The Declaration of Pillnitz was a statement of five sentences issued on 27 August 1791 at Pillnitz Castle near

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

(

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

) by Frederick William II of Prussia and the Habsburg Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor who was

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...

's brother. It declared the joint support of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

and of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

for King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

of France against the French Revolution.

Background

Since the French Revolution of 1789, Leopold had become increasingly concerned about the safety of his sister, Marie Antoinette, and her family but felt that any intervention in French affairs would only increase their danger. At the same time, many French aristocrats were fleeing France and taking up residence in neighbouring countries, spreading fear of the Revolution and agitating for foreign support to Louis XVI. After Louis and his family had fled Paris in the hopes of inciting a counter-revolution, known as the Flight to Varennes in June 1791, Louis had been apprehended and was returned to Paris and kept under armed guard. On 6 July 1791, Leopold issued the Padua Circular, calling on the sovereigns of Europe to join him in demanding Louis' freedom.

Purpose

Calling on European powers to intervene if Louis was threatened, the declaration was intended to serve as a warning to the French revolutionaries to stop infringing on the king's prerogatives and to permit his resumption of power. The declaration stated that

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

would go to war if and only if all the other major European powers also went to war with France. Leopold chose this wording so that he would not be forced to go to war. He knew that the British prime minister, William Pitt, did not support war with France. Leopold issued the declaration only to satisfy the French émigrés who had taken refuge in his country and were calling for foreign interference in their homeland. (The Pillnitz Conference itself dealt mainly with the Polish Question and the war of Austria against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

Text of the Declaration

Consequences

The

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

of France interpreted the declaration to mean that Austria and Prussia were threatening the revolution, which had the result of radicalising the French revolutionaries and increasing tensions. The National Assembly voted for the French annexation of the

Comtat Venaissin The (; ; 'County of Venaissin'), often called the for short, was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791, in what is now the region of Southern France. The region was an enclave within the Kingdom of France, comprising the area aroun ...

including

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

from the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

in September 1791. Austria and Prussia concluded a defensive alliance in February 1792. Radical Frenchmen who called for war, such as Jacques Pierre Brissot, used the Declaration of Pillnitz as a pretext to gain influence and declare war on 20 April 1792, leading to the campaigns of 1792 in the French Revolutionary Wars.Thomas Lalevée,
National Pride and Republican grandezza: Brissot’s New Language for International Politics in the French Revolution
, ''French History and Civilisation'' (Vol. 6), 2015, pp. 66–82.

Notes

External links

au
EPOCHE NAPOLEON
in German.

Declaration of Pillnitz audio episode at Warsofcoalition.com {{French Revolution navbox 1791 events of the French Revolution 1791 in the Holy Roman Empire 1791 in Prussia 1791 documents Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor Louis XVI Frederick William II of Prussia Diplomatic crises of the 18th century Proclamations