Metternich and the Duchess: The Public and Private Lives at the Congress of Vienna

Born to the aristocracy and raised within the world of diplomacy, Prince Metternich had a vision of a Europe without war. A tireless worker and cunning negotiator, Metternich used the weapons of guile, charm, threats, and even deception; his allies were most often women. First among them was Wilhelmine of Sagan, his Duchess. With a skillful use of letters and journals, many of them previously unpublished, Dorothy McGuigan vividly recreates this historic era. Metternich dreamed of a new and stable order for Europe. Beside him, behind him, his mistress and confidante, Wilhelmine. To her he reveals the hopes that inspire him and the doubts that plague him. She is his strength and his comfort for as long as their stormy affair endures. Metternich and the Duchess is a compelling portrait of the private and public lives of a man who reshaped Europe, and of the woman who helped him.