Changing European politics

Castlereagh, who became Foreign Secretary in 1812, aimed to replace what he called ‘the old diplomacy’ of treachery and predation by consultation and peace keeping - ‘not to collect trophies, but to try to bring the world back to peaceful habits’.

The Congress of Vienna met forty-one times in 1814–15 to negotiate peace. Lavish entertainment welcomed 200 royal and princely families with diplomats, ministers, staffs and mistresses.

Castlereagh’s modest accommodation, and his Sunday hymn singing with harmonium, seemed to Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, rather plebeian.

But Castlereagh shaped the outcome, anchoring peace and security in international agreement and regular congresses. Lord Strang, Permanent Under-Secretary (1949–53), considered him ‘the founder of a tradition of firm but conciliatory diplomacy … his true heirs were Salisbury, Grey, Eden and Bevin’.

The best tribute came, ironically, from Napoleon: ‘Castlereagh had the Continent at his mercy, and he made peace as if he had been defeated. The imbecile!’