ABSTRACT
Every congress created so many expectations and opposition that the allied diplomats and sovereigns favoured unofficial meetings – sometimes in spa towns, conveniently situated and with available lodging. Personal interactions were effective because the people in charge of European foreign policy knew each other. Alexander I had unusually close relations with the allied ambassadors and ministers who had accompanied him in the campaigns of 1812–1815. He learned from Napoleon I that during the Vienna Congress Castlereagh, Metternich and the French delegate, Prince de Talleyrand, formed a secret coalition against Russia and Prussia. After the Vienna Congress, Gentz confided to Nesselrode: 'The Emperor and Metternich are in a state of inebriation. Flattery and admiration, true or false … has turned their heads'. Political affairs settled at Aix-la-Chapelle belong in the past, but the congress's convention regarding diplomatic ranks. The Vienna Congress had ruled that there would be ambassadors to the great powers and ministers or envoys to all the others.
