The Truce or Armistice of Pläswitz was a nine-week armistice during the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, agreed between

Napoleon I of France Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

and the Allies on 4 June 1813 (the same day as the Battle of Luckau was being fought elsewhere). It was proposed by

Metternich Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ( ; 15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich () or Prince Metternich, was a Germans, German statesman and diplomat in the service of the Austrian ...

during the retreat of the main Allied army into

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

after

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin (), until 1868 ''Budissin'' in German, is a town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the Bautzen (district), district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree (river), Spree river, is the eighth most ...

, seconded by Napoleon (keen as he was to buy time to strengthen his cavalry, rest his army, intimidate

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

by bringing the Army of Italy up to Laibach and negotiate a separate peace with

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) and keenly accepted by the Allies (thus buying time to woo Austrian support, bring in further British funding and rest the exhausted

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

). The Truce conceded all of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

to Napoleon, in return for territory along the

Oder The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...

, and was initially scheduled to end on 10 July, but later extended to 10 August. In the time the Truce bought, the

Landwehr ''Landwehr'' (), or ''Landeswehr'', is a German language term used in referring to certain national army, armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large-scale, low-strength fo ...

was mobilised and Metternich finalised the Treaty of Reichenbach on 27 June, agreeing that Austria would join the Allies should Napoleon fail to meet certain conditions by a specific day. He failed to meet those conditions, the Truce was allowed to lapse without renewal, and Austria declared war on 12 August. Napoleon later described the armistice as the greatest mistake of his life.

Sources

*https://archive.org/stream/evolutionofpruss00marruoft/evolutionofpruss00marruoft_djvu.txt
Leggiere, ''Napoleon and Berlin''
p86-87 {{DEFAULTSORT:Truce of Plaswitz Conflicts in 1813 Ceasefires 1813 in Europe June 1813 Pläswitz