Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, was a British and Irish statesman who served as foreign secretary during the final years of the Napoleonic Wars and the reconstruction of Europe after Napoleon’s defeat. He had earlier played a leading role in securing the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland and later became one of the principal architects of the diplomatic settlement negotiated at Vienna.

Castlereagh participated in the government response to the United Irish movement and the suppression of the rebellion. He subsequently played a leading role in securing the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland.

Adam Zamoyski’s Rites of Peace begins with the weakening of Napoleon’s position after the Russian disaster and moves through coalition warfare, abdication and the gathering of rulers and diplomats at Vienna, where borders, dynasties and competing national interests were negotiated. Metternich, Talleyrand, Castlereagh, Alexander I and Wellington are among the central historical actors, and Napoleon’s return from Elba adds a final military crisis to the negotiations. For broader historical treatment of Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, see Thomas Pakenham’s The Year of Liberty.