George IV, as Prince Regent | Document signed, authorising Wellington to negotiate at the Congress of Vienna, 1815

George IV, as Prince Regent

Document signed ("George PR") at the head, addressed to the Lord Chancellor Lord Eldon,

authorising an instrument granting "Full Power to our Right Trusty and Right Entirely Beloved Cousin and Councillor Arthur Duke of Wellington ... constituting and appointing him His Majesty's First Commissioner and Plenipotentiary at the Congress at Vienna" in place of Lord Castlereagh, 2 pages, folio, signed at the foot by the Secretary of War Lord Bathurst, with a copy of the instrument itself attached, 9 pages, papered seal, stab-stitched with blue ribbon, altogether 11 pages, 18 January 1815

A SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL DOCUMENT APPOINTING WELLINGTON TO THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, WHICH ESTABLISHED THE EUROPEAN BALANCE OF POWER FOR DECADES TO COME. Wellington had been appointed Ambassador to Paris after the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, but the weakness and instability of the restored Bourbon monarchy was such that by the autumn of that year the British government feared for his safety. This was the main reason why, in January 1815, Wellington was appointed to Vienna in place of Castlereagh, who had by then concluded a secret treaty with France and Austria to limit the territorial ambitions of Prussia and Russia. Wellington reached Vienna on 3 February 1815 and was there on 7 March when news reached the city that Napoleon had escaped from Elba. A new coalition was hastily formed, and Wellington was soon heading west to Brussels and, ultimately, Waterloo. The Congress of Vienna continued to meet throughout the Hundred Days and the final agreement was signed on 9 June 1815. It was the most comprehensive treaty that had ever been agreed in European history.