ABSTRACT
Just as the forces of economic and social change disrupted the traditional world of almost all classes, particularly the artisans in the cities and the peasants in the countryside, so they also affected the official institutions of the state. Until the French Revolution of 1789 the rule of kings had not been seriously questioned on the continent of Europe. The turmoil that followed in the wake of the execution of Louis XVI in France determined the statesmen at Vienna in 1815 to restore the power of monarchy and, with it, general political stability. The Vienna Settlement was more, then, than just a set of territorial arrangements between the major powers of Europe; it was also a general political settlement that aimed to bring about the re-assertion of the ideas of the ancien régime – legitimate monarchy, the authority of the Church and the privilege of the aristocracy [doc. 1a].
