Vienna, 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna (78 page)

C
HAPTER
30. C
ONQUERING THE
P
EACE

Intentions for Champ de Mars ceremony, Fournier,
Napoleon the First,
trans. Margaret Bacon Corwin and Arthur Dart Bissell (1903), 692; comparison with coronation, J. M. Thompson,
Napoleon Bonaparte
(1952), 409, and the lack of enthusiasm in the cheers, Ludwig,
Napoleon,
trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul (1926), 520, who in turn drew from Coignet’s
Memoirs.
Schom also shows this well in his depiction of the ceremony,
Napoleon Bonaparte
(1997), 731–734. See also Steven Englund,
Napoleon: A Political Life
(2004), 436–437, Fournier,
Napoleon the First,
trans. Margaret Becon Corwin and Arthur Dart Bissell (1903), 705–707, and Méneval,
Memoirs,
III, 449. Pozzo saw this planned Champ de Mars ceremony as a “ridiculous parody,” Pozzo di Borgo to Nesselrode, April 17, 1815,
Correspondance Diplomatique du comte Pozzo di Borgo, ambassadeur de Russie en France et du comte du Nesselrode depuis la restauration des Bourbons jusqu’au Congrès d’ Aix-la-Chapelle, 1814–1818
(1890), 89. For more on the changes, and Napoleon’s use of power, see also Pozzo di Borgo to Nesselrode, May 30/June 11 1815, 156. Some thought the Champ de Mars fete would be “fatal to Bonaparte” and his reign would end that day, Creevey,
The Creevey Papers: A Selection from the Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Thomas Creevey, M.P.
(1904), I, 227. The number of affirmatives is sometimes higher, calculating votes from the soldiers as well.

The tsar’s words of June 4 come from a letter of Krüdener to Mme. Stourdza, Clarence Ford,
Life and Letters of Madame de Krudener
(1893), 165, and “you can imagine” are in Countess Edling,
Mémoires
(1888), 232. Additional parts of the conversation, such as “you have not humbled” and “like a criminal,” are in Troyat,
Alexander of Russia,
trans. Joan Pinkham (1982), 225, and Edling (1888), 231–233. “A great explosion of love” comes from Gregor Dallas’s
The Final Act: The Roads to Waterloo
(1997), 410. For more, see also Walter Alison Phillips’s
The Confederation of Europe: A Study of the European Alliance 1813–1823 as an Experiment in the International Organization of Peace
(1966), 125–126; W. P. Cresson’s
The Holy Alliance: The European Background of the Monroe Doctrine
(1922), 32–35; and Ernest John Knapton’s
The Lady of the Holy Alliance
(1939).

The German Congress, or committee as it now called itself in its enlarged version, faced many challenges, and they can be followed in detail in Enno E. Kraehe’s
Metternich’s German Policy
(1963–1983), II, 366–399, Paul Sweet’s
Wilhelm von Humboldt: A Biography
(1980), II, 195–208, and Guglielmo Ferrero’s
The Reconstruction of Europe: Talleyrand and the Congress of Vienna, 1814–1815
(1941), 314–323. Humboldt expressed the frustration succinctly, calling the German conference “un-German,” letter to Caroline Humboldt, May 21, 1815,
Wilhelm und Caroline von Humboldt in ihren Briefen,
Anna von Sydow, ed. (1910), IV, 556. Count Münster elaborates on the difficulties in a letter, June 3, 1815,
Political Sketches of the State of Europe, 1814–1867: Containing Count Ernst Münster’s Despatches to the Prince Regent from the Congress of Vienna
(1868), 269–271, and another letter of the same date, 271–275. Minutes of the meeting can be read in Angeberg’s
Le Congrès de Vienne et les traités de 1815
(1864), III, 1227ff.

Hardenberg and Humboldt’s cooperation on the protection of Jewish minorities is in Max J Kohler’s
Jewish Rights at the Congresses of Vienna (1814–1815), and Aix-la-Chapelle (1818),
(1918), 9–11. Hardenberg’s letter on behalf of the Jewish communities in Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen, January 4, 1815, is in Kohler (1918), 11–12, as is Humboldt’s report on Jewish rights, which can be found in
Gesammelte Schriten,
X, 97–115. Gentz received many gifts as seen in his diary, and the “beautiful present” appeared, for instance, April 13, 1815,
Tagebücher
(1873), I, 371. Humboldt declines the gifts, for example, in a letter to Caroline, June 4, 1815,
Wilhelm und Caroline von Humboldt in ihren Briefen,
ed. Anna von Sydow (1910), IV, 566–567. Opposition in the meetings reported here as well, 565–567. Rechberg’s laughing is in Kohler (1918), 23, and the change to the text in Kohler (1918), 27, and Kraehe (1963–1983), II, 382. Carl Bertuch’s memorandum is housed at HHStA Kongressakten Kart 8. The minutes do not identify the source of the change to Article XVIII, Kraehe (1963–1983), II, 383.

Plans for a
traité général,
Gentz to Karadja, April 22, 1815,
Dépêches inédites,
151. Uncertainty of the treaty, Spaen to Nagell, May 25, 1815,
DCV
II, no. 2445, and the magnitude of the challenge, Münster, May 15, 1815, George Herbert Münster,
Political Sketches of the State of Europe, 1814–1867: Containing Count Ernst Münster’s Despatches to the Prince Regent from the Congress of Vienna
(1868), 263. The question of a general treaty, or several separate ones, Gentz to Karadja, June 26, 1815,
Dépêches inédites,
162 and 164–165, and Talleyrand’s report to the king,
TLC,
536–537. The commission for writing the treaty, Münster, June 3, 1815 (1868), 268. First suggestions were Gentz, Anstedt, and Besnardière, though the latter two declined to participate, Gentz to Karadja, June 26, 1815,
Dépêches inédites,
162.

The eight powers who signed at Paris to sign at Vienna and the others “accede separately,” Münster, June 3, 1815 (1868), 274–275. Signing the final act, Gentz, June 9, 1815,
Tagebücher,
385, Gentz to Karadja, June 26, 1815,
Dépêches inédites,
166–167. The twenty-six hands copying “morning to night” is in Gentz letter to Metternich, June 20, 1815,
Briefe von und ab Friedrich von Gentz,
(1913), III, 307. Signing of the act and some additional agreements added on the tenth, Hesse-Darmstadt on “cession of the duchy of Westphalia” and German treaty, Münster, June 11, 1815, 278, and the backdating, or retaining the eighth, Münster, letters June 11 through June 14, 278, 281, 283. Consalvi’s protest, Angeberg (1864), IV, 1450–1453, and again on behalf of the pope, June 14, 1815, IV, 1922–1929. After the second signing, “definite closure of the congress,” Gentz, June 19, 1815,
Tagebücher
(1873), 386. Spain’s refusal to sign, given the “serious mistakes” of the congress, Labrador,
Mélanges sur la vie privée et publique du marquis de Labrador
(1849), 52–53, and his several protests in Angeberg (1864), III, 1018–1020, 1341–1342, and again, 1456–1458. Spain had not technically signed Treaty of Paris, at least as of May 30—it signed almost two months later, July 20. The Final Act is in Angeberg (1864), III, 1386–1433.

Metternich and Gentz dining in the garden, Gentz, June 12, 1815,
Tagebücher,
385. Münster met with Metternich before the Austrian foreign minister left on night June 12–13, June 14, 1815 (1868), 284, Gentz, June 12, 1815,
Tagebücher,
385. Talleyrand burning papers before leaving Vienna, comes from a report to the king, June 1815,
TLC,
554.

C
HAPTER
31. T
O
C
ONQUER OR
D
IE

Murat’s defeats are in Jean Tulard,
Murat
(1999), as well as Albert Espitalier,
Napoleon and King Murat
(1912), and A. Hilliard Atteridge,
Joachim Murat: Marshal of France and King of Naples
(1911). Talleyrand to King Louis XVIII, May 1, 1815,
TLC,
491. Napoleon’s troubles and its rigorous efforts to overcome them are in Hamilton-Williams,
The Fall of Napoleon: The Final Betrayal
(1994), 206–208. Napoleon’s dilemma, attack or defend, Chandler,
Waterloo: The Hundred Days
(1980), 25, and more on his challenges in Chandler’s
The Campaigns of Napoleon
(1966), 1014ff. Carnot’s advice to Napoleon, Ludwig,
Napoleon,
trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul (1926), 521. “To conquer or die” comes from John Holland Rose,
The Life of Napoleon I
(1916), II, 419.

The ball, Andrew Roberts,
Waterloo: June 18
,
1815: The Battle for Modern Europe
(2005), 27–29, Antony Brett-James, ed.,
The Hundred Days: Napoleon’s Last Campaign from Eyewitness Accounts
(1964), 39–44, the
Vanity Fair
depiction, particularly chapters 28 and 32, along with John Hagan’s “A Note on the Napoleonic Background of
Vanity Fair,
”
Nineteenth-Century Fiction,
15, no. 4 (March 1961), 358–361. The coachhouse location comes from the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Richmond, Lady Georgiana Lennox, Brett-James (1964), 41. Proclamation to the citizens of Brussels already printed, Fournier,
Napoleon the First,
trans. Margaret Bacon Corwin and Arthur Dart Bissell (1903), 716. Wellington receiving news of the French move at the ball is also in
The Creevey Papers: A Selection from the Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Thomas Creevey, M.P.
(1904), I, 229, and Wellington present, “as composed as ever,” 223. “A good map,” “Napoleon has humbugged,” and “I must fight” are in Longford (1969), 419 and 421. One of many critiques that Wellington received for attending the ball, J. M. Thompson,
Napoleon Bonaparte
(1952), 411, and Wellington and the Duke of Richmond looking over maps, Lady Shelley,
The Diary of Frances Lady Shelley, 1787–1817,
ed. Richard Edgcumbe (1914), I, 171, among many others. Richmond “marked the map with a pencil, and that mark I saw,” Lady Shelley, who visited the Richmonds shortly afterward, 171.

Quatre Bras was described by Captain R. H. Gronow in
The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow, Being Anecdotes of the Camp, Court, Clubs, and Society 1810–1860
(1900), I, 66–67. Ligny and the significance of the Prussian retreat north are in David G. Chandler,
The Campaigns of Napoleon
(1966), 1034–1047, and also his
Waterloo: The Hundred Days
(1980), 102–103 and 106. Prussian bitterness toward British allies, Colonel E. Kaulbach’s “The Prussians” in Alun Chalfont, ed.,
Waterloo: Battle of Three Armies
(1980), 64. News of Bonaparte’s victory over the Prussians and Wellington’s falling back were magnified even more at the time, Creevey (1904), 231–232. Actions on the seventeenth are in Owen Connelly’s
Blundering to Glory: Napoleon’s Military Campaigns
(1987), 210; Roberts’s
Waterloo: June 18
, 1815:
The Battle for Modern Europe
(2005), 34–37; and Kircheisen (1932), 699, with Napoleon’s fear of Wellington’s escape.

The deceptively flat ground was described as “a great undulating plain,” Croker to his wife, July 27, 1815,
The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker
, ed., Louis J. Jennings (1884), I, 72; and a “vast undulating ground,” Victor Hugo’s
The Battle of Waterloo,
trans. Lascelles Wraxall (1907), 29. Wellington’s activities on the morning of the eighteenth, including the letter to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, are in Gregor Dallas’s
The Final Act: The Roads to Waterloo
(1997), 372. The “exhaustion of the troops” is in John Sutherland’s
Men of Waterloo
(1966), 186, and “Blücher picked the fattest man” is in Barbero (2005), 45. A “torrent of rain” is in R. H. Gronow,
The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow, Being Anecdotes of the Camp, Court, Clubs, and Society 1810–1860
(1900), I, 67. The conditions that night are well presented in Roberts (2005), 36–37, and the sleeping, lack of breakfast, and “petrified with cold” are in John Keegan’s
The Face of Battle
(1976), 134–136.

My account of Napoleon’s breakfast that morning draws on Andrew Roberts’s
Napoleon and Wellington: The Battle of Waterloo—and the Great Commanders Who Fought It
(2001), xxix–xxxi; Alessandro Barbero’s
The Battle: A New History of Waterloo,
trans. John Cullen (2005), 57; and John Holland Rose (1916), II, 451–452. The words “in war, morale” come from Roberts (2001), 163. General Drouot’s suggestion is in David G. Chandler’s
Waterloo: The Hundred Days
(1980), 126, and the small size of the battlefield in his
The Campaigns of Napoleon
(1966), 1064.

C
HAPTER
32. L
A
B
ELLE
A
LLIANCE

The manor of Hougoumont was described by Robert Southey in
Journal of a Tour in the Netherlands in the Autumn of 1815
(1902), 89–90, and Colonel Alexander Woodford of Coldstream Guards, in Antony Brett-James, ed.,
The Hundred Days: Napoleon’s Last Campaign from Eye-Witness Accounts
(1964), 108–109. The attack is presented well in David Howarth’s
Waterloo: Day of Battle
(1968), 71–80, and William Seymour in Alun Chalfont, ed.,
Waterloo: Battle of Three Armies
(1980), 73–76, 85–90. Prince Jérôme’s desperation, hurt pride, and the significance of the failed diversion are shown in Alan Schom’s
One Hundred Days: Napoleon’s Road to Waterloo
(1992), 280; John Sutherland’s
Men of Waterloo
(1966), 197; and David G. Chandler’s
The Campaigns of Napoleon
(1966), 1072–1073. The lone gardener hiding in the manor, Willem van Kylsom, and the words “every crack in the stone” come from Victor Hugo,
Battle of Waterloo,
trans. Lascelles Wraxall (1907), 14, 16–17. Wellington’s words on “the closing of the gates” are in Elizabeth Longford’s
Wellington: The Years of the Sword
(1969), I, 459, and Wellington repeated its importance to several other people, for example, to Lady Shelley, as she noted in her diary, September 1815,
The Diary of Frances Lady Shelley 1787–1817,
ed. Richard Edgcumbe (1914), 172. Alessandro Barbero’s interpretation of the inability of the French to see the manor comes from
The Battle: A New History of Waterloo,
trans. John Cullen (2005), 76.