Holy Alliance

Agreement intended to preserve political stability and the status quo in Europe, decided at the Vienna Congress following the Napoleonic Wars (1803–15).

The Holy Alliance was concluded on September 26, 1815, among Emperor Francis I of Austria, King Frederick William III of Prussia, and Czar Alexander I of Russia. It represented a conservative restoration of power after decades of upheaval following the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. The participants in the alliance declared that existing borders were inviolable, and they promised one another mutual assistance in the case of a foreign attack or domestic revolution. All of the European monarchies except Great Britain later signed the treaty.

The treaty had a distinctly religious tone, declaring that the actions of the signatories would be bound by the principles of Christianity. Liberals viewed the treaty as a reactionary merging of church and state and a step backward from the advances in science and rationalism of the previous century. Nationalists feared that that agreement would stall efforts to develop vibrant nation-states. Pope Pius VII did not sanction the alliance because of the participation of Protestant monarchs.

The Holy Alliance lasted roughly 40 years, until conflicts in the middle of the 19th century made clear that the signatories would not live up to the pledge of mutual assistance. In 1853, Great Britain and France attacked Russia, but Holy Alliance members Prussia and Austria remained neutral. Only a few years before, Russia had assisted Austria in putting down a Hungarian revolt in 1849. Such lack of concern for upholding the obligations of the alliance led to its eventual demise.