The European Pentarchy and the Congress of Verona 1822

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T H E E U R O P E A N P E N TA R CH Y

AND THE

CONGRESS OF VERONA 1822


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THE EUROPEANPENTARCHY

AND THECONGRESS OF VERONA 1822

by

IR Y C NICHOLS JR.

orth Texas State University

M A RT I N U S N I J H O F F / THE HAGUE I 97


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@ 1971 by Martinus Nijhoff The Hague Netherlandsl l rights reserved including the right to translate or to

reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form

ISBN 13: 978 90 247 1110 9 e ISBN 13: 978 94 010 2725 0

DOl 10.1007/978 94 010 2725 0


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TO MY MOTHER

P U L I N E W R I G H T N I C H O L S

ND THE

M E M O RY O F MY F T H E R

I R B Y C O G H I L L N I C H O L S

W H O I N S P I R E D ME TO BECOME

D I S C I P L E

OF C L I O


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CONTENTS

PREFACE XI

PART I

GENESIS OF THE CONGRESS: FEBRUARY 1821-0CTOBER 1822 1

PROLOGUE

THE DIPLOMATIC BACKGROUND OF THE CoNGRESS

1 The Congress is called2. The Eastern Question3. The Hanoverian Rendezvous4. The Shift from Castlereagh to Canning

CHAPTER I

THE ROAD TO VIENNA

1. The Castlereagh Instructions2. The Wellington Mission3. The Ascendancy of Villele4. Franco-Spanish Relations 1820-18225. The Villele-Wellington Interview

CHAPTER IITHE VIENNA STALEMATE

1. The Conference Convenes2. The Spanish Question3. The Eastern Question4 Italian Questions5. A Retrospect

3

358

13

19

19232527

34

4

4

42

485459


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VII I CONTENTS

PARTn

THE CONGRESS AT WORK: OCTOBER-DECEMBER 822 63

CHAPTER l l

FROM VmNNA TO VERONA: PRELlMINARmS TO THE CoNGRESS

1. Exodus2. The Canning Instructions3. The Villcle Instructions4. Reunion in Verona: The Congress at Play5. Agenda and Procedure

CHAPTER IV

TH SPANISH QUESTION

1. The Montmorency bnoire2. The British Remonstrance and Allied Reaction

65

6568

775

8

84

888

3. Dichotomy of the French Delegation 1074. Triumph of the Franco-Russian Entente 1125. International Finance and Intervention: The Brothers Rothschild and

Ouvrard 1276. A Retrospect

CHAPTER V

TH SPANISH CoLONIAL QUESTION

1. Genesis2. Wellington s Dissent3. The Villcle-Montmorency Vendetta Revisited4. The British Brief5. The AngIo-Continental Impasse6. The Gameiro ffair7. The British Reservation8. A Retrospect

CHAPTER VI

TH SLA VB TRADE QUESTION

1. Genesis2. The Impossible Quest3. The Black Tide4. The Six Points

133

137

1374445

147148

5

5459

6

6

1657

176


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C O N T E N T S

5 The Implacable French and Diffident Allies6. A Retrospect7. Epilogue

CHAPTER VII

THE ITALIAN CONGRESS

1. The Charles Alber t Affair2. The Evacuation of Piedmont3. The Evacuation of Naples4. Metternich s Italian League Lega Ita/ica)5 The Sardinian Waldenses6. The Swiss Confederation and Piedmontese Refugees7 The Knights of Malta8. The Aldobrandini Appeal9. A Retrospect

CHAPTER VIII

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE GOLDEN MAXIM

1. The Austrian War Debt2. The Russian Ukase3 The Eastern Question4. The Navigation of the Rhine5 A Retrospect

CHAPTER IX

THE CURT IN FALLS

1. The Verona Circular (December 14, 1822)2. Exodus3. The Second ViIlele-Wellington Interview4. A Retrospect

P RT III

I X

180186189

191

191

195200

2052

212215215216

218

218229244258262

264

264266267272

P R O B L E M S I N H I S T O R I O G R P H Y N D I N T E R P R E T T I O N 275

CHAPTER X

WELLINGTON AND THE CoNGRESS

1 The Alleged Crime2. The Prosecution

277

277277


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x CONTENTS

3. The Defense4. The Verdict

CHAPTER XI

CHATEAUBRIAND ND THE CONGRESS

1. The Debate2. Ambition and Intrigue3. The Mission4. Reception at Verona

5. A Retrospect

CHAPTER X

CHATEAUBRIAND S W R

1. The French Ministerial Crisis (December 1822)2. France Goes t Alone3. Britain dopts Neutrality4. A Retrospect

EPILOGUE

FROM CoNGRESS SYSTEM TO CONCERT OF EUROPE

1. The Secret Treaty of Verona2. The Congress and the Alliance3. Fall of the Alliance4. The Legacy

BmuOGRAPHY

INDEX

280284

286

286288292295

299

3 2

3 2

3 7

312315

317

317

32

321

324

327

349


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P R E F C E

For one reason or another. modem historians have neglected the Congressof Verona. some because they thought the field already had been thoroughlyplowed. while others doubted that enough material could be found for morethan an article or two on the subject. Indeed. not a single book-lengthmonograph of this international assembly has ever been published in anylanguage. This study. therefore. attempts to fill the gap by (1) explaining thegenesis of the Congress. 2) furnishing a comprehensive account of its work.3) revising some of the interpretations of Sir Charles K. Webster. Harold

W. V. Tempedey. and others. and 4) analyzing the significance of theCongress. with emphasis on its contribution to the fall of the QuintupleAlliance. a consequence aided by the dissimilar and often contradictoryinterests of the allies themselves.

This book is essentially a diplomatic history. but diplomats. of course.do not live in a vacuum. Numerous political. social. commercial. financial.and sometimes even religious factors. impinge upon their consciousness.

tsoon became apparent. therefore. that the scope of this work would

be

enormous and that its span would stretch from the eighteenth to thetwentieth century. i f the alpha and omega of every issue discussed at Veronawere recounted. Yet anything less than a catholic approach would reducethe claim of comprehensive coverage to an empty pretense. Included withinthe purview of the study. perforce. are questions which range from BlackSea commerce to the Atlantic slave trade. from the Greek insurrection toLatin American independence. from the navigation of the Rhine to theinterdiction of foreign trade with Russian America. and from interventionin the Iberian Peninsula to the persecution of Piedmontese Vaudois.

The present volume is an outgrowth of researches which began twentythree years ago in Professor James Logan Godfrey's seminar at the University of North Carolina. By 1949 the paper had grown into a master'sthesis which six years later at the University of Michigan envolved into adoctoral dissertation: Great Britain and the Congress of Verona. Buthardly more than the foundation for t is work had been laid. for the greater


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XII P R E F C E

task of giving equal and adequate treatment to the diplomacy of the fourgreat continental powers remained. There were. moreover. other importantquestions which required investigation: what impact. if any. did the negotiations at Verona have upon the balance of power in Europe. the foreignpolicy of the United States. or on Habsburg hegemony in Italy? Nonetheless.the obvious need for a central theme in the midst of involved negotiationson multitudinous issues led me to retain the focus on British diplomacy.Of all the great powers. only Britain. by virtue of her empire. commerce.and ambivalent position in Europe (at once insular and continental). had

interests which were truly global. Further research. writing. revision. andthe occasional pUblication of findings have occupied my attention for thelast decade and a half.

For the sake of clarity. I have modernized the spelling and punctuationof most quotations - retaining some archaic forms for their dramatic effect -and have translated foreign titles of nobility and office into English. Alsoto avoid confusion. all Old Style dates have been converted to New Style.During the nineteenth century. the Russian. Old Style calendar was twelvedays in arrears of the Gregorian. New Style calendar.

Both the organization of this book and my own historiographical creedhang on five basic assumptions. First. the author should take the readerinto his confidence at frequent intervals. not just in the Preface and theconcluding chapter. Secondly. the essence of history is problems. not chronicles. though no theory of historical interpretation or system of socialdialectics in definitive. because such factors s human courage. faith. andambition are indefinable and unpredictable. Thirdly. notwithstanding theinfluence of complex material forces. accidents and men s free choice alsohave produced dynamic results throughout the continuum of history. oesnot i o often seem capricious? Fourthly. symbols. such as the martyredJoan of rc or the modem propaganda image. are sometimes greater thanthe reality. Fifthly. the interpretation of events is the proper function of thehistorian and is as important as their narration. Since analyses are subjectiveand cannot be guaranteed. however. each reader must judge for himselfwhether a particular conclusion is astute or naive. proven or unwarrented.germane or irrelevant. In conformity with these suppositions. at least onesection of each chapter analyzes problems of causation. relationships. and

significance. while all of Part III (three chapters and the Epilogue). focuseson questions of historiography and interpretation.

Most of the published materials for this study and all of the manuscriptcollections (except the Adams Papers). are deposited in London. at theBritish Museum and the Public Record Office. and in Paris. at the Biblio-


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The European Pentarchy and the Congress of Verona 1822

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