ABSTRACT

The impact of Napoleon’s return to France had caused the four great powers of Europe – Great Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia – to temporarily bury their differences. Britain and Austria quietly nullified the secret alliance made at Vienna, and on the Prussian side Gneisenau and Boyen abandoned detailed plans they had drawn up for a German ‘people’s war’. Although in contradiction of the principle of monarchic legitimacy, this planned war was to solve the German question, if necessary at the expense of the princes; the plans caused Frederick William III and Hardenberg some misgivings, but they were not in outright opposition.