Treaty of Lunéville
At five o'clock in the evening on the 9th of February 1801, the Treaty of Lunéville was signed in the Treaty House of Lunéville. Two men put their names to it. Joseph Bonaparte acted for the French Republic. Count Ludwig von Cobenzl, the Austrian foreign minister, acted for Emperor Francis II. Francis was signing twice over, once as ruler of the hereditary domains of the House of Austria and once on behalf of the Holy Roman Empire. The document formally ended Austrian and imperial participation in the War of the Second Coalition. Why did Austria have to ask for peace in the first place? Why did months of talks pass before anyone could sign? And why was the largest of France's remaining enemies not at the table when the pen finally moved?
On the 14th of June 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austrian army at the Battle of Marengo. A second blow came on the 3rd of December, when Jean Victor Moreau beat the Austrians at the Battle of Hohenlinden. Between those two defeats, the fighting was paused by armistices. The Convention of Alessandria of the 15th of June covered Italy. The Armistice of Parsdorf of the 15th of July covered Germany. The treaty that finally emerged was largely a confirmation of the Treaty of Campo Formio, signed on the 17th of October 1797. Campo Formio had itself confirmed the Peace of Leoben, agreed on the 18th of April 1797. Austria stepped out of the war, but the United Kingdom stayed in it as France's only remaining opponent. That lasted for another year. Austria would take up arms against France again in 1805.
On the 25th of December 1799, Bonaparte wrote to Francis II proposing peace, and the imperial reply was slow in coming. On the 20th of January 1800, Austria and Britain signed a convention of alliance against France. Five days later, Austria answered Bonaparte's offer with a refusal. When Bonaparte renewed the offer after Marengo, the answer was positive, and three rounds of negotiation followed.
Count Joseph von Saint-Julien reached Paris on the 21st of July 1800 and was received with enthusiasm. He met the French foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, on the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and the 27th of July. On the 28th, the two signed a preliminary peace that mostly copied Campo Formio. The main difference was that Austria would be repaid for its losses with land in Italy rather than in Germany.
On the 30th of July, Saint-Julien set off for Vienna with a French plenipotentiary, Géraud Duroc. France had wanted the final treaty signed in Paris. Duroc was not allowed to cross the Austrian lines. Saint-Julien reached Vienna on the 5th of August, but the emperor rejected his preliminary peace.
On the 13th of August, Duroc was refused a passport. He was given a letter for Talleyrand from Johann Amadeus von Thugut, the Austrian foreign minister who had built the alliance with Britain. Duroc was back in Paris by the 20th of August. His report on Austrian forces, drawn from his stay at General Paul Kray's headquarters, is thought to have influenced Napoleon's decision to launch a new offensive in September. Saint-Julien fared worse. Shortly after Duroc delivered the answer, he was imprisoned and accused of signing a treaty without authorisation.
Thugut's reaction to the Saint-Julien affair was to ask that Austria and Britain negotiate together. Napoleon rejected the idea of a peace conference. Britain, for its part, turned down French proposals for a separate peace. On the 7th of September, the British foreign minister, Lord Grenville, sent a counterproject to Paris that included a proposed naval armistice. It arrived on the 10th of September. Napoleon extended the existing armistice by a week to consider it, and then rejected it.
Austria paid for the failure. Under the Convention of Hohenlinden, dated the 20th of September 1800, it handed the fortresses of Ulm, Philippsburg and Ingolstadt to France. In return it received a one-month extension of the armistice. Five days later, on the 25th of September, Thugut resigned as Austrian foreign minister.
Ludwig Conrad von Lehrbach was the emperor's first choice as plenipotentiary for the talks at Lunéville. He had signed the Convention of Hohenlinden and had caused Thugut's fall, so the British found him unacceptable. Ludwig von Cobenzl replaced him, but Cobenzl was not at first authorised to negotiate apart from Britain. The armistices lapsed in late November, and France and Austria spent a long stretch haggling over the terms of negotiating itself.
The conference was supposed to open at Lunéville on the 7th of October. Cobenzl did not arrive for more than two weeks, and Lord Grenville never appeared. By the 25th of October, Cobenzl had gone to Paris without instructions. He left a week later, since the French had failed to separate him from his British allies. After a meeting with Napoleon, he held his first negotiation with Joseph Bonaparte on the 9th of November. Cobenzl could not treat for a separate peace, and Joseph was authorised to treat only with Austria, so the talks began deadlocked.
Joseph floated a secret treaty. The British would be invited to a public conference only for appearance's sake, after the treaty was effectively finished, signed and all earlier copies burnt. That would happen in March 1801, once the Anglo-Austrian alliance had expired. By the 23rd of November, Britain had already suspended the second instalment of the subsidy it had agreed to pay Austria on the 20th of June.
Meanwhile, France was courting Russia. After a rapprochement, Napoleon withdrew the offer to admit a British representative under any circumstances on the 7th of December. The last week of December then moved quickly. On the 25th, commanders in the field signed an armistice covering Germany. On the 26th, new instructions reached Cobenzl, authorising him to sign a preliminary separate peace in order to obtain a general armistice. That same day, the Second League of Armed Neutrality was formed. On the 27th, Francis II told King George III of the United Kingdom that he could not meet his obligations as an ally. On the 31st, Cobenzl informed the French that he would negotiate without Britain.
On the 30th of December, the emperor offered to accept the Oglio rather than the Adda as his boundary in Italy, provided he kept the Legations. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was a major issue. For Germany, Austria had accepted the terms of Campo Formio. Only the nature and methods of compensation for imperial princes who lost territory remained to be decided.
Fighting continued in Italy while the diplomats talked, so Cobenzl had to move his demands eastward step by step as French forces advanced. By the 5th of January he was willing to accept the Chiese as the boundary. By the 9th it was the Mincio, and by the 15th it was the Adige.
On the 16th of January, the commanders in Italy concluded the Armistice of Treviso, which left the fortress of Mantua in Austrian hands. Cobenzl did not know this at his sixth official conference with Joseph on the 25th. France demanded the fortresses of Mantua, Peschiera, Legnano, Ferrara and Ancona, plus the expulsion of the Grand Duke of Tuscany from Italy, in return for an armistice in Italy. The Armistice of Steyr was about to expire, so both sides agreed to extend it too. Austria lost Mantua as a result.
On the 1st of February, France accepted an Austrian request to let a representative of Naples and Sicily join the talks, although none ever took part. The final week was consumed by the question of the Left Bank of the Rhine and the Empire. Austria wanted another congress, like the Congress of Rastatt, to make peace for the Empire. Napoleon demanded that Francis sign for himself, for his own territories and for the Holy Roman Empire.
The treaty declared that "there shall be, henceforth and forever, peace, amity, and good understanding" among the parties. In practice, it required Austria to enforce the conditions of the earlier Treaty of Campo Formio. It recognised the independence and sovereignty of four sister states: the Cisalpine, Ligurian, Batavian and Helvetic republics.
The entire left bank of the Rhine, including the Austrian Netherlands, passed to France. The Empire also gave up Imperial Italy, which became parts of France and of the new Italian Republic. Campo Formio had left the Grand Duchy of Tuscany alone, but Lunéville ceded it to France. Another change was that certain imperial fortresses on the right bank of the Rhine were to be demolished.
Princes who lost land, including the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena, were to be compensated with territory in Germany east of the Rhine. This was to be done largely by secularizing ecclesiastical principalities, as laid out at the Congress of Rastatt, with France supervising the process. At Campo Formio, Austria had been promised the Archbishopric of Salzburg and some Bavarian lands. Those promises were withdrawn at Lunéville. Austria's acquisition of the Venetian Terraferma, Venetian Dalmatia and all of Istria was confirmed. The work of compensating the princes was left to a body that would meet after the signing.
The Imperial Diet accepted the treaty on the 7th of March 1801. The task of compensation went to an Imperial deputation, known in German as the Reichsdeputation. France and Russia both pressed hard on its negotiations. France urged the creation of larger new territories, hoping they would later become its allies. Russia favoured "a more traditional balance".
The result was the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, the Final Recess of the Imperial Deputation, signed on the 25th of February 1803. It did far more than pay off dispossessed princes. It secularised every ecclesiastical state except the Electorate of Mainz, and almost all free imperial cities lost their sovereignty. It was the last major law in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, which was dissolved in 1806.
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Common questions
When was the Treaty of Lunéville signed?
The Treaty of Lunéville was signed at five o'clock in the evening on the 9th of February 1801 in the Treaty House of Lunéville.
Who signed the Treaty of Lunéville?
Joseph Bonaparte signed for the French Republic, and Count Ludwig von Cobenzl, the Austrian foreign minister, signed for Emperor Francis II. Francis acted both as ruler of the Austrian hereditary domains and for the Holy Roman Empire.
Why did Austria sign the Treaty of Lunéville?
Austria signed the Treaty of Lunéville after Napoleon Bonaparte defeated its army at Marengo on the 14th of June 1800 and Jean Victor Moreau won at Hohenlinden on the 3rd of December 1800. Forced to sue for peace, it largely confirmed the Treaty of Campo Formio.
What were the main terms of the Treaty of Lunéville?
The Treaty of Lunéville ceded the entire left bank of the Rhine, including the Austrian Netherlands, and Imperial Italy to France and the new Italian Republic. It also ceded Tuscany to France and recognised the Cisalpine, Ligurian, Batavian and Helvetic republics.
Why was Britain not a party to the Treaty of Lunéville?
Britain was left out because France refused to admit a British representative, and Austria dropped its insistence on negotiating together. On the 31st of December 1800, Cobenzl told the French that he would negotiate without Britain.
What happened to the Holy Roman Empire after the Treaty of Lunéville?
After the Treaty of Lunéville, the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of the 25th of February 1803 secularised all ecclesiastical states except the Electorate of Mainz. It also stripped almost all free imperial cities of sovereignty, and the Empire was dissolved in 1806.
All sources
6 references cited across the entry
- 1BookReich and Nation: The Holy Roman Empire as Idea and Reality, 1763–1806John Gagliardo — Indiana University Press — 1980
- 2BookDas Alte Reich, 1495–1806Axel Gotthard — Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft — 2013
- 3JournalThe Negotiations Preceding the Peace of LunévilleL. M. Roberts — 1901
- 4BookDas Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nation: Vom Ende des Mittelalters bis 1806Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger — C.H. Beck — 2013
- 5BookGermany and the Holy Roman Empire, Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648–1806Joachim Whaley — Oxford University Press — 2012
- 6BookHeart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman EmpirePeter Wilson — Belknap Press — 2016