THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
[CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE]. Manuscript document signed ("Metternich," "Castlereagh," "Wellington," "Hardenberg," "Bernstoff," "Nesselrode," "Capo d'Istria"), Aix-la-Chapelle, 15 November [1818]. 4½ pages, folio, text written in columnar form, closed tears at horizontal creases. In French, with English translation. RARE.
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[CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE]. Manuscript document signed ("Metternich," "Castlereagh," "Wellington," "Hardenberg," "Bernstoff," "Nesselrode," "Capo d'Istria"), Aix-la-Chapelle, 15 November [1818]. 4½ pages, folio, text written in columnar form, closed tears at horizontal creases. In French, with English translation. RARE.
A DRAFT OF A PROTOCOL FROM THE CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, signed by all of the plenipotentiaries. The first signature is Austria's master diplomat, foreign minister Prince Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar von Metternich. Viscount Robert Stewart Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington signed for the British. The Prussian signatories are Chancellor Prince Karl August von Hardenberg and foreign minister Christian Gunther Bernstorff.
The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (the present-day town of Aachen in Germany) was one of the fruits of the anti-Napoleonic alliance among the great powers of Europe. In 1814, Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia signed the Treaty of Chaumont which created the Quadruple Alliance and set peace terms for France. The following year the Alliance members met at the famous Congress of Vienna to reconfigure the post-Napoleonic map of Europe. After the Corsican's "Hundred Days" resurgence in the spring of 1815 and his defeat at Waterloo, the four powers met again and created the Alliance Treaty of 20 November 1815, under the terms of which, France lost frontier fortifications, had monetary sanctions levied against her, and occupation troops installed until the reparations were paid. The powers agreed to meet periodically to discuss common interests. The Aix-la-Chapelle conference was one such meeting.
It began on 1 October 1818. France's Duke of Richelieu offered to pay the bulk of the outstanding indemnity in return for the Alliance forces withdrawing their troops by 30 November. France was thereupon admitted to the league (now called the Quintuple Alliance) while the original four reaffirmed their bonds to each other in a secret protocol of 15 November. This draft protocol specifies the relocation of Alliance troops: "the British Corps will assemble in Brussels, the Prussian Corps in Cologne [and] the Austrian Corps in Stuttgart within the time frame established by Article 8 of the Chaumont Treaty..." The Plenipotentiaries then addressed the supply and fortification of garrisons on the French and Dutch borders. Other issues discussed at the Congress included the termination of the slave trade, the Barbary Pirates, and Jewish emancipation. A crucial artifact from an early attempt at collective security among the European great powers. This system held, in spite of strains, until its collapse in the late 19th and early 20th century and the catastrophe of the Great War.
A DRAFT OF A PROTOCOL FROM THE CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, signed by all of the plenipotentiaries. The first signature is Austria's master diplomat, foreign minister Prince Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar von Metternich. Viscount Robert Stewart Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington signed for the British. The Prussian signatories are Chancellor Prince Karl August von Hardenberg and foreign minister Christian Gunther Bernstorff.
The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (the present-day town of Aachen in Germany) was one of the fruits of the anti-Napoleonic alliance among the great powers of Europe. In 1814, Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia signed the Treaty of Chaumont which created the Quadruple Alliance and set peace terms for France. The following year the Alliance members met at the famous Congress of Vienna to reconfigure the post-Napoleonic map of Europe. After the Corsican's "Hundred Days" resurgence in the spring of 1815 and his defeat at Waterloo, the four powers met again and created the Alliance Treaty of 20 November 1815, under the terms of which, France lost frontier fortifications, had monetary sanctions levied against her, and occupation troops installed until the reparations were paid. The powers agreed to meet periodically to discuss common interests. The Aix-la-Chapelle conference was one such meeting.
It began on 1 October 1818. France's Duke of Richelieu offered to pay the bulk of the outstanding indemnity in return for the Alliance forces withdrawing their troops by 30 November. France was thereupon admitted to the league (now called the Quintuple Alliance) while the original four reaffirmed their bonds to each other in a secret protocol of 15 November. This draft protocol specifies the relocation of Alliance troops: "the British Corps will assemble in Brussels, the Prussian Corps in Cologne [and] the Austrian Corps in Stuttgart within the time frame established by Article 8 of the Chaumont Treaty..." The Plenipotentiaries then addressed the supply and fortification of garrisons on the French and Dutch borders. Other issues discussed at the Congress included the termination of the slave trade, the Barbary Pirates, and Jewish emancipation. A crucial artifact from an early attempt at collective security among the European great powers. This system held, in spite of strains, until its collapse in the late 19th and early 20th century and the catastrophe of the Great War.