It's me beating my Congress of Vienna drum again.

I asked about in one of my previous threads but I never got an answer for it, so here goes. What if at Vienna, Belgium is allowed the Habsburg archduke that they so desperately sought (and here it would probably be the duke of Teschen, since he had served as governor for a short time in the 1790s and been brought up in Austrian Netherlands by the Regent Maria Christine).He renounces all rights to the Imperial throne and to flesh out the provinces, (and to punish France, the former duchy of Lorraine (either whole or piecemeal) is returned to Austria, alongside Austria's former holdings in south-western Germany and erected into the Grand Duchy of Belgium (open to name suggestions).

Austria isn't actually ruling Belgium (maybe Karl renounces his rights to the purple or so), but it's not necessarily asecond-rate power sitting on France's borders. Karl was one of the only generals to beat Napoleon, back when Madame Royal arrived in Vienna after her imprisonment, Franz II had considered just such a scheme, by marrying Karl to Marie Thérèse, and claiming heredity of the duchy of Lorraine.Not only this, but Karl actually did rather well for himself when they polled to see who would be the new king of the Belgians (IIRC).

Obviously the Netherlands will have to be recompensated elsewhere, and I was thinking, that since Prussia apparently showed no interest in gathering territories in western Germany,the Napoleonic grand duchy of Berg or of the pre-Revolutionary Rhineland Episcopal Electorates (Trier, Cologne and Mainz), might do nicely. That just leaves Prussia without getting what she wants - which is all of Saxony. Austria-France-Poland won't allow that, and Russia would, so a means would have to be found for why Prussia isn't getting what she wants (maybe she makes a poor showing at Leipzig or is without Russian support). Is this feasible?
 
I dont see him being able to take Lorraine and I dont see Britain agreeing to it.

If I may ask, why not? Britain would be against France controlling the Low Countries' ports, and would not mind seeing France considerably weakened, so Britain might support the idea. Taking Lorraine would be a little bit problematic, since France might again have a revanchiste policy about it's "lost provinces" but I can't think it would be impossible?
 
Maybe not impossible but difficult a lot of Lorraine noble and merchant prefered the french rule.
 
Maybe not impossible but difficult a lot of Lorraine noble and merchant prefered the french rule.

Yeah, but unfortunately, nobody at/in Vienna is going to be asking their opinion, just like they didn't with a lot of places who were suddenly transferred from one king to another at Vienna's Congress
 
It strikes me that if France is being more harshly punished, we'll probably see the Swiss get their request for the restoration of Mulhouse and Gex recognised as well. The Chablais is going to be a bit of a contest between them and Sardinia though.
 
The thing about the Vienna congress is that all major countries, including France, were treated very reasonable. For France that meant that the prerevolutionairy borders were restored. Basicly France was not punished during the Vienna Congress, but was treated as an equal. With this in mind, I doubt that France would lose Lorraine and even if in the unlikely event they would lose Lorrain, they would be compensated somehow. Sadly with an independent Belgium, there is no acceptable way for France to be compensated.

Another problem is that the countries at the congress basicly wanted France surrounded by reasonably strong countries, which is why the Netherlands gained the southern Netherlands and why Prussia was chosen to hold the Rhineland, as a counter to France (which became unnecessary since France was treated well and did not feel the need to take revenge). Although to be fair, I can see this not being a terribly important reason. If there was a good reason for creating Belgium, they would. Mind you, I don't see a good reason, but there could be a good reason. The Netherlands probably still end up with both Limburgs (most if Dutch Limburg was already Dutch and Belgian Limburg had not been part of the Southern Netherlands). Depending on how strong they want Belgium or the Netherlands be, I cold even see Antwerp ending up Dutch (it would connect Zeelandic Flanders to the Netherlands and with the Netherlands controling both banks of the Schelde Antwerp as a port is completely dependend on the Netherlands anyway). Prussia realy wanted Luxemburg (which is why the compromise of the personal union with the Netherlands was made), so I guess all/most of Luxemburg will end up Prussian. This probably means the what is now th province of Liege would be devided by the Netherlands and Luxemburg.

So If you find a good reason for Belgium, my guess would be that this would become the borders (roughly).
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