Klemens von Metternich (15 May 1773-11 June 1859) was an Austrian diplomat and statesman who served as Foreign Minister from 8 October 1809 to 13 March 1848 and State Chancellor from 25 May 1821 to 13 March 1848. Metternich was one of the most important European statesmen of his era, and he was notable for his conservative views.
Biography[]
Klemens von Metternich was born in Koblenz, Electorate of Trier, Holy Roman Empire on 15 May 1773. He received a good education at the universities of Strasbourg and Mainz, and he served as Ceremonial Marshall at the coronations of Holy Roman Emperors Leopold II and Francis II in 1790 and 1792, respectively. After a brief trip to England, he was named ambassador to the Netherlands, serving in that post for just one year before the French Republic occupied the country during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Foreign Minister[]
Metternich in 1805
Before taking office as Foreign Minister in 1809, Metternich held numerous smaller posts, including serving in ambassadorial roles to Saxony, Prussia, and France. One of his first assignments was to engineer a detente with France that included the marriage of Emperor Napoleon I to the Austrian princess Marie Louise of Parma. Soon after, he engineered Austria's entry into the War of the Sixth Coalition on the Allied side, signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau that sent Napoleon into exile, and led the Austrian delegation at the Congress of Vienna that divided post-Napoleonic Europe amongst the major powers. In October 1813, he was granted the title of Prince, and he oversaw the alignment of Austria with the Russian Empire and, to a lesser extent, Prussia. This marked the high point of Austria's diplomatic importance, and he served as State Chancellor from 1821 to 1848.
Concert of Europe[]
A traditional conservative, Metternich was keen to maintain the balance of power, in particular by resisting Russian territorial ambitions in Central Europe and lands belonging to the Ottoman Empire. He disliked liberalism and worked to prevent the breakup of the Austrian empire, for example, by crushing nationalist revolts in Austrian north Italy and the German states. At home, he pursued a similar policy, using censorship and a wide-ranging spy network to suppress unrest. By the 1840s, however, Austria was in a crisis, as the empire experienced unemployment and rising prices as a result of poor harvests. He had to deal with increasing nationalism in Italy and Hungary, and his attempt to negotiate a peaceful end to the Sonderbund War failed, as the Swiss government crushed the uprising.
Downfall[]
On 3 March 1848, Hungarian nationalist Lajos Kossuth gave a fiery speech in the Hungarian Diet, calling for a constitution. It was not until 10 March that Metternich showed concern about the rising revolutionary spirit in Vienna, and he sent troops to restore order on the streets as students and workers alike protested against Metternich's rule. After a division of troops opened fire on a hostile crowd and killed five people, the liberals and underprivileged Viennese began to wreak havoc, and Metternich was forced to resign in order for the rebels to calm down. Metternich's resignation was met with cheering in Vienna, and even Viennese commoners welcomed the end of Metternich's social conservative era. He spent time in exile in London, Brighton, and Brussels, and he returned to the Viennese court in 1851 to advise Franz Josef I of Austria. He died in Vienna in 1859 at the age of 86.