Risør played a role in the Napoleonic Wars in 1807–1814, when Denmark–Norway took France's side, and therefore became the enemy of Norway's most important trading-partner: Great Britain. (It is from this period that Henrik Ibsen took his subject, when he created his famous poem "Terje Vigen".) It was south of Risør, in Lyngør (now in the neighboring Tvedestrand municipality) that several British warships, headed by of the English navy pursued and sank the last major vessel and the pride of Norway: the frigate HDMS "Najaden".