Lord Castlereagh

Lord Castlereagh (1769-1822), British statesman who represented Britain at the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and 1815. Robert Stewart was born in County Down, Ireland, and educated at the University of Cambridge. In 1790 he entered the Irish parliament as a Whig, but he joined the Tory Party when he entered the British House of Commons in 1795. A year later he was created Viscount Castlereagh, a courtesy title. As chief secretary for Ireland from 1799, he energetically supported the attempt of the British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger to bring about the political union of Ireland with Great Britain. Pitt's proposed legislation, known as the Act of Union, was carried in the Irish parliament in 1800, largely through Castlereagh's skill in bribing parliamentary members. Soon after the act became law in 1801, Castlereagh resigned from office because of the opposition of King George III to the passing of a Catholic emancipation act, which Castlereagh had hoped would follow the Act of Union.

Castlereagh was a member of the House of Commons from 1801 until his death, serving as leader from 1812. As secretary of state for the war and colonial department during most of the period from 1805 to 1809, Castlereagh helped plan British campaigns in the Napoleonic Wars.

Throughout his career, Castlereagh carried on a feud with fellow Tory George Canning. Both men began their careers as protégés of William Pitt the Younger. The two men disliked each other personally and disagreedpolitically on both foreign and domestic matters. Castlereagh believed that Britain had an international responsibility to aid other nations against outside aggressors; Canning, however, supported a more isolationist position because he did not want Britain to pay for foreign wars. Domestically, Castlereagh was extreme in his opposition to much-needed government reform and as a result, he was unpopular with the people. In contrast, Canning was more moderate and more supportive of the working and middle classes. In 1809, when Castlereagh was war minister and Canning foreign secretary, the two men fought a duel. Canning was wounded and both men resigned from their positions but kept their seats in Parliament.

From 1812, as foreign secretary in the Tory cabinet of Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd earl of Liverpool, Castlereagh played a leading part in the coalition of nations against Napoleon, keeping it united during the critical campaigns of 1813 and 1814. He represented Great Britain at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, which redrew the map of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. At the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, he resisted Russian attempts to draw Britain into the Holy Alliance, a European league to oppose revolution.

In 1822, suffering from depression, Castlereagh committed suicide.