Frankfurt proposals

• 1. Introduction

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  The Frankfurt proposals landed in front of Napoleon I in November 1813, in the middle of the War of the Sixth Coalition. The offer is also known as the Frankfurt memorandum. Austrian foreign minister Klemens von Metternich was at the center of it. Could Napoleon keep his crown, if France agreed to shrink? What exactly would he have to give up, and what would he be allowed to keep? And why would the Allies, closing in on victory, choose to offer him a way out at all?

• 2. Origins

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  A decisive defeat at the Battle of Leipzig had just broken Napoleon's hold on central Europe. The Allies had swept back through Germany and reached the Rhine. They had not yet decided what to demand next. Metternich seized that uncertainty and took charge of shaping the peace process himself. The Allied powers, meeting at Frankfurt, prepared the terms under his close supervision. One overlooked figure sealed the terms' fate before Napoleon ever saw them. Lord Aberdeen, the British diplomat present at Frankfurt, misread his own government's position. He accepted the moderate terms Metternich proposed, without London's true approval behind him. That single misjudgment meant London had never really signed off on the deal it now seemed to have endorsed.

• 3. The Natural Borders

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  Three landmarks would mark France's new limits under the plan: the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Rhine. The Pyrenees would form the border with Spain, the Alps the border with Italy, and the Rhine the border with the German states. Napoleon would keep his title as Emperor of France, but only inside those borders. These were the same borders French revolutionaries had once called France's natural frontiers. Under the plan, France would hold onto Belgium, Savoy, and the Rhineland, the west bank of the Rhine. French armies had conquered and annexed all three during the Revolution's early wars. In exchange, Napoleon would give up everything else his forces occupied. That meant parts of Spain, Poland, and the Netherlands, plus most of Italy and Germany east of the Rhine. Belgium's place on that list, kept for France on paper, would soon turn into the plan's most contested point.

• 4. Dresden And The Final Offer

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  In June, Napoleon and Metternich had already met privately in Dresden to discuss these very terms. Baron de Saint-Aignon carried the finished version to Napoleon in November, months after that first conversation. Metternich delivered a warning along with the terms. These were the best terms the Allies were likely to offer, he said. After more Allied victories, the terms would only grow harsher. Metternich's own motive was not sentimental. He wanted France left strong enough to balance Russian power. He also wanted to end a series of wars that had destabilized the continent. Napoleon now held that warning in his hands, along with a choice about how long he could afford to wait.

• 5. Refusal And Its Price

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  Napoleon still expected to win the war outright, so he left the Frankfurt offer unanswered. By December, Austria had already signed separate treaties with the other Allied powers. London rejected the terms outright. A French-held Belgium, London feared, could become a base for invading Britain itself. The offer was withdrawn. When Allied armies crossed into France in late 1813, Napoleon found himself badly outnumbered. He tried to reopen negotiations, offering now to accept the very Frankfurt terms he had once ignored. But the Allies had already moved past them. Their new terms pushed France back to its 1791 boundaries. That meant losing both Belgium and the Rhineland. Napoleon refused. Further defeats on French soil, followed by the surrender of Paris, left him no other option. He was forced to abdicate on the 6th of April 1814.