page_title: Klemens von Metternich
section_title: Hungarian Diets, Alexander I's death, and problems in Italy
hierarchical_section_title: Klemens von Metternich / Chancellor / Hungarian Diets, Alexander I's death, and problems in Italy
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Graf Klemens von Metternich
context_page_description: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein, was an Austrian diplomat who was at the center of European affairs for three decades as the Austrian Empire's foreign minister from 1809 and Chancellor from 1821 until the liberal Revolutions of 1848 forced his resignation.
  Born into the House of Metternich in 1773 as the son of a diplomat, Metternich received a good education at the universities of Strasbourg and Mainz. Metternich rose through key diplomatic posts, including ambassadorial roles in the Kingdom of Saxony, the Kingdom of Prussia, and especially Napoleonic France. One of his first assignments as Foreign Minister was to engineer a détente with France that included the marriage of Napoleon to the Austrian archduchess Marie Louise. 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. For his service to the Austrian Empire, he was given the title of Prince in October 1813.
context_section_description: In the early 1820s, Metternich had advised Francis that convening the Hungarian Diet would help get approval for financial reform. In fact, the Diet of 1825 to 1827 saw 300 sessions filled with criticism of how the Empire had eroded the historic rights of the Kingdom of Hungary's nobility. Metternich complained that it "interfered with [his] time, [his] customs and [his] daily life", as he was forced to travel to Pressburg (modern day Bratislava) to perform ceremonial duties and to observe. He was alarmed by the growth of Hungarian national sentiment and wary of the growing influence of nationalist István Széchenyi, whom he had met twice in 1825. Back in Vienna, in mid-December, he heard of the death of Tsar Alexander with mixed feelings. He had known the Tsar well and was reminded of his own frailty, although the death potentially wiped the soured diplomatic slate clean. Moreover, he could claim credit for foreseeing the Decembrist liberal revolt the new Tsar Nicholas I had to crush. Now 53, Metternich chose to send Archduke Ferdinand to establish first contact with Nicholas. Metternich was also friendly with the British envoy (the Duke of Wellington) and enlisted his help to charm Nicholas. Despite this, the first 18 months of Nicholas' reign did not go well for Metternich: firstly, the British were chosen over the Austrians to oversee Russian-Ottoman talks; and, as a result, Metternich could exercise no influence over the resulting Akkerman Convention. France too began to drift away from Metternich's non-interventionist position. In August 1826 Russian Foreign Minister Nesselrode rejected a proposal by Metternich to convene a congress to discuss the events that eventually led to the outbreak of civil war in Portugal. The Austrian Foreign Minister accepted this with "surprising resilience".
  On 5 November 1827 Baroness Antoinette von Leykam, daughter of diplomat Christoph Ambros Baron von Leykam (1777-1830) and Donna Antonia Caputo dei Marchesi della Petrella (b.1783), became Metternich's second wife. She was only twenty, and their marriage, a small affair at Hetzendorf (a village just outside Vienna), drew considerable criticism considering their difference in status . She belonged to the lower nobility, but Antoinette's grace and charm soon won over Viennese society. The same day British, Russian and French forces destroyed the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Navarino. Metternich worried that further intervention would topple the Ottoman Empire, upsetting the balance so carefully created in 1815. To his relief the new British Prime Minister Wellington and his cabinet were equally fearful of giving Russia the upper hand in the Balkans. After another round of his proposals for congresses was rejected, Metternich stood back from the Eastern Question, watching as the Treaty of Adrianople was signed in September 1829. Though he publicly criticised it for being too harsh on Turkey, privately he was satisfied with its leniency and promise of Greek autonomy, making it a buffer against Russian expansion rather than a Russian satellite state. Metternich's private life was filled with grief. In November 1828 his mother died, and in January 1829 Antoinette died, five days after giving birth to their son, Richard von Metternich. After fighting tuberculosis for many months, Metternich's son Viktor, then a junior diplomat, died on 30 November 1829. Consequently, he spent Christmas alone and depressed, worried by the draconian methods of some of his fellow conservatives and by the renewed march of liberalism.
  My whole life's work is destroyed.
  — Metternich on hearing of France's July Revolution (Palmer 1972, p. 246).
  In May Metternich took a much needed holiday on his estate at Johannisberg. He returned to Vienna a month later, still worried by the "chaos in London and Paris" and his declining ability to prevent it. Hearing Nesselrode was due to take the waters at Karlsbad, he met him there in late July. He berated the quiet Nesselrode, but no offence was taken. The two arranged a second meeting in August. In the interim Metternich he
caption: Metternich, c. 1830
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