The Congress of Vienna and its Legacy by Mark Jarrett

Author:Mark Jarrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

Plans for reform in Naples and for papal mediation

While the ministers at Troppau were thrashing out the general principles of intervention, Metternich also busied himself with the critical task of determining the future organization of the government of Naples. He had initially objected to Capodistrias’ plans for constitutional reform on the grounds that the allied powers had no business meddling in that kingdom’s internal affairs beyond the restoration of its legitimate monarch, but now that Alexander had converted to the cause of legitimacy, Metternich was suddenly willing to put forward his own agenda for domestic reform. Once Ferdinand was safely out of the hands of the revolutionaries, Metternich proposed he should revoke all of the changes that had occurred since the outbreak of the revolution. First and foremost, the King was to reassert his own absolute power and to reject all forms of representative assembly. But Europe was also entitled to some form of assurance for the future stability of Naples. It would therefore be necessary, Metternich stated, for Ferdinand to consult the needs of his people and to strengthen his administration by the creation of advisory bodies, much as Metternich had proposed for Austria in 1817. A conference of allied ambassadors should guide the King through the delicate period of transition. Eventually, the King should create an advisory Senate, composed of separate Neapolitan and Sicilian sections, while provincial bodies composed of the chief landowners should administer the countryside. Finally, and most startlingly, Metternich proposed that Ferdinand confirm these new arrangements by granting a ‘pragmatic sanction’, to be guaranteed by the allied powers, binding the King and his heirs to the new system in perpetuity. The newly reorganized government of Naples would provide a model for the other Italian states, which Metternich hoped to see widely imitated. These ideas were to be refined further at Laibach. None of these purely administrative reforms, however, addressed the kingdom’s deeper economic and social needs.46

Meanwhile, French policy at Troppau had fallen into a state of some confusion. Although Pasquier, the French foreign minister, resolved to reject the Protocole préliminaire as early as 1 December, he waited until the middle of the month before sending instructions to Troppau, so that France might be seen as following Britain’s lead. The eastern courts readily forgave Castlereagh for rejecting the protocol since he was obviously constrained by domestic politics, but they accepted no such excuse from the French.

This same pattern of hesitation was repeated with respect to the invitation to Ferdinand: Louis XVIII sent a separate invitation to the King of Naples to repair to Laibach, but it was not forwarded in time to accompany the invitation from Troppau, and in fact was not delivered before Ferdinand actually left Naples. Thus, when Caraman and La Ferronnays complained to the other ministers that most of the difficulties in the negotiation could be traced to the three eastern powers’ habit of meeting in private to reach all the principal decisions, Metternich and Capodistrias retorted that the French themselves were to

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