imported>Marcin Rychlewicz at 01:00, 20 November 2025

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{{Short description|Military alliance between Austria, Prussia, and Russia}}
{{for|Holy Leagues|Holy League (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Map of the Holy Alliance (1840).svg|thumb|The Holy Alliance in 1840
<div style="border-top:1px dotted #aaa"></div>
{{legend|#ffd42aff| {{flagicon|Austrian Empire}} [[Austrian Empire]] }}
{{legend|#4d4d4dff| {{flagicon|Prussia|1803}} [[Kingdom of Prussia]] }}
{{legend|#008000ff| {{flagicon|Russian Empire|1858}} [[Russian Empire]] }}]]
The '''Holy Alliance''' ({{langx|de|Heilige Allianz}}; {{langx|ru|Священный союз|Svyashchennyy soyuz}}), also called the '''Grand Alliance''', was a coalition linking the absolute monarchist [[great power]]s of [[Austrian Empire|Austria]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], and [[Russian Empire|Russia]], which was created after the final defeat of [[Napoleon]] at the behest of Emperor [[Alexander I of Russia]] and signed in [[Paris]] on 26 September 1815.<ref>[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07398a.htm Holy Alliance], ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]].''</ref>

The alliance aimed to restrain [[secular liberalism]] in Europe in the wake of the devastating [[French Revolutionary Wars]] and the [[Napoleonic Wars]]; it nominally succeeded in this until the [[Crimean War]]. Chancellor [[Otto von Bismarck]] managed to reunite the Holy Alliance, as [[League of the Three Emperors]], following the [[unification of Germany]] in 1871. However the alliance faltered by the 1880s due to Austrian and Russian conflicts of interest over the decline of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>E. J. Knapton, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/24401918 The Origins of the Treaty of Holy Alliance]" ''History'' 26.102 (1941): 132–140.</ref>

==Establishment==
The alliance was formed to instil the [[divine right of kings]] and Christian values in European political life, as pursued by Alexander I under the influence of his spiritual adviser Baroness [[Barbara von Krüdener]]. It was written by Emperor [[Alexander I of Russia]] and edited by [[Ioannis Kapodistrias]] and [[Alexandru Sturdza]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Zorin |first1=Andrei L. |last2=Schlafly |first2=Daniel L |date=2003 |title="Star of the East": The Holy Alliance and European Mysticism |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/43119 |journal=Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=313–342 |doi=10.1353/kri.2003.0031 |issn=1538-5000 |s2cid=159997980 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Under the treaty European rulers would agree to govern as "branches" of the Christian community and offer mutual service.<ref name=":2" /> In the first draft, Emperor Alexander I made appeals to mysticism through a proposed unified Christian empire that was seen as disconcerting by the other monarchies. Following revision, a more pragmatic version of the alliance was adopted by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The document was called "an apocalypse of diplomacy" by French diplomat [[Dominique-Georges-Frédéric Dufour de Pradt]].<ref name=":1" />

The agreement was at first secret, and mistrusted by liberals though liberalism was effectively restrained in this political culture until the [[Revolutions of 1848]].<ref name=":2">[https://books.google.com/books/about/Eastern_Europe.html?id=gfb727PRmvEC Eastern Europe: An Historical Geography, 1815–1945] p. 23.</ref> About three months after the Final Act of the [[Congress of Vienna]], the monarchs of [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] (Austria), [[Protestantism|Protestant]] (Prussia), and [[Russian Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] (Russia) confession promised to act on the basis of "justice, love, and peace", both in internal and foreign affairs, for "consolidating human institutions and remedying their imperfections". The Alliance was quickly rejected by the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] (though [[George IV]] declared consent in his capacity as [[Kingdom of Hanover|King of Hanover]]), the [[Papal States]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]]. [[Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Lord Castlereagh]], the British Foreign Secretary, called it "a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense".<ref>Stephen A. Fischer-Galati, "The Nature and Immediate Origins of the Treaty of Holy Alliance". ''History'' 38.132 (1953): 27–39.</ref> Nonetheless, Britain participated in the [[Concert of Europe]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Three Lessons of Peace: From the Congress of Vienna to the Ukraine Crisis |url=https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/three-lessons-peace-congress-vienna-ukraine-crisis |access-date=20 November 2025 |website=United Nations |language=}}</ref>

==Organisation==
In practice, the Austrian state chancellor and foreign minister, Prince [[Klemens von Metternich]] made it a bastion against [[democracy]] and citizen-nationalism. It also allowed coordinating suppression of Polish efforts to restore an independent state, by Austria in [[Kraków uprising|the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria]], by Russia in its [[Congress Poland]] and by Prussia [[Greater Poland uprising (1848)|in the Grand Duchy of Posen and in West Prussia]].<ref name=":0" />

[[File:A hasty sketch at Verona, or the prophecies of Napoleon unfolding, Paris Musées 20230520204316 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Contemporary caricature of the Congress of Verona, 1822]]

The Alliance is usually associated with the later [[Quadruple Alliance (1815)|Quadruple]] and [[Quintuple Alliance|Quintuple]] Alliances, which included the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] and (from 1818) [[Bourbon Restoration in France|France]] with the aim of upholding the European peace settlement and [[Balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]] in the [[Concert of Europe]] concluded at the Congress of Vienna. On 29 September 1818, Alexander, Emperor [[Francis I of Austria]] and King [[Frederick William III of Prussia]] met with the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]], [[Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Viscount Castlereagh]] and the [[Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu|Duc de Richelieu]] at the [[Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)|Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle]] to demand stern measures against university "[[demagogue]]s", which would be realised in the [[Carlsbad Decrees]] of the following year. At the [[Congress of Troppau]] in 1820 and the succeeding [[Congress of Laibach]] in 1821, Metternich tried to align his allies in the suppression of the [[Carbonari]] revolt against King [[Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies]]. The Quintuple Alliance met for the last time at the [[Congress of Verona]] in 1822 to advise against the [[Greek War of Independence|Greek Revolution]] and to resolve upon the [[Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis|French invasion of Spain]].

The last meetings had revealed the rising antagonism between Britain and France, especially on [[Italian unification]], the right to [[self-determination]], and the [[Eastern Question]]. The Alliance is conventionally taken to have become defunct with Alexander's death in 1825. France ultimately went her separate way following the [[July Revolution]] of 1830, leaving the core of Austria, Prussia, and Russia as a [[Central Europe|Central]]-[[Eastern Europe]]an block which once again congregated to suppress the [[Revolutions of 1848]]. The Austro-Russian alliance finally broke up in the [[Crimean War]]. Though Russia had helped to suppress the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]], Austria did not take any action to support her ally, declared herself neutral, and even occupied the [[Danubian Principalities]] upon the Russian retreat in 1854. Thereafter, Austria remained isolated, which added to the loss of her leading role in the German states, culminating in her defeat during the [[Austro-Prussian War]] in 1866.

==See also==
*''[[Biedermeier]]''
*[[Second League of Armed Neutrality]]
*''[[1834 Quadruple Alliance]]''
*[[Unholy alliance (geopolitical)]]
*''[[Vormärz]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Nakhimovsky, Isaac (2024). ''The Holy Alliance: Liberalism and the Politics of Federation''. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-691-25549-1}}.
* Fischer-Galati, Stephen A. "The Nature and Immediate Origins of the Treaty of Holy Alliance." ''History'' 38.132 (1953): 27–39. {{jstor|24403221}}.
*{{cite book|last=Jarrett|first=Mark|title=The Congress of Vienna and its Legacy: War and Great Power Diplomacy after Napoleon|publisher=I. B. Tauris & Company, Ltd.|year=2013|location=London|isbn=978-1780761169}}
* Knapton, E. J. "The Origins of the Treaty of Holy Alliance." ''History'' 26.102 (1941): 132–140. {{jstor|24401918}}.
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Holy Alliance, The | volume= 13 |last=Phillips|first=Walter Alison |author-link=Walter Alison Phillips| page = 621 |short= 1}}
*[https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/diplomatic/c_alliance.html The Holy Alliance Treaty].

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[[Category:19th-century military alliances]]
[[Category:1815 treaties]]
[[Category:Military alliances involving Austria]]
[[Category:Military alliances involving the Kingdom of Prussia]]
[[Category:Military alliances involving Russia]]
[[Category:1815 in Prussia]]
[[Category:1815 in the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:1815 in the Austrian Empire]]
[[Category:Alexander I of Russia]]
[[Category:Ioannis Kapodistrias]]
[[Category:Klemens von Metternich]]
[[Category:Aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars]]

Holy Alliance - Revision history

imported>Marcin Rychlewicz at 01:00, 20 November 2025