Table Of ContentR ITE S of PEACE
By the same author
Chopin: A Biography
The Battle for the Marchlands
Paderewski
The Polish Way
The Last King of Poland
The Forgotten Few
Holy Madness:
Romantics, Patriots and Revolutionaries, 1776-1871
1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow
RITES of PEACE
The F all of Napoleon &
the Congress of Vienna
ADAM ZAMOYSKI
HarperPress
An Imprint ofHarperCoWinsPublishers
HarperCoUinsPublishers
77-85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London w6 81 b
www.harpercollins.co.uk
Published by HaiperCollinsPuWis/iers 2007
Copyright © Adam Zamoyski 2007
1
The author asserts the moral right to be
identified as the author of this work
Endpaper: The Final Act of the Treaty of Vienna, 9 June 1815
A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
isbn hb: 978-0-00-719757-6
ISBN tpb: 978-0-00-725379-1
Set in Minion by
Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd,
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Clays Ltd, St Ives pic
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the publishers.
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from well managed forests, certified in accordance with
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For more information about FSC,
please visit www.fsc-uk.org
Mixed Sources
Product group from weN-managed
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
List of Maps xi
Introduction xiii
l The Lion at Bay 1
2 The Saviour of Europe 15
3 The Peacemakers 35
4 A War for Peace 49
5 Intimate Congress 64
6 Farce in Prague 82
7 The Play for Germany 98
8 The First Waltzes 118
9 A Finger in the Pie 137
io Batdefield Diplomacy 151
li Paris Triumph 169
12 Peace 185
13 The London Round 204
14 Just Settlements 218
15 Setting the Stage 238
16 Points of Order 260
17 Notes and Balls 280
18 Kings’ Holiday 296
V
Rites of Peace
19 A Festival of Peace 314
20 Guerre de Plume 329
21 Political Carrousel 341
22 Explosive Diplomacy 358
23 Dance of War 371
24 War and Peace 385
25 The Saxon Deal 404
26 Unfinished Business 420
27 The Flight of the Eagle 442
28 The Hundred Days 455
29 The Road to Waterloo 470
30 Wellington’s Victory 487
31 The Punishment of France 499
32 Last Rites 515
33 Discordant Concert 531
34 The Arrest of Europe 550
Notes 571
Bibliography 599
Index 619
vi
Illustrations
Napoleon in March 1812, shortly before his disastrous Russian
campaign. (© Collection Viollet)
General Armand de Caulaincourt. (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon/
Bridgeman Art Library)
Tsar Alexander I of Russia. (The Royal Collection © 2007 Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, photograph by Rodney Todd-White)
Alexander’s friend and adviser on international affairs, the Polish
Prince Adam Czartoryski. (Private collection)
Frederick William III of Prussia. (Berlin, Stiftung Preuss,
Kulturbesitz/AKG Images)
Austria’s Foreign Minister Metternich. (AKG Images)
Francis I of Austria. (Wetliche und Geistliche Schatzkammer, Vienna/
Bridgeman Art Library)
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh. (The Royal Collection
© 2007 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, photograph by Rodney
Todd-White)
The Prussian chancellor, Baron August von Hardenberg. (The Royal
Collection © 2007 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, photograph by
Rodney Todd-White)
Russia’s acting Foreign Minister, Count Charles Nesselrode. (The
Royal Collection © 2007 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,
photograph by Rodney Todd-White)
vii
Rites of Peace
Friedrich von Gentz, Secretary to the Congress of Vienna. (AKG
Images)
Karl Heinrich vom Stein. (LWL-Landesm useum für Kunst und
Kulturgeschichte Münster/Sabine Ahlbrand-Domseif)
Wilhelmina, Princess of Sagan. (Photo RMN/ © Gérard Blot)
General Charles Murray, Earl Cathcart, British ambassador to the
court of Russia. (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Sir Charles Stewart, British ambassador to the court of Prussia.
(National Portrait Gallery, London)
The Prussian linguist, philosopher and ambassador to Vienna,
Wilhelm von Humboldt. (The Royal Collection © 2007 Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, photograph by Rodney Todd-White)
George Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, Castlereagh’s envoy to the
Austrian court. (Reproduced by kind permission of The National
Trust for Scotland)
King Frederick Augustus of Saxony. (AKG Images)
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Crown Prince of Sweden. (The National
Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm, photograph by Erik Cornelius)
King Maximilian I of Bavaria. (The Art Archive/Miramare Museum
Trieste/Dagli Orti A)
Frederick I, King of Württemberg. (AKG Images)
Tsar Alexander is cheered by the inhabitants of Paris as he passes
through the Porte Saint-Denis at the head of his troops on
31 March 1814, with King Frederick William of Prussia at his side.
(Musée de la Ville de Paris/Musée Carnavalet, Paris/Bridgeman Art
Library)
A French view of the capitulation of Paris, 30 March 1814. (Musée
de la Ville de Paris/Musée Carnavalet, Paris/Bridgeman Art
Library)
France’s brilliant, pragmatic and versatile Foreign Minister
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. (Château de Valencay/
Lauros/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
Alexander’s sister, the Grand Duchess Catherine. (Photo RMN/
© Droits réservés)
vin
Illustrations
Alexander and the Grand Duchess take their leave of the Prince
Regent at Petworth House on 24 June 1814. (© NTPL/Derrick E.
Witty)
Mettemich’s official residence, the Austrian State Chancellery on the
Ballhausplatz in Vienna. (Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien)
Metternich’s study in the State Chancellery. (Historisches Museum
der Stadt Wien)
Metternich’s elegant villa on the Rennweg, just outside Vienna’s old
town. (Austrian National Library, Vienna, Picture Archive)
Since all the silver and gold flatware of the Austrian imperial
household had been melted down to pay for the war of 1809, an
enormous porcelain service simulating gold was run up for use at
the congress. (Ehemalige Hofsilber und TafelUcammer)
The notorious Princess Catharine Bagration, ‘the naked angel’.
(Photo RMN/© Michèle Bellot)
Talleyrand’s mistress Dorothée, comtesse de Périgord. (From
Metternich and the Duchess by Dorothy Giles McGuigan)
Francis I welcomes Tsar Alexander and Frederick William III
outside Vienna on 25 September 1814. (AKG Images)
A ball in the indoor riding school of Vienna’s imperial palace.
(Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien)
Lady Emily Castlereagh. Portrait by Lawrence. (Reproduced by kind
permission of the Marquess of Londonderry)
Frederick VI of Denmark. (The Museum of National History,
Frederiksborg Castle, photograph by Lennart Larsen)
Frederick Vi’s mistress in Vienna, Caroline Seufert. (De Danske
Kongres Kronologiske Sämling)
The Pope’s envoy to the congress, Cardinal Ercole Consalvi.
(Bridgeman Art Library)
The ‘Festival of Peace’ in the Prater in Vienna on 18 October 1814.
(Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien)
The spectacular medieval Carrousel held at the riding school of
Vienna’s imperial palace on 23 November 1814. (Gesellschaft der
Musikfreunde, Vienna)
ix
Rites of Peace
The Congress of Vienna as imagined by Isabey. (The Royal
Collection © 2007 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, photograph by
DB)
How the outside world saw the congress. (Musée de la Ville de Paris/
Musée Carnavalet, Paris/Bridgeman Art Library)
Count Ioannis Capodistrias. (AKG Images)
Minutes, taken by Gentz, of a conference of the five great powers on
8 February 1815. (Author’s collection)
A page from one of Hardenberg’s proposals on how to restore
Prussia to her former great-power status, showing which areas of
Saxony would give her the requisite number of ‘souls*. (Author’s
collection)
The imperial sleighing party held on 22 January 1815. (Historisches
Museum der Stadt Wien)
The Duke of Wellington, who replaced Castlereagh at the congress
on 1 February 1815. (V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum)
