ABSTRACT
If there are such things as turning points in history, then nine o’clock in the evening of 13 March 1848 must surely qualify for that status in the history of the Habsburg Empire. It was then that Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor, tendered his resignation to the Emperor Ferdinand. Metternich was the symbol of the old order and his name was synonymous with the Settlement of 1815. His fall was the result of the coincidence of two historical trends. On the one hand, his resignation was a response to the clamour for liberal reform which had reached a crescendo with the news of the revolution in Paris. The Habsburg Court needed to sacrifice someone if it was to have any credence with the nationalities, particularly the Magyars. On the other hand, Metternich’s depature was also a response to a conspiracy within the Imperial Court itself. He had simply been in power too long, and those who felt blocked from power, principally Kolowrat*, were only too pleased to see the seventy-four-year-old Chancellor relinquish office.
