The Treaty of Amiens signed on 25 March 1802 brought about a fourteen-month period of peace to a war from which Russia had already withdrawn. Desperation for peace in the conflict between Great Britain and France left many questions unsettled or passed over, with regrets emerging on both sides as to terms so quickly agreed. Consequently, Britain, despite agreeing to do so, failed to return Malta to the Knights of St John, with doubts existing in London as to the resilience of guarantees given by France not to interfere in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and Naples. Furthermore, Bonaparte, as First Consul, had agreed that, in gaining the return of many lost colonies, he would take no further steps to upset the European balance of power and would withdraw French troops from the Batavian Republic. Not only were those troops not withdrawn, but he consequently went on to annex part of northern Italy (the Cisalpine Republic) while sending troops into Switzerland (the Helvetian Republic). This same period of peace was also used by Bonaparte to substantially strengthen the overall position of France, fortifying the economy and rebuilding the navy. In Great Britain, all this created a fear that if Bonaparte was not immediately challenged, he would become not just over-powerful but unassailable, leading to a realisation that an early renewal of the war was not only inevitable but essential. If Alexander had been persuaded to join Great Britain, hostilities might well have commenced much earlier than 18 May 1803, when Britain made its declaration of war upon France; George III giving as the reason ‘the restless disposition of the Ruler of France’.

Initially, Russia adopted a neutral position in the renewed conflict, but Alexander’s dislike of Napoleon and the threat he represented to the balance of power in Europe saw Russia entering into a short-lived alliance with Great Britain, the two navies engaging the forces of the Ottoman Empire in the eastern bay of the Mediterranean, but with this alliance coming to an abrupt end following a disastrous Russian defeat at Friedland in 1807.