Chaumont, Treaty of

(1814)

   A treaty concluded between Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Britain on March 9, 1814, during the campaign in France against Napoleon. By its terms, the Emperor Francis I of Austria, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, King Frederick William III of Prussia, and Lord Castlereagh, the British Foreign Secretary, offered Napoleon peace terms that would provide France with her pre-1792 borders in exchange for a general cease fire. If these terms were rejected, the Allies agreed among themselves to pursue the war to a successful conclusion, with each partner supplying at least 100,000 men and promising not to conclude a separate peace with the enemy. Napoleon, who was only weeks away from final defeat, rejected the Chaumont terms, thus discarding the last opportunity to retain his throne through negotiation.

   See also <>; <>.

   FURTHER READING:

    Kissinger, Henry. A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957;

    Nicholson, Harold. The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity, 1812-1822. New York: Viking Press, 1946;

    Ross, Steven T. European Diplomatic History, 1789-1815: France against Europe . Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1969;

    Webster, Sir Charles. The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1812-1815: Britain and the Reconstruction of Europe . London: G. Bell and Sons, 1963.

   GREGORY FREMONT-BARNES