HOLY ALLIANCE. A league formed after the fall of Napoleon, at the instance of Alexander 1. of Russia, by the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, nominally to regulate the relations of the States of Christendom by the principles of Christian charity. As it formed itself in the mind of Alexander it was the scheme of a piet istic idealist, but it was utilized by Aletternich as an instrument of his reactionary policy. The document was drawn up by Alexander. and was signed by the three rulers at Paris in September, 1815. The Russian Emperor at that period was greatly under the influence of the mystical phi losophy then current, and especially of its ex ponent. Madame Kriidener (q.v.). to whom was perhaps due his dream of a community of Chris tian States under their legitimate sovereigns, which was the underlying thought of the Alliance. In addition to the original signatories, Naples, Sardinia. France, and Spain acceded to the treaty, and it received the commendation, though not the signature, of the Prince Regent of Great Britain. It was formally made public in the Frankfort Journal, February 2, 1816. Metter nich, who privately sneered at the treaty, used it as the basis for the conferences of Troppau and Laybaeh, and the congresses of Karlsbad and Verona, which were intended to unite the powers in support of absolutism everywhere. It was in the name of the Holy Alliance that Austria. in 1S21, crushed the revolutions in Naples and Piedmont, and that France, in 1823, restored absolutism in Spain. Apart from this use of it, as one writer has said, "no one of the princes who adhered to the Holy Alliance. with the single exception of Alexander himself. ever took it seriously." Meaningless in itself, it soon ceased to have any importance.
The text of the covenant is as follows: In the name of the Most Holy and Indivi-ible Trinity: Holy Alliance of Sovereigns of Aus tria. Prussia. and Russia. Their Majesties the Emperor of Austria. the King of Prussia. and the Emperor of Russia. having . . . acquired the intimate conviction of the necessity of set tling the steps to be observed by the Powers, in their reciprocal relations, upon the sublime truths which the Holy Religion of Our Saviour teaches: They solemnly declare that the present Act has no other object than to publish, in the face of the whole world, their fixed resolution, both in the administration of their respective States, and in their political relations with every other government, to take for their sole guide the precepts of that Holy Religion. namely the pre
cepts of Justice, Christian Charity, and Peace. . . . Art I The three contracting :Monarchs will remain united by the bonds of a true and indissoluble fraternity, and, each other as fellow countrymen. they will, on all occasions and in all places, lend each other aid and assistance: and. regarding themselves to ward their subjects and armies as fathers of families, they will lead them, in the same spirit of fraternity with which they are animated, to protect Religion. Peace. and Justice. Art. II. In consequence, the sole principle of action, whether between the said Governments or between their Subjects. shall he that of doing each other reciprocal service. and . . . to consider themselves all as members of one and the same Christian nation; the three allied Princes look ing on as merely delegated by Provi dence to govern three branches of the One family, namely, Austria, Prussia. and I;ussia, thus con fessing that the Christian world, of which they and their people form n part, has in reality no SON (-reign than Him to whom alone power really belongs !N.M. :111 the Powers who shall choose solemnly to avow the sacred principles which have dictated the present Art . . . will be received with equal ardor and af-, feetion into this Holy .\Ilianee. Done in tripli cate and signed at Paris. the year of grace 1815, '2tith September.
Perhaps the most noteworthy development from the Holy Alliance came from the attempt to ex tend its operation to the New World by the coercion of Spain's revolted colonies. George Canning 19.v.). on behalf of England, opposed this at the Congress of Verona, and the threatened invasion of American autonomy, together with the proposed colonization of the of North America by Russia, the leader in the Alliance. brought from the Govern.' went of the United States the famous declara tion of American policy known as the Alonroe Doctrine (q.v.). For aecounts of the Holy Alli ance and its hearing upon contemporaneous his tory. consult the histories of the time and the bj(mgraphies of leading persons connected with it.