Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna |...

Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna | David King | Superb

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Vienna 1814: How t...

	Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna David King Harmony, 2008 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

?Reads like a novel. A fast-paced page-turner, it has everything: sex, wit, humor, and adventures. But it is an impressively researched and important story.?
?David Fromkin, author of Europe?s Last Summer

Vienna, 1814 is an evocative and brilliantly researched account of the most audacious and extravagant peace conference in modern European history. With the feared Napoleon Bonaparte presumably defeated and exiled to the small island of Elba, heads of some 216 states gathered in Vienna to begin piecing together the ruins of his toppled empire. Major questions loomed: What would be done with France? How were the newly liberated territories to be divided? What type of restitution would be offered to families of the deceased? But this unprecedented gathering of kings, dignitaries, and diplomatic leaders unfurled a seemingly endless stream of personal vendettas, long-simmering feuds, and romantic entanglements that threatened to undermine the crucial work at hand, even as their hard-fought policy decisions shaped the destiny of Europe and led to the longest sustained peace the continent would ever see.

Beyond the diplomatic wrangling, however, the Congress of Vienna served as a backdrop for the most spectacular Vanity Fair of its time. Highlighted by such celebrated figures as the elegant but incredibly vain Prince Metternich of Austria, the unflappable and devious Prince Talleyrand of France, and the volatile Tsar Alexander of Russia, as well as appearances by Ludwig van Beethoven and Emilia Bigottini, the sheer star power of the Vienna congress outshone nearly everything else in the public eye.

An early incarnation of the cult of celebrity, the congress devolved into a series of debauched parties that continually delayed the progress of peace, until word arrived that Napoleon had escaped, abruptly halting the revelry and shrouding the continent in panic once again.

Vienna, 1814 beautifully illuminates the intricate social and political intrigue of this history-defining congress?a glorified party that seemingly valued frivolity over substance but nonetheless managed to drastically reconfigure Europe?s balance of power and usher in the modern age.

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Criers of Vive La Roi...Doers of nothing

Author David King has written a new book about a subject often dismissed as little more than the antecedent to Napoleon's 100 days campaign. Most books written on this topic were written years ago and with a predictable bent. Mr. King's book is both an objective and easily readable book on this subject. He writes in modern English and intersperses interesting historical anecdotes with the nuts-and- bolts diplomatic maneuvers of the nations through their diplomatic representatives.

On the 200th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar, it was disappointing to find a number of the books written on that subject merely used material readily available from secondary sources. So, with regard to historical accuracy, I was impressed with Mr. King's diligence shown through the use of original source materials.

Mr. King travelled throughout Europe, and actually spoke with the librarians and archivists in the nations which participated in the Congress. His list of notes and sources is nearly 100 pages in length. This produces a picture of the Congress which is developed not just from the official records and notes of the participants, but from the equally important inhabitants of the salons and the shadows. Mr. King makes copious use of the surreptitious communication between the Duchess Sagan and Prince Metternich (discovered in 1949) and the notes of one of Metternich's assistants. Most notable however, are previously unpublished accounts of the police spy network set up by the Austrian Emperor Francis.

All of this information could make a narrative of the Congress over-laden with minutiae and prone to drone on and on with endless details of interest only to those wishing to serve in the diplomatic corps. Here, Mr. King diverges from the common narrative and interjects humor and contemporary observations that lighten the mood and facilitate the absorption of the salient facts. It is not often one can laugh out loud while reading about the Congress of Vienna, but Mr. King described the personal dressing regime of Talleyrand in a manner that was truly hilarious. He related descriptions of the participants and their personal idiosyncrasies (Metternich confused "haughtiness for dignity"), and he provides some insights that really add to the already established portraits of the participants. Nonetheless, this is a serious work. He is exacting in his detail and uses established historical facts to refute some popularly held assumptions.

Many authors have overlooked the rank duplicity and avarice of the participants of the Congress. Historians are too often eager to heap praise on the first world body to gather in the name of peace; to give credit for the intent. Mr. King does not let the Congress participants off so easily. He allows the reader to form the impression that the aims of members of the Congress were no different than those of the Emperor. They divided up the continent as they saw fit. Instead of the use of armies, they "negotiated" but were never reticent about the threat of military force (i.e. Saxony and Poland). Europe was back to the ways of the Aristocrats; dividing peasant populations for the maximum benefit of the sovereigns.

At about 350 pages the book is an enjoyable read and provides satisfying detail in its vivid portrait of the days and nights of the Congress of Vienna. The members of which, danced, ate, and made love, but never actually managed to officially convene.

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Superb

I have never written a review before, but felt compelled to do it this time. This is partly because I want to let everyone know how much I really enjoyed this book, and partly becuase I wanted to refute the previous review which I feel wasn't only insulting but also plain wrong. First of all, if the reviewer knew anything about early 19th century travel, he wouldn't be surprised to see dangers and highwaymen on the roads. He was even surprised to find rococo in 1814!? Well, he doesn't realize that styles sometimes flourish after their heyday, and everything doesn't fit into nice little brackets.

King's new book on the Congress of Vienna is outstanding. The author not only writes well, but he uses many sources not found in other histories - diplomats, minor powers, assistants, socialites, an unpublished memoir from one of Metternich's assistant's. Even Jacob Grimm, who is absent from all other accounts on the subject, shows up here.

By the way, the Hilde Spiel book that is mentioned in the other review isn't actually a history, but a collection of short excerpts from various well-known memoirs. I have the book myself. Spiel's notes and bibliography are 7 pages; King's are over 90, full of works in many foreign languages, at least six that I counted.

In short, Vienna 1814 is a well-researched, excellent read and I can highly recommend it.

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The First Fully Documented League Of Nations

An excellent overview of the effort to restore the old order from the wreckage of the Napoleonic Wars, which wound up fostering a new order that none of the victors even remotely anticipated. The Congress of Vienna was perhaps the first recorded rational approach to mutually resolving international problems. The processes that were developed and described in the book, many still used to this day, worked for just short of a century, with only a few minor skirmishes that were remarkably well contained. The various participants' personalities, and their changing perceptions and evolving participation, are remarkable as their narrow interests eventually coalesce through a series of convenient compromises. One of the more interesting narratives was how France adroitly handled itself, moving from something not short of an outcast nation, to finally being accepted as a regular club member. Equally interesting is how the victors, united while fighting Napoleon, were prone to fighting among themselves during the proceedings. More than a narrative of the flow of the meetings and conferences, the book also examines the participants' societies as seen through the eyes and emotions of the rulers. The 33 chapters are augmented by extensive and detailed notes and source references, and polished with an epilog. A delightful read.

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The First Summit

Based on the Amazon reviews, "Vienna 1814" has raised some unexpected passions, given that it's an account of events almost two centuries past. David King has produced a solid and well written book that enlivens the story of the Congress of Vienna - and of Napoleon's hundred days - for the modern reader.

The title, homage to Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, about the Peace conference that followed the First World War, is somewhat misleading. The Congress of Vienna never officially opened; rather, the world's leading statesmen of the time - Austria's Prince Metternich, France's Charles Talleyrand, Russia's Czar Alexander and Britain's Lord Castlereigh and the Duke of Wellington, and many others - have spent the summer and autumn of 1814, and the winter and spring of 1815 in Vienna. There they have quarreled, argued and negotiated - but also danced, drank and fornicated - and shaped the future of Europe.

David King tells with equal ease both the social and the political tales of Vienna in those months. He narrates his heroes in the stateroom and in the ballroom, in love and war, in work and play. This is both an advantage and a weakness of the narrative. On the one hand, King captures the spirit of the Congress - the balls and masquerades, the splendor, the gossip - and allows the reader to feel some of what the protagonists must have felt. On the other hand, the love lives of the Rich and Famous of the 19th century are not nearly as exciting to the modern reader as they were to the contemporary observer. Did the Duchess Sagan end up in the arms of her longing prince Metternich? Do you really care?

For those who are, like me, interested in political history, the diplomatic angle of the gathering is the most interesting. Although the Congress dealt with a series of issues - from the abolition of the slave trade to the emancipation of the Jews - its focus was on the redrawing of the map of Europe given the shock administered to it by the Napoleonic Wars. Three issues were of particular importance: The Fates of Poland, Saxony, and the Kingdom of Naples.

In Poland, the Russians wanted to create a (theoretically independent but realistically) puppet state. The Prussians eyed the Kingdom of Saxony and wanted to annex it. The two powers agreed to back each other's claims, to the detriment of the other Europeans countries, particularly Britain and France, who feared the increase in the countries' power.

The Kingdom of Naples was a problem as it has been ruled by Joachim Murat. Napoleon's brother in law and former general. None of the powers felt particularly happy about keeping a creature of Bonaparte's in power - but no one felt like starting a war to get rid of him, either.

The problems of Saxony and Poland ended in compromise - both Russia and Prussia got some of what they have wanted, but not everything. The Polish puppet state was smaller than the Czar had initially wanted, but it was enough. The Kingdom of Saxony, albeit in a reduced state, regained its independence, with Prussia taking part of its territory, as well as other territories in Germany.

The Murat problem would only be resolved with a larger crisis - the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Corsican Emperor, having been exiled to the small Mediterranean island of Elba in early 1814, has left the island after 9 months and 21 days. After landing in France, he made his way to Paris. The population and the army, sick of the unpopular King Louis XVIII, clung to him. He took over Paris "without firing a shot". Europe was at war again.

King's narration of the Waterloo campaign, and of the battle of minds between Napoleon and Wellington is masterly. The chapters on the campaign are unputtdownable, and "Vienna 1814" offers the first description of a battle in which I did not feel the absence of maps. It is amazingly tense, even though we know how it all ends.

After his defeat, Napoleon faced a rebellion in Paris. Rather than storm his own capital, he abdicated again. During his brief return, Murat had tried and failed to conquer Italy. The Austrians thus disposed of him and of the dilemma of the Kingdom of Naples.

King's fascinating story ends with a story of the rest of his heroes' lives, and with a short reflection on the consequences and significance of the Congress of Vienna. This is, unfortunately, the least satisfactory aspect of his book. Three of the most important elements of 19th and 20th century European history - the long peace of 1815 to 1914, the increase in Prussia's power, and the creation of a British French alliance - arguably originated in, or at least were influenced by - the Congress. How did that happen? Could things have gone differently, and should they have? King's answers are more descriptive than analytic.

That aside, Vienna 1814 is an extremely well written book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in European History or the Napoleonic Wars.

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