The Age of George III

I am happy that you are using this web site and hope that you found it useful. Unfortunately, the cost of making this material freely available is increasing, so if you have found the site useful and would like to contribute towards its continuation, I would greatly appreciate it. Click the button to go to Paypal and make a donation.

The Congress of Vienna, 1 November 1814- 8 June 1815

As agreed at the first Treaty of Paris in 1814, a congress met at Vienna to settle the future boundaries of Europe. Almost every state in Europe was represented. The emperors of Austria and Russia, the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria and Württemberg and many German princes including the Elector of Hesse, the Grand Duke of Baden and the dukes of Saxe-Weimar, Brunswick and Coburg, attended in person.

The Congress

• adopted a fair policy of no great rewards and no great punishments
• gave a balanced settlement which ensured no major conflict for forty years (the Crimean War, 1854-6) and then until 1914
• included France, as represented by Talleyrand (whom Metternich once described as "a lump of shit in a silk stocking - but in German [1]).
• was still generous to the defeated France, so as not to give rise to French feelings of revenge
• adopted a policy to restore the status quo ante bellum - a return to 1793 as far as possible. This was perhaps rather short-sighted and regressive. The French Revolution had liberated new forces of democracy and patriotic nationalism throughout Europe but the diplomats represented the crowned heads of Europe and paid little heed to either of these forces.
• restored monarchies across Europe
• ignored demands for greater democracy and nationalism; this led to the majority of conflicts in the Nineteenth Century, between and within countries
  • Lord Liverpool's government was determined not to allow reform in Britain
  • 1848 Liberal Nationalist revolutions throughout Europe
  • Sarajevo in June 1914
  • the restored monarchies were troubled by nationalist reformers wanting democracy

The principal negotiators were:

Austria	Metternich
Prussia	Hardenberg and von Humbolt
Russia	Nesselrode and Rasoumoffski
Great Britain	Castlereagh, and later, Wellington
France	Talleyrand and Dalberg

Although interrupted by the ‘Hundred Days' and troubled by rivalries, the Congress achieved a settlement which remained in force in much of central and eastern Europe until the First World War. This link will take you to a map of Europe in 1815.

The main provisions of the Congress were as follows:

Great Britain retained

• Malta
• Heligoland
• the protectorate of the Ionian Isles (the latter by a treaty signed 5 November 1815)
• Mauritius, Tobago and Santa Lucia from France
• Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope from Holland
• Trinidad from Spain.

Prussia

• In Germany, Prussia received half of Saxony, the Grand Duchy of Berg, part of the Duchy of Westphalia, and territory on the left bank of the Rhine between Elken and Coblenz, including Cologne, Trèves, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Prussia also received Swedish Pomerania and the King of Prussia was recognised as Prince of Neuchatel
• In Poland, Prussia retained the territory gained in the previous partitions, the province of Posen, and the cities of Danzig and Thorn

Austria

• In Italy, Austria received Venetia, Lombardy and Milan, the Illyrian provinces (Carinthia, Carniola and Trieste), Dalmatia, and the seaport of Cattaro (now the kingdoms lllyria and Dalmatia)
• In Poland, Austria kept eastern Galicia, with Krakow made a free city
• In Germany, Austria received the Tyrol and Salzburg

The German states

• By the act of Confederation, signed 8 June 1815, and supplemented by the final act of Vienna, 15 May 1820, a German Confederacy was set up to replace the old Holy Roman Empire. The number of German states was reduced from over 300 to 39. A Diet was established under the Presidency of Austria, to which states were to send delegates. The Diet consisted of the Ordinary Assembly sitting permanently at Frankfurt and a General Assembly. Each state was to be independent in internal affairs, but war between the individual states was forbidden and the consent of the Confederacy was necessary for foreign war
• Bavaria received Rhenish Bavaria, extending from the Prussian territory on the Rhine to Alsace, including the city of Mainz
• Hanover became a kingdom and received East Frisia and Hildesheim.

Russia

• In Poland, Russia received the greater part of the grand duchy of Warsaw which was to be made into a separate kingdom of Poland. Krakow became a free city state under the protection of Russia, Austria and Prussia
• Russia retained Finland, conquered from Sweden in 1808
• Russia retained Bessarabia, taken from Turkey in 1812

Italy

• Ferdinand IV was recognised as King of the Two Sicilies
• The Pope received the Legation of Bologna and most of Ferrara, but was refused the restoration of Avignon. Tuscany was assigned to the Grand Duke Ferdinand, uncle of the Emperor Francis; Modena to the Archduke Francois d'Este, another Habsburg prince
• Parma, Piacenza end guastella were granted to the Empress Marie Louise for life
• Genoa was given to the Kingdom of Sardinia

Low Countries

The formation of the kingdom of The Netherlands was ratified, comprising the former republic of Holland and Austrian Belgium, under the former hereditary Stadtholder as King William I. The sovereignty of the Netherlands was given to the House of Orange, and the King of The Netherlands was made Grand Duke of Luxembourg, making him a member of the German Confederation

Switzerland

The 19 existing cantons were increased to 22 by the addition of Geneva, Wallis, and Neuchatel. Switzerland became a confederation of independent cantons with its neutrality guaranteed by the Great Powers

Sweden and Denmark

Sweden retained Norway which had been ceded to her by Denmark at the Peace of Kiel (14 January 1814). The Norwegians were guaranteed the possession of their Liberties and rights.
Denmark was indemnified with Lauenburg

Spain and Portugal

• Spain lost Trinidad
• Portugal lost Guiana to France

France

• Apart from the provisions of the second Treaty of Paris, France received French Guiana from Portugal, Guadeloupe from Sweden, and Martinique and the Isle of Bourbon from Great Britain

The slave trade

In February 1815, the Congress condemned the slave trade as inconsistent with civilisation and human rights.

Comment

• the confederation of German states and the redivision of Italy led to Nineteenth Century unification activity - Italy under Garibaldi and Cavour, Prussia under Bismarck
• the buffer state of the Netherlands did not last long. The Belgians removed Dutch control over their country in 1830.
• Britain appeared to acquire minimal advantages in the settlement, given that she had spent £600 million on the wars. She got no land in Europe, but Britain did gain colonial strength which helped her trade and commerce. Britain became THE European colonial power
• liberalism and nationalism in Europe was halted, temporarily but it was not crushed
• Russia entered western Europe as a major power and from 1815 onwards played a regular and important part in European diplomacy. Russia had gained the Duchy of Warsaw and Finland at Vienna - hence the unification of Norway and Sweden under Bernadotte, as Charles XIV. This union was terminated only in 1905
• The Congress of Vienna was seen as the first of a series of Congresses which have been labelled as the "Congress System" although it was never a system. Diplomats felt that they should stick together in peacetime to preserve the peace.It was a "gentlemen's agreement" - verbal, and there was no constitution; it was decided that when and where conflict could lead to international war, a congress would meet to talk it out first.
  • 1815 Congress of Vienna
  • 1818 Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle
  • 1820 Congress of Troppau
  • 1821 Congress of Laibach
  • 1822 Congress of Verona
• These were the early origins of international co-operation

I am just about as sure as I can be that the remark was actually Napoleon's and goes back to late 1808 or early 1809, when Napoleon discovered that Talleyrand had been secretly in touch with Alexander I and was discussing with Fouché and others what would happen after Napoleon's overthrow.  The discovery of Talleyrand's treachery provoked a torrent of imperial abuse culminating in the famous sentence "Vous êtes de la merde dans un bas de soie."  The fact that merde can equally well be translated as dirt may have led the writers who quoted it, in the English books available to me as a boy, to render it as "mud in a silk stocking". [Perhaps Duff Cooper used the word dung...]  I have a feeling that the story may have first been told in Sainte-Beuve's biography of Talleyrand but I'm not sure why!

Talleyrand's wonderfully nonchalant reply on the way out from the interview has always appealed to me: "What a pity that such a great man should be so ill-bred!"  [Quel dommage qu'un si grand homme soit si mal élevé!]

However, your suggestion that Metternich referred to him similarly interests me because as I recall Metternich was the Austrian ambassador in Paris until war broke out in 1809 and Talleyrand, after his dismissal by Napoleon, used Metternich as a go-between with the Austrian authorities.  Metternich. was therefore well placed to have heard the story at the time and may later have made use of the remark without acknowledgement.

Since I am unable to provide the source for my assertion, it may well be that Dr. Stunt is correct and I am not! Dr Stunt recently was awarded a Ph.D. by Cambridge University for his book From Awakening to Secesssion: Radical Evangelicals in Switzerland and Britain 1815-35 (Edinburgh: T and T Clark:2000).[back]