Congress of Verona (1822)

The Congress of Verona was supposed to discuss three questions, all relating to revolts and uprisings in Europe, the Spanish colonies, and the Near East. However, the only issue addressed when the powers convened, was the Spanish question. The Russian Empire had successfully opposed the efforts to put the issue of the Greek Revolution, which was part of the Russian-Turkish question, on the agenda.

Montmorency-de Laval opened the convention by posing three (hypothetical) questions to the other Powers regarding the situation in Spain:

1. Would the Allies withdraw their ministers from Madrid in the event of France being compelled to do so?
2. In case of war, under what form and by what acts would the powers give France their moral support, so as to give to her action the force of the Quintuple Alliance, and inspire a salutary fear in the revolutionaries of all countries?
3. What material aid would the powers give if asked by France to intervene, under restrictions which France would declare and they would recognize?

Montmorency aimed to earn the Allied Powers’ approval of sending a French expeditionary force into Spain. King Lous XVIII of France wanted to overthrow the Spanish government in order to reinstate Bourbon King Ferdinand VII of Spain. The latter had been dethroned by a military coup in 1820, and subsequently a constitutional government had taken over the reign of the country.

Austria, Prussia, and Russia gave as their reaction to Montmorency’s questions that they would act as France when compelled to withdraw their ministers from Madrid. They would also give France the moral support and military aid she might need. Tsar Alexander I was surprised by the fact that the French wished to keep the entire undertaking completely French. He offered support in terms of 150.000 soldiers, who were to march to Spain through the German States and Piedmont. However, Wellington, Metternich, and Montmorency-de Laval opposed this proposition in unison, albeit for different reasons.

Wellington, as the voice of The United Kingdom, however, replied that he could not answer hypothetical questions. He followed the British view to avoid any involvement in cases of intervention if the peace and stability of other states remained unthreatened. As he was of the opinion that neither France, nor any of the three Eastern Courts were critically endangered by the liberal uprising in Spain, Wellington adhered to the principle of non-intervention and did not endorse the French expedition. Wellington’s refusal came to be viewed as an open breach of Great Britain with the principles and treaties until then arranged within the Quintuple Alliance.

The issue furthermore dealt with the uprisings in the Spanish colonies in the Latin American states. Again, Britain took a different position than the other powers. Wellington declared that in order to preserve Britain’s commerce, protect her subjects, and to suppress piracy, the government recognised those Latin American states that had clearly established independent governments.

The Congress of Verona gave France the mandate to intervene in Spain. In January 1823, the Holy Alliance, which had earlier refused a request for help by King Ferdinand VII, also agreed to the French intervention. Subsequently, King Louis XVIII invaded Spain in April 1823, with an expeditionary force of 100.000 men, dubbed ‘the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis’. The army entered Spain without opposition from the Spanish liberals. At the end of September, the Cortes Generales (General Courts) of Spain admitted their defeat at the hands of the French and handed over the power to King Ferdinand VII. France had achieved its goal, and the expeditionary force was withdrawn in November. Ferdinand steered a reactionary course to take revenge on his unfaithful subjects and thereby restored the reactionary monarchy that Spain had known before the 1820 revolution.

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