]

Raguser, it apparently came from his title which was the duke of Ragusa. A number of sites refer to this, so if it's wrong they need to know

Today I learnt a verb of the French language from an Englishman

 

[privatehudson]

Today I learnt a verb of the French language from an Englishman

Muhahahahahahahahahaha

 

[dgfred]

i think our worst traitor are those guys who gave russia those atomic secrets, i think they did it for money, can someone elaborate?

Indeed treachery, but they thought they were saving the rest of the world
from destruction by 'evening out' the nuclear knowledge they had gained. I
saw a show on the history channel last night, IIRC the main ones were:
all sp????- Hall, Sachs at Los Alamos and Fuchs (British)

 

[Verbose]

That's probably not what he was saying in 1813

This stems from St Helena, when Napoleon had plenty of time to mull things over.

Besides, the point is that whatever he was/is to Sweden, he was a traitor to France, either to his republican ideals or to his Emperor.

Well he ended his life as an insomniac burning the midnight oil in a paranoid funk over the possibility that the Swedish people was going to rise up and slit his throat.

The docile Swedish people however was sleeping soundly and has never cared much for revoloutions or deposing kings.

Prolly Bernadotte's conscience kicking in.

 

[Verbose]

Loosing Finland: The arch-traitor of Swedish history

The greatest single act of betrayal in Swedish military history was performed on May 3 1809. On this day Carl Olof Cronstedt (1756-1820) the commandant of the fortress ”Sveaborg” (”Suomenlinna”, Fin.) outside Helsinki handed it over to the Russian army without a fight.


The background was the war of 1808-1809. As tsar Alexander of Russia and Napoleon had given each other a free hand to settle whatever scores they had in their neighbourhoods without interference by the other. Russia in early 1808 turned on Sweden with the intent of conquering the duchy of Finland, the eastern half of the kingdom since the middle ages.

After some heavy fighting all through 1808 the Swedish-Finnish army was virtually driven out of the country. However, one important toehold remained in the south, the fortress “Sveaborg”. Swedish military planners had put together a realistic plan and assembled the men and goods for a great spring offensive that, so it was hoped, would drive the Russians out. It would be a two pronged attack, one army advancing south from the Swedish border in the high north, another would be shipped to “Sveaborg” and execute a breakout northwards, to link up with the northern army. The control of “Sveaborg” was the key to this plan.

So what was “Sveaborg”?
It is an enormous fortress built by the Swedish government, using French money, in the mid 18th century. Just after its construction it was quite possibly the most powerful fortress in the world. The French wanted something that might rein in Russian expansion in the Baltic. So did France’s best buddies at the time the Swedes. The answer was a whopping big fortress.

It isn’t really one fortress, but more of a whole range of fortifications spanning the islands around the inlet to Helsinki. It’s a tourist attraction and nice to visit in the summer. Parts of it are still restricted military areas. In Finnish it’s known as “Suomenlinna”. As “Sveaborg” means “The Swedish fortress”, “Suomenlinna” means the Finnish fortress. The Russian gave it a third name of their own.

To give you some idea of what an awe inspiring fortification it was for its time, one can cite what happened in the Crimean war. Russian had two “locks” to its interior, Sebastopol in the Crimean and this fortress outside Helsinki. While the fight on land was taken to Crimea, a combined Anglo-French fleet sailed into the Baltic, ranged itself outside Helsinki and let fly for two consecutive days without doing much damage When the fleet had used up its ammunition it sailed home again. 70 defenders were killed as the fortress was banged about for a bit and that was about it. (Though the British claim “extensive damage” was done.)

Cronstedt was put in charge of these massive fortifications in 1801. For him it was a form of banishment. He had made his career in the navy, rising to the rank of vice-admiral (blue flag) in 1801. His rise to fame and power really began in 1790, when Cronstedt filled the role of flag-captain in the naval battle of “Svensksund” under king Gustaf III, who had assumed personal command of the Swedish navy in his war with Russia.

The king and the fleet had become trapped by the Russian fleet, and on July 9 it attempted a break out. This was 100% successful and garnered Sweden its greatest naval victory in its history. Since the king was an inexperienced dunce when it came to naval warfare (or warfare in general) credit went to his flag captain who directed a lot of the battle. Up until “Svensksund” this had been a bad war for Sweden. The victory ended the war on a positive note and “snatched victory from the jaws of defeat”.

From then on Cronstedt rose pretty quickly, becoming politically influential as well. But as he was made admiral in 1801, he also lost a political power struggle and his enemies managed to get him sent of to command this fortress, a task that thoroughly disgusted him.

So, after sitting in his fortress in a gloomy mood for seven years, there was finally a war. As said, 1808 wasn’t a good year for the Swedish arms, but hopes were that 1809 would be better. Besides as long as Sweden held “Sveaborg” the Russians couldn’t be sure of their control of much if anything in southern Finland.

Of course, as Helsinki was captured, the Russian forces laid siege to “Sveaborg”. A siege of sorts at least. The situation was roughly as follows: in the city of Helsinki a couple of thousand Russian infantry and cavalry commanded by general Suchtelen. Oh, and he had at his disposal only 46 pieces of field artillery.
Sitting off the coast was one of the world’s most powerful fortresses, manned by 6000+ Swedish troops, bristling with cannons (several thousand). The Russians were outnumbered 2 or 3 to 1. Technically they could have attacked across the ice, but that would have been suicide. The risk, had the Swedish commander realised how superior his forces were, of a Swedish break out was much greater.

As the ice lay, it would be impossible to resupply the fortress, but there would be no real need for this until much later in the year. The garrison hand plenty of provisions and ammunition. If the Russians wanted to take the place they would have to concentrate considerable forces and bring up plenty of heavy siege artillery. Given time they could certainly do that, but for the time being the fortress was in no danger whatsoever. Besides, in the fortress harbour lay the entire Swedish archipelago fleet, a hundred or more ships. (A peculiar aspect of naval warfare in the Baltic, heavily armed, small low-draft ships, often galleys, ideal for fighting in narrow, shallow waters.) Even if things got out of hand, Cronstedt could have waited for the ice to break and then simply sailed his entire garrison to Stockholm unopposed, at least saving his troops.

In this situation Suchtelen turned out to be a cunning old fox. He deployed and rotated his scarce troops in such a fashion as to give the impression of a much larger force. He also set his field arty to laying down a constant nuisance fire against the fortress. We are talking small bore guns useful against troops on an open battlefield. Despite of constant shelling over several months, when Cronstedt eventually gave up the fortress his, casualties, out of a 6000+ garrison, numbered 5 killed and 28 wounded. As long as the troops didn’t do anything stupid or were extremely unlucky, all they had to do was to keep their heads down to be safe. With a kill rate of 1 in 1200, “Sveaborg” must have been the safest place in the entire Swedish army in late 1808 and early 1809.

Cronstedt’s big mistake was that he started negotiating with Suchtelen and his senior officers. On several occasions during the siege in the winter of 1808-1809 they met on the ice halfway between fortress and city. The Russians played Cronstedt like an instrument. They would be full of sympathy and somehow by hints suggest to him that his position was utterly desperate and hopeless. In this frame of mind Cronstedt would then return to continue to brood over his “untenable position”.

The entire situation became strange indeed when Cronstedt on Arpril 6 decided to come to an “agreement” with the Russians. According to this he would give the fortress up on May 3 1809 unless a certain number of Swedish warships had entered the fortress harbour. But in the mean time the Swedes would immediately give up three outer fortifications. In this month the Russians pressed every advantage they could and insinuated themselves into the fortifications to the point where what could have been an impregnable position looked flimsy indeed. In the end Cronstedt did find himself in the untenable position he had thought he was in all along and gave up the fortress on the stipulated date.

This effectively ripped the bottom out of any immediate plans for a continued war to retake Finland. It was left in Russian hands pending a resolution to the crisis it had produced in Sweden:
— In 1809 king Gustaf IV was deposed in a military coup d’état, and his childless uncle the very simple Charles XIII made king. This ended royal absolutism (a second time, it had been reinstated by Gustaf III’s coup d’état of 1772) and Sweden got a parliamentary constitution based on division of power.
— A popular, obese Danish prince named Fredrick called in as the new heir to the throne. He died under “mysterious circumstances” (he fell of his horse, dead, at a military review, it is now assumed from a stroke or similar due to his obesity).
— The senior politician Axel von Fersen (who had been Marie Antoinette’s lover and possibly the father of her son the duke of Normandy) was suspected, and at the opening of the Parliament he was dragged from his carriage and beaten to death by an angry mob while a passive Royal Guard look on (probably under orders from Fersen’s enemies).
— In this situation it was decided to get try to get Napoleon to hand Sweden some princeling of his to make king, but the young officer charged with the mission struck up a friendship with Bernadotte and managed to sell him as future king of Sweden instead.
— Bernadotte became crown prince as it was hoped he would lead a successful war of reconquest with French aid against Russia. Bernadotte was no fool however. He knew the score, including the fact that by 1812 France was toast anyway, and decided that Finland had to be left to Russia. Instead he would nick Norway from the Danes as compensation. (The Danes had thrown in with the French after Nelson’s unprovoked attack that destroyed the Danish fleet and burned Copenhagen.)

Considering the strangeness of the situation in which Cronstedt had given up the fortress immediate debates broke out over what the devil Cronstedt had really been up to. There were allegations that the Russians had bought him. These rumours seem to have ended with Suchtelen’s book about the war, where he portrayed Cronstedt as an honest idiot. Cronstedt himself was given a country estate in Finland by the Emperor, the arch-duke of Finland and Tsar of all Russians, where he lived out his life hated by the Swedes and despised by Finns and Russians alike.

As far as his relative lack of notoriety, already in the 19th c. the Finnish national poet (who wrote in Swedish) Johan Ludwig Runeberg wrote a poem about “Sveaborg” and the traitor, but without mentioning his name. He thought this was a fit retribution, to loose his name and go down in history simply as The Traitor. It worked, or so it would seem.

Another reason might of course be that Sweden quickly set about getting over the loss of Finland, and with liberalisation and industrialisation it had a busy 19th century where Finland was only rarely missed.
On its own Finland became the window of the Russian empire, where it showed itself of to Europe from its most pleasing side. Finnish officers repaid the compliment by throwing themselves whole heartedly into Russian empire building. From 1809 to the independence in 1917 there were more than 400 Finnish officers of the rank of general or above in the Russian armies.

 

[privatehudson]

This stems from St Helena, when Napoleon had plenty of time to mull things over.

Well he probably compared Marmont and Murat to Bernadotte and figured maybe merely leading an army against him wasn't too bad I wouldn't be suprised if there's times when he raved against Bernadotte though given Napoleon's penchant for saying often contradictory things

Prolly Bernadotte's conscience kicking in.

That makes him a rarity, one of the few marshals with one

 

[MaisseArsouye]

Léon Degrelle.

When nazis invaded Belgium, resistance was very strong in Wallonia. But the chief of the extreme-right party Rex choosed to collaborate. He created a new company, the Légion Wallonie, and found enough people to fight for the nazis

He's not walloon, but I also consider Talleyrand as a traitor. Few people know it, but in 1830, when the revolution against the Netherlands began, most Walloons wanted to go back with France ( they remembered Napoleon ). In Liège, Namur and other cities, the first flags of the revolution where blue-white-red ! If we won the revolution, it's because France helped us to keep dutch troops away. There was a possiblity for the Netherlands to keep Flanders and France to get Wallonia, respecting cultural and linguistic borders. But the french negociator, Talleyrand, finally decided to accept the english proposal to create a state called "Belgium". If that guy made his job the good way, Wallonia would be part of France !

I know some people won't believe it, so : Herodote.

 

[privatehudson]

Sounds familiar, somebody once said something about Belgium being created by the English to annoy the French

 

[mrtn]

@Verbose:

 

[luiz]

The Arch-Traitor of Brazilian history is actually a portuguese who lived in Brazil, named Joaquim Silvério dos Reis.

During the height of the portuguese repression in Brazil, there was this group of young republicans from the city of Vila Rica, at that time the capital of Minas Gerias. They were enlightened people, who had studied in Europe and traded mail with the likes of Thomas Jefferson. They were known as "Inconfidentes", and this episode is known as "Incofidência Mineira".

They had a somewhat sophisticated plan to overthrow the portuguese rule and proclaim a republic, abolish slavery, encourage manufactures as opposed to agro-monocultures, the whole liberal deal. Anyway, the plan was set to start on the day of the Derrama(when portuguese soldiers would take by force a good part of the gold mined by the brazilians, burning the houses of the families who could not pay the minimum quota). They had formed armed militias that would attack the soldiers at that day, then occupy the garrisons of Vila Rica and quickly move towards São João del Rei, Barbacena, and finally Rio.

The fragile part of the plan is that it would only talke one traitor to destroy the whole thing, and so it happened. Joaquim Silvério dos Reis, who was a rebel himself, made a deal with the portuguese authorities: in exchange for detailed informations on the rebellions his numerous debts would be forgiven(and they would overlook his part on the conspiracy).

So the Derrama was suspended, to the shock of the Inconfidentes. Some days later they were all arrested and sentenced to death.

 

[Kafka2]

Tostig Godwinson, brother of Harold II Godwinson. Had he not rebelled and headed the Norse invasion with Harald Hardrada the battle of Stamford Bridge would never have happened and William would have had his arse kicked back across the Channel in 1066.

 

[Drakan]

Bennedict Arnold was an American General during the Revolutionary War. His greatest victory was at Saratoga, the battle that convinced the French to intervene on our side.

After Saratoga, though, he was angry at not getting a promotion, and decided that he would side with the British. His plan was to give West Point, a strategic fortress, to the British, which as a general he could do. I imagine the plan involved him going to West Point, assuming command, and then throwing the doors open to the redcoats.

Unfortunately, the courrier of a note between him and a British general got intercepted and he was foiled. He fled to Britain and returned several years later as a British general. He commanded redcoats against American armies in the south until the end of the war.

He's certainly the most famous traitor in the history of the United States. Perhaps only the Rosenburgs come close.

Perhaps he turned out to be a traitor being weary AFTER the way he had been treated by his superiors time and time again (and possibly his wife turned him to the other side).

In any case he ordered a direct charge in Saratoga, IIRC, against straight orders from his uncapable superiors. He was wounded in the leg during this crazy heroic action against the British. As a matter of fact. To our day there are three statues in the battlefield. The third is empty and only has a boot on it and it's dedicated to the greatest soldier of the American Army: that is, Benedict Arnold. Let's remember him before he tried to give in West Point.

Anyway, he was pretty much despised by both sides because they hanged the young British officer in his place.

 

[Sparta]

Greatest, in a good way:

Count Claus Von Stauffenberg-tried to assasinate Hitler in '44. Was taken by the Gestapo. Put against a wall, and shot. Last words before being shot: "Long live our Sacred Germany!".

I just stumbled across this and thought it was interesting after having read nonconformist's post recently (forgive my ignorance if this is common knowledge) - physics genius Max Planck's son was apparently killed as well for that assassination plot, and Rommel was forced to commit suicide.

During World War II, Planck tried to convince Hitler to spare Jewish scientists. Planck's son Erwin was executed on July 20, 1944, for treason in connection with an attempted assassination of Hitler.

July 20 Plot
List of ~250 conspirators

 

[Marla_Singer]

For France, I would say Pétain, or more generally the Vichy government.

Put there to save France from 1940 defeat... And turn collaborating with the Germans.

Seconded, I went here to post the same thing. At least there's no ambiguity... tough to betray more than this...

 

[rilnator]

I'm not British but I personally think Philby, Burgess and McLean were the worst kind of low scum that God ever gave breath to. I hope the Soviets turned on them as soon as the USSR.

 

[bombshoo]

on age of empirers 2 there is the baberossa misson. in it there is a guy who betrays babarossa.

Henry the Lion of Saxony...I was just replaying that campaign.....Yeah he is a pretty big traitor...On the fact that he did it 3 times...(they left another out of the campaign.)