Castlereagh and France

As Foreign Secretary, Castlereagh had to cope with the reality of France as an enemy as well as with France as a potential ally. This article examines the pragmatic evolution of Castlereagh's diplomacy from 1812, when an international coalition had to be brought and then kept together that could defeat Napoleon, to the aftermath of the Congress of Vienna, where France emerged as a vital part of the new European equilibrium. In settling Europe after nearly two decades of war the fate of France was central.