Congress of Châtillon

The Congress of Châtillon was a peace conference held at Châtillon-sur-Seine, north-eastern France, from 5 February to 5 March 1814, in the latter stages of the War of the Sixth Coalition. Peace had previously been offered by the Coalition allies (principally Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria) to Napoleon I's France in the November 1813 Frankfurt proposals. These proposals required that France revert to her "natural borders" of the Rhine, Pyrenees and the Alps. Napoleon was reluctant to lose his territories in Germany and Italy and refused the proposals. By December the French had been pushed back in Germany and Napoleon indicated that he would accept peace on the Frankfurt terms. The Coalition however now sought to reduce France to her 1791 borders, which would not include Belgium.

Many of Europe's leading diplomats met at Châtillon. France was represented by Armand-Augustin-Louis de Caulaincourt; Britain by Lord Aberdeen, Lord Cathcart and Sir Charles Stuart; Russia by Count Andrey Razumovsky; Prussia by Wilhelm von Humboldt and Austria by Johann Philipp Stadion. The British foreign secretary, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh joined the talks part way through because of their importance. The British aims were to reduce the territory of France, restore the independence of Switzerland and the Italian states, form a federation in Germany and create the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as a bulwark against French expansion.

Peace talks were stymied by dispute over the border question. Napoleon feared that the French people would not allow him to retain the throne if he lost Belgium. After victory in the 10 February Battle of Champaubert Napoleon sent word to Caulaincourt to "sign nothing". The change in French behaviour at the talks led the Coalition to conclude that no peace was possible. Negotiations were broken off and on 9 March the Treaty of Chaumont was signed which committed the allies to continue the war until France accepted a return to her 1791 borders. Napoleon was afterwards defeated, lost his throne and was replaced by Louis XVIII. The Congress of Châtillon influenced the Congress of Vienna at which the victorious allies decided the future of Europe.