Robert Stewart (more commonly known by his courtesy title of Viscount/Lord Castlereagh) was one of the most influential statesmen of the Napoleonic Wars and Regency Era in British politics.
Under his stewardship, Ireland was incorporated into the Union, the British Army was reformed into an organisation capable of besting Napoleon, and the coalition that liberated Europe was created.
His diplomacy in both bringing about Napoleon's fall, and creating the post-war settlement was some of the most brilliant in history. Yet for all of this, Castlereagh was despised by a large section of the British public. Both for his perceived tyranny at home and co-operation with European despots in creating a conservative world order at the Congress of Vienna.
This video seeks aims to be a brief documentary about the life of perhaps the greatest of Britain's Foreign Secretary's.
Sources:
Castlereagh: Enlightenment, War & Tyranny, John Bew (The best & most accessible full length biography of Castlereagh to have been written. Extremely detailed both on his life and the diplomacy of early 19th century Europe).
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (An excellent concise biography of Castlereagh).
Britain Against Napoleon: The Organisation of Victory, Roger Knight (An overview of Britain's war effort against Napoleon, but still contains some interesting insights on Castlereagh).
Image Credits:
Français : Nuit du 4 août 1789 dans l' Assemblée nationale française. Abandon de tous les privilèges féodaux. Musée de la Révolution française - Vizille. by Charles Monnet / Isidore Helman/ Milky
Licence:(creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source:(commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...)
#History, #BritishEmpire, #Napoleon