Klemens von Metternich

Klemens von Metternich was an Austrian diplomat and statesman who became foreign minister in 1809 and later state chancellor. He played a central role in Austria’s changing relationship with Napoleon and in the diplomacy that brought the great powers together after Napoleon’s defeat.

Klemens von Metternich was the Austrian statesman who helped shape the coalition against Napoleon and the post-war settlement at the Congress of Vienna. Klemens von Metternich was born in Koblenz, Holy Roman Empire and died in Vienna, Austrian Empire.

Adam Zamoyski’s Phantom Terror follows this climate through the Napoleonic period and the conservative order established after 1815, when Metternich and other statesmen sought to suppress renewed revolution across Europe. 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.