'Few characterisations are as refreshing and positive as Seward's... The book relies heavily on Metternich's personal and state papers and contains superb sections on his rather tragic daily life.' Library Journal 'This book helps us to see Metternich's achievement and his personality.' Washington Times For a third of a century, from 1814 until 1848, the Austrian Empire was the strongest state in Europe: not only the Habsburg territories but German and Italy were ruled from Vienna. Throughout this period, the Imperial chancellor was Clemens von Metternich who, through his brilliant diplomacy maintained Austria's dominance. He had brought the empire through the Napoleonic maelstrom and his diplomatic genius at the Congress of Vienna ensured there would not be another continental war for a hundred years - he played a key role in creating the European Alliance, precursor of the League of Nations and NATO. Among the greatest of nineteenth century statesmen, his hatred of war and chauvinism should never be forgotten.

Author Biography

Desmond Seward is best known for The Monks of War (1972), The Wars of the Roses (1995) - both republished by the Folio Society - and A Brief History of the Hundred Years War that has stayed in print in Britain and the United States since its publication in 1978. However, his own favourites among his books are Old Puglia: A Portrait of South Eastern Italy (with Susan Mountgarret, 2009) and Wings over the Desert (2009), an account of his father's experiences as an RFC pilot in Palestine during the First World War. He was born in 1935 in Paris where his father was managing director of Timken Francais, into a family of Anglo-Irish origin that had been wine-merchants at Bordeaux since the 1870s (a background that instilled a lasting love of France) and educated at Ampleforth and at St Catharine's College, Cambridge as an Exhibitioner in History. Unfashionably, harking back to Gibbon and Macaulay, he believes that history is literature - that readability and accessibility are of vital importance.