The league brought Russia, Denmark-Norway, Prussia, and Sweden together during the War of the Second Coalition. Its members could present it as protection for neutral commerce, but Tsar Paul I also aligned Russia with France. Britain's leaders consequently saw Russian policy as linked to their French enemy rather than as impartial protection of shipping. The coalition also threatened British access to Baltic supplies. That combination explains why London treated the league as a potential hostile naval bloc rather than a detached legal arrangement.
Chapter · 19:16-21:18
Tsar Paul turns neutrality into a coalition threat
The Second League of Armed Neutrality included Russia, Denmark-Norway, Prussia and Sweden, but Paul I's alignment with France undermined its claim to neutrality.