Viscount Castlereagh
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, was Britain's Foreign Secretary from 1812 to 1822 and the principal British architect of the post-Napoleonic settlement, representing Britain at the Congress of Vienna where his insistence on balance-of-power principles rather than punitive peace terms against France shaped the relatively moderate settlement. A pragmatic conservative who valued stability over ideology, he was the great-power diplomat most committed to making the Concert of Europe function as a genuine system of collective security. Deeply unpopular at home as a symbol of repression, he died by suicide in 1822, a death that shocked Europe and removed from the Concert its most pragmatic British voice.
- Lived: 1769 CE – 1822 CE
- Nationality: british
- Roles: foreign_secretary, diplomat, statesman
