R 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. This book is proudly printed on paper which contains wood from well managed forests, certified in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council. For more information about FSC, please visit www.fsc-uk.org Mixed Sources Product group from weN-managed forests and other controlled sources 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)