Vienna, 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna (80 page)

Wellington describes the efforts of the king of Prussia and the king of the Netherlands to restore their art, Wellington to Castlereagh, September 23, 1815,
WD,
VIII, 267–270. Wellington’s words on loot are in Elizabeth Longford’s
Wellington: Pillar of State
(1972), 27. Canova’s mission to inspect the looted treasures, September 15, 1815, Ercole Consalvi,
Mémoires
(1864), 85–87, and October 2, 1815, 87–89. “Fear and hope,” the difficulties arising from Treaty of Tolentino, and the arguments encountered in favor of retaining the art and manuscripts in Paris, Canova to Pope Pius VII, September 15, 1815, Consalvi (1864), 85–86. For more on the art looted from papacy, John Martin Robinson’s
Cardinal Consalvi 1757–1824
(1987), 35; Owen Chadwick,
The Popes and European Revolution
(1981), 462; and E. E. Y. Hales,
Revolution and the Papacy
(1960), 113–115. Carrying out
Venus,
the bronze horses, and the art controversy are in Dorothy Mackay Quynn (April 1945), 451–460. Denon as “very low-spirited,” Croker to his wife, July 14, 1815, John Wilson Croker,
The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker 1809 to 1830,
ed. Louis J. Jennings (1884), I, 62. Wellington being booed in the theater is in Rorry Muir,
Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon 1807–1815
(1996), 372. The tally of art removed comes from Louis-Antoine Lavallée, printed in Charles Saunier (1902), 161. Grimm’s searching for manuscripts can be seen in a letter to Wilhelm, September 23, 1815,
Briefwechsel zwischen Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm aus der Jugendzeit
(1963), 453–454. Soldiers protecting the workers at the Arc de Triomphe, and the inability to return the Veronese, Schwarzenberg to his wife, September 29, 1815, Johann Friedrich Novák, ed.,
Briefe des Feldmarschalls Fürsten Schwarzenberg an seine Frau, 1799–1816
(1913), 422. Basil Jackson witnessed the soldiers there, and the removal,
Notes and Reminiscences of a Staff Officer
(1903), 106–110.

Tsar under influence of Krüdener, Clarence Ford,
Life and Letters of Madame de Krudener
(1893), 176ff, Ernest John Knapton,
The Lady of the Holy Alliance
(1939), 147ff, Countess Edling,
Mémoires
(1888), 241–242. The signing of the Holy Alliance, Hardenberg, September 26, 1815,
Tagebücher und autobiographische Aufzeichnungen
(2000), 826. The terms are in
Le Congrès de Vienne et les traités de 1815
(1864), IV, 1547–1549. The “great explosion of love” and hints of Wilson’s covenant in this alliance, Dallas (1997), 410 and 442. Cited passages from the Act of the Holy Alliance come from the full text of the act, which appears in the appendix of 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), 305–306. Tsar Alexander told Castlereagh “nothing had given him so much satisfaction as to fix his signature to this bond of peace,” Castlereagh to Liverpool, September 28, 1815,
BD,
384. Many other powers did join the three original signatories of the Holy Alliance, including the king of Württemberg, king of Saxony, king of Sardinia, king of the Netherlands, as well as the Republic of Switzerland and some former Hanseatic cities. The United States remained aloof, though some, like the Massachusetts Peace Society, hoped it would join, and wrote to the tsar about their intent to “disseminate the very principles avowed in the wonderful Alliance.” For more on the Holy Alliance and the United States, William Penn Cresson’s
The Holy Alliance: The European Background of the Monroe Doctrine
(1922), 48. Henry Kissinger’s words on the Holy Alliance are in his
Diplomacy
(1994), 83. Consalvi’s protests against the Holy Alliance, Hales,
Revolution and Papacy, 1769–1846
(1960), 237. Metternich’s views are in
NP,
I, 214–216, and Castlereagh’s “sublime mysticism and nonsense” comes from a letter to Liverpool, September 28, 1815,
BD,
CCXXVIII, 383;
WSD,
XI, 175.

“Diplomacy by conference” is in Edward Vose Gulick’s
Europe’s Classical Balance of Power: A Case History of the Theory and Practice of One of the Great Concepts of European Statecraft
(1967), 289–290. The significance of Article VI is in Kissinger,
A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh, and the Problems of Peace 1812–1822
(1957), 221, and also his
Diplomacy
(1994), 83. Gentz as a possible Secretary General of Europe, October 21, 1815,
Tagebücher
(1873), I, 421. The words “to regulate” come from Webster’s
The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1815–1822
(1929), 121.

“A sort of queen in the diplomatic world” is from R. H. Gronow’s
The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow, Being Anecdotes of the Camp, Court, Clubs, and Society 1810–1860
(1900), I, 300, and “A frantic passion” is in Charles Rémusat,
Mémoires de ma vie
(1958–1967), I, 274–275. Dorothée was viewed as Talleyrand’s favorite also by Agent Nota to Hager, November 5, 1815,
DCV,
II, no. 2768, and others, too, like Pasquier,
Histoire de mon temps: Mémoires du chancelier Pasquier
(1893–1894), III, 369. Philip Ziegler agreed that “Talleyrand loved Dorothea deeply” and critiques the sources well,
The Duchess of Dino: Chatelaine of Europe
(1962), 127–134, 141–142, as does Françoise de Berardy’s
Talleyrand’s Last Duchess
(1966), 126–131, and Emmanuel de Waresquiel’s
Talleyrand: le prince immobile
(2003), 481–482. “Devoured by a slow fever” is in Count Mathieu Molé, ed.,
The Life and Memoirs of Count Molé (1781–1855),
(1924), III, 343–344.

Desires of French neighbors Netherlands, Prussia, Bavaria, and Württemberg on gaining more territory, Castlereagh to Liverpool, July 24, 1815,
BD,
CCVII, 350;
WSD,
XI, 122. Claims for indemnity and security, rather than a right from conquest, is in Castlereagh to Liverpool, September 25, 1815,
BD,
CCXXVII, 380. Loss of French territory predicted, including Alsace and Lorraine, Nota to Hager, August 10, 1815,
DCV
II, no. 2698. Gentz denied the rumored interference of the Great Powers in the dismissal of Talleyrand, Gentz to Karadja, September 25, 1815,
Dépêches inédites,
179–180. Hardenberg, though, noted Alexander lobbied for Pozzo di Borgo, who was apparently offered the position with French government, September 21, 1815,
Tagebüch
er
und autobiographische Aufzeichnungen,
825. Letter King Louis XVIII to Tsar Alexander, September 11/23, 1815, reprinted in
Correspondance Diplomatique
(1890), 209–211. Pozzo did not think the king of France could accept such terms, August 15/27, 1815, 207. Expenses, single round of ammunition cost soldier’s daily ration, Gunther E. Rothenberg, “The Austrian Army in the Age of Metternich,”
Journal of Modern History
40, no. 2 (June 1968), 165. Second Peace of Paris, Kircheisen, 705, and signing of the treaty, Gentz, November 20, 1815,
Tagebücher,
430, Gentz to Karadja, November 25, 1815,
Dépêches inédites,
192. Richelieu reading the treaty, as Molé saw him, “tears filled his eyes,” and Talleyrand preferring to lose his hands than sign the treaty, Molé, II, 78 and 89. Edling also thought it was an “abuse of victory” (1888), 244. A “masterpiece of destruction,” or
“un chef-d’oeuvre de destruction,”
in Pozzo di Borgo to Emperor Alexander, August 15/27, 1815,
Correspondance Diplomatique
(1890), 207. The treaty is in Angeberg (1864), IV, 1595ff. “This city and this sun…” comes from a letter, Metternich to his daughter Marie, July 13, 1815, and the translation of these lines is by Mrs. Alexander Napier,
Memoirs of Prince Metternich 1773–1815
(1880), II, 612.

E
PILOGUE

Napoleon reached the harbor on the fifteenth, but he did not step onto the island until the seventeenth. “Black wart” is from naval surgeon Henry, cited by Alan Schom,
Napoleon Bonaparte
(1997), 767, and John Holland Rose,
The Life of Napoleon I
(1916), II, 497. Alexander had helped Marie-Louise gain Parma, as he had promised, and a secret treaty had been signed guaranteeing her son’s succession to the duchy. Marie-Louise’s gift to Metternich, Agent Freddi to Hager, July 13, 1815,
DCV,
II, no. 2657. The Duchess of Sagan’s later marriage, depression, and words “she was so sad” come from Dorothy Guis McGuigan’s
Metternich and the Duchess
(1975), 506–507, 513. The resolution of Princess Bagration’s affairs and her later marriage are in Louis Hastier’s “Les Bagration” in
Vieilles histoire, étranges enigmes
(1962), 175 and 182. Bagration and Feodora in Balzac’s
La Peau de chagrin “avec une étonnante précision,”
Hastier (1962), 184–185, and Susan Mary Alsop,
The Congress Dances: Vienna 1814–1815
(1984), 208. “She has forgotten” and “only the veils” are also in Alsop (1984), 209. The Duchess in Czech literature is in McGuigan (1975), 516. “Phantasm” and “imaginary being” are in Harold Nicolson’s
The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 1812–1822
(1946), 274.

A vague death certificate is one reason for the controversy surrounding the tsar’s death, Allen McConnell,
Tsar Alexander I: Paternalistic Reformer
(1970), 185. Henri Troyat agreed,
Alexander of Russia: Napoleon’s Conqueror,
trans. Joan Pinkham (1980), note 293, and he surveyed some additional problems with the certificate, 302–303. The theory that the tsar fled to a monastery in Palestine was examined in Maurice Paléologue,
The Enigmatic Czar
(1938), 317–318. One proponent of the tsar as Feodor Kusmitch was Prince Vladimir Bariatinsky,
Le Mystère d’Alexandre Ier
(1929). Russian history, of course, has many legends of previous rulers, from false Dimitris to several Peter IIIs. “A sphinx who carried his secret with him into the tomb” is in Alan Palmer’s
Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace
(1974), xvii. See also Grand duc Nicolas Mikahaïlovitch,
Le Tsar Alexandre
(1931), I, 343–344.

The king of Saxony’s money coming to Talleyrand appears in many sources, including Lord Acton’s “Essay on the
Mémoires
of Talleyrand” in his
Historical Essays and Studies
(1926), 397. Acton, or John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, was a grandson of the duke of Dalberg who served with Talleyrand at Vienna. Acton cited a conversation with Count Senfft, a former Saxon minister, who knew Talleyrand and reported Saxon money coming to him, to the tune of £40,000. For Talleyrand and Dorothée’s likely love affair in Vienna, see notes to previous chapter. “Vienna, Vienna” and “If I ever did more” are in Ziegler,
The Duchess of Dino: Chatelaine of Europe
(1962), 127 and 121. Castlereagh’s death is in Montgomery Hyde’s
Strange Death of Lord Castlereagh
(1959).

Woodrow Wilson’s comment on not wanting “any odour of the Congress of Vienna” into the Paris proceedings was prompted by a comment from the prime minister of New Zealand, who was about to pose a question in the Council of Ten after reading Webster’s
Congress of Vienna
(1919), and that was the last anyone said about the congress at that conference, Webster later wrote,
The Art and Practice of Diplomacy
(1961), 28. “The Big fish” comes from Marquis de Labrador’s
Mélanges sur la vie privée et publique
(1849), 33. For more on the question of nationalism at the Congress of Vienna, see Hannah Strauss’s
The Attitude of the Congress of Vienna Toward Nationalism in Germany, Italy, and Poland
(1949). “Dividing the spoils” is in Gentz’s memoir of the congress,
NP
, II, 474. Kissinger’s words on the German Confederation is in his
Diplomacy
(1994), 80–81, and the legacy of the congress in Germany until 1866, James Sheehan,
German History, 1770–1866
(1994), 401. “Just equilibrium” is from Castlereagh’s letter to Liverpool, November 11, 1814, in
BD
, 232. For more on the relationship between the Great Powers and the Monroe Doctrine, see William Penn Cresson’s
The Holy Alliance: The European Background of the Monroe Doctrine
(1922). The declaration of Swiss neutrality is in Angeberg (1864), IV, 1640–1641. Diplomatic precedence from the chair of the commission on diplomatic rank, Labrador,
Mélanges sur la vie privée et publique
(1849), 50–51 as well as Annexe XVII of the Final Act, which was dated March 19, 1815 (1864), III, 934–935 and 939–940. Castlereagh on the “machine” in a speech before the House of Commons, March 20, 1815, printed in Appendix II to
BD,
395. The Final Act is in
Le Congrès de Vienne et les traités de 1815
(1864), III, 1386–1433.

I
LLUSTRATION
C
REDITS

1.
The Congress of Vienna/Meeting of the Plenipotentiaries of the Committee of Eight,
by Jean Baptiste Isabey, engraving by Jean Godefroy. (Wienmuseum)

2.
Promenade in the Prater
(Anonymous engraving from
Der Wiener Congress: Culturgeschichte die Bildenden Künste und das Kunstgewerbe Theater—Musik in der Zeit von 1800 bis 1825,
by Eduard Leisching, 1898)

3.
Austrian Foreign Minister, Prince Metternich.
(Castle Kynzvart)