Holy Alliance
The Holy Alliance was signed in Paris on 26 September 1815 by the emperors of Russia and Austria and the king of Prussia, at the initiative of Alexander I of Russia. Its text committed the three sovereigns to govern their peoples according to the precepts of Christian justice, charity and peace, and to regard themselves as members of a single Christian nation with God as its true sovereign and themselves as delegated fathers of families. It contained no obligations, no procedures and no enforcement. Alexander was in a mystical phase, much influenced by the Baltic pietist Baroness von Krüdener, and meant it. Nobody else did. Metternich called it a loud-sounding nothing and drafted his own version to remove the more alarming implications; Castlereagh called it a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense and kept Britain out on the technical ground that the Prince Regent could not sign without ministerial countersignature. The pope declined, since he did not need Orthodox and Protestant instruction on Christianity, and the Ottoman sultan was not asked. Almost every other European sovereign signed. Its practical significance came from what it was confused with. The Quadruple Alliance of November 1815 and the congress system that followed were the real machinery, and they were used at Troppau, Laibach and Verona to authorise intervention against revolutions in Naples, Piedmont and Spain. Liberals across Europe attributed all of it to the Holy Alliance, and the name became a byword for reaction. The system broke over Greek independence and over Britain's refusal to police the Americas, which produced the Monroe Doctrine.
- Year: 1815 CE
- Category: Political
