Metternich, CLEMENS WENZEL NEPOMUK LOTHAR, Prince von Metternich and Duke of Pontell, an eminent Austrian diplomatist, was born at Coblenz, 15th May 1773. His ancestors had obtained distinction in the wars of the empire against the Turks; his family had supplied more than one elector to the archbishoprics of Mainz and Treves; and his father, Franz Georg Karl, Count von Metternich, had secured a high reputation as a diplomatist and as the associate of Kaunitz. Young Metternich therefore entered the service of his country under the most favourable auspices, of which he was not slow in taking advantage. At the age of fifteen he matriculated at the university of Strasburg, where he had for his fellow-student Benjamin Constant, and from which he removed, two years afterwards, to Mainz to complete his education. In 1794, after a short visit to England, he was attached to the Austrian embassy at the Hague, in the following year marrying the granddaughter and heiress of his father's friend Kaunitz. He first came into notice at the congress of Rastadt, where he represented the Westphalian nobility, after which he accompanied Count Stadion to St Petersburg. From this point his rise was very rapid, as he added to the advantages of his birth and connections a more than ordinary share of diplomatic ability, with the most graceful and winning manners. At twenty-eight he was appointed Austrian minister at the court of Dresden, and after the lapse of two years he was sent as ambassador to Berlin, where he took a leading part in the well-known coalition which was dissolved by the battle of Austerlitz. After the peace of Presburg young Metternich was selected for the most important diplomatic appointment in the gift of the emperor—that of minister at the court of Napoleon. When he presented himself before the emperor, he was greeted with the remark, 'You are very young to represent so powerful a monarchy.' 'Your majesty was not older at Austerlitz,' replied Metternich, with a slight exaggeration which could not make the compliment less acceptable; and, indeed, young as he was, he exhibited an address and a knowledge before which Napoleon might bluster, but of which he never could get the better. Without much ardour, with very limited sympathies, with no deep convictions, he had a clear head and a firm hand; he could keep his own secret, and he could worm out the secrets of others; and, making himself the most agreeable man in the world, he plotted with a smiling countenance, manoeuvred in a dance, and struck the hardest when he seemed to yield the most.
In 1807 he concluded the treaty of Fontainebleau, very favourable to the interests of Austria; and on the outbreak of the war between France and Austria in 1809 he was detained some time before he could obtain his passport. In the course of that year he succeeded Count Stadion as minister of Foreign Affairs, and it was during his tenure of office that he conceived the idea of a marriage between Napoleon and an Austrian archduchess as a means of purchasing a respite for the empire. Metternich escorted Marie Louise to Paris. Amidst the difficulties of 1812-13 Metternich maintained at first a temporising policy, but the obstinacy of Napoleon at length led him to resolve upon the declaration of war with France made in August 1813. In the autumn of that year the grand alliance was signed at Teplitz, and Metternich, in recognition of his great ability in connection with the negotiations, was raised to the dignity of a prince of the empire. In the subsequent conferences and treaties the newly-created prince took a very prominent part, and he subsequently signed on behalf of Austria the second treaty of Paris on 20th November 1815. He afterwards paid a visit to England, and was made an LL.D. by the university of Oxford—the only honour this man of countless orders ever received from Britain. After this he still continued to conduct the diplomacy of Austria; in 1821 he was appointed chancellor of the empire, and in 1826 succeeded Count Zichy as president of ministerial conferences on home affairs. His efforts were now earnestly directed to the maintenance of peace in Europe and the preservation of the existing state of things in the Austrian dominions by the strictest measures of police and severe despotism. In the mildest expressions of individual opinion he saw symptoms of dangerous agitation, and his supreme object was to combine what he called the conservative forces of society against anarchy. Then came the French Revolution of 1848, and Metternich's hatred of revolution was fanatical. The shock, which overturned for a time half the thrones of Europe, was felt at Vienna, and the government fell, in spite of the resistance of Metternich, who maintained his policy of 'thorough' to the last. Leaving Vienna with an escort of cavalry, he fled to England, and there he remained till 1851, in the autumn of which year he made a sort of royal progress to his castle of Johannisberg on the Rhine. From this time, although the advice of the old statesman was occasionally asked by the emperor, he was never again requested to assume office. He died at Vienna on 11th June 1859. The Autobiography of Metternich (French, 1879-82; German, 1880-84; Eng. trans. 1880-83), edited by his son, throws valuable light on the stirring times in which he lived. In these volumes also appears the diary of his third wife, Countess Melauie Zichy-Ferraris, whom he married in 1831, when he was about fifty-eight years of age. She was a clever and beautiful woman, and gave her husband much effective aid. From many entries in her diary it is evident that, if her husband was stern and harsh in political strife, he was not without warm and genial affections. To her Prince Metternich was as good and great a man as ever lived, and she expresses more than once her opinion that he alone 'could save the world.'
There are works on Metternich by Binder (1836), Gross-Hoffinger (1846), Schmidt-Weissenfels (1861), Beer (1877); and see Metternich, by Colonel Malleson ('Statesmen' series, 1888).