Klemens von Metternich

Born in 1773 to the House of Metternich, son of a diplomat, he studied at Strasbourg and Mainz before climbing through ambassadorial posts in Saxony, Prussia, and Napoleonic France. As Austria's foreign minister from 1809, he arranged Napoleon's marriage to Marie Louise, then flipped sides to engineer Austria's entry into the Sixth Coalition, signed the treaty that exiled Napoleon, and led the Austrian delegation at the Congress of Vienna that carved up post-war Europe - work that earned him the title of Prince in 1813. His "Metternich system" of international congresses kept Austria aligned with Russia and Prussia, marking the empire's diplomatic peak, though his influence waned through the 1830s and '40s. Chancellor from 1821 under Francis I and Ferdinand I, he used censorship and a spy network to suppress nationalist revolts and liberal unrest at home. The Revolutions of 1848 forced his resignation; he spent three years exiled in London, Brighton, and Brussels before returning to Vienna in 1851 as an advisor to Franz Josef, outliving his entire generation of statesmen until his death in 1859 at 86.