‘Holy Alliance’

‘Holy Alliance’ was the derisive name given to the declaration at Paris in September 1815 by Alexander I of Russia, Frederick William III of Prussia, and Francis I of Austria that they would govern and collaborate in accordance with Christian principles. The driving spirit was the tsar in the midst of a devout phase. Orthodox, protestants, and catholics should bury their differences and the other European monarchs (except the sultan) were invited to adhere. Britain, pleading her constitutional position, did not sign, though the prince regent expressed personal approval. Castlereagh, then foreign secretary, dismissed it privately as ‘a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense’, but defended it publicly in the Commons in February 1816 against Brougham, who denounced it as a mask for autocracy and pointed out that the same three powers had preceded their partition of Poland in 1793 with a similar declaration of high principle. Castlereagh replied that ‘it was certainly couched in language unusual in diplomatic documents but should be regarded solely as a pledge of peace’. No mechanism was included in the declaration and disagreements between the signatories soon appeared.

J. A. Cannon