The Treaty of Lunéville (or Peace of Lunéville) was signed in the Treaty House of
Lunéville on 9 February 1801. The signatory parties were the
French Republic and Emperor
Francis II, who signed on his own behalf as ruler of the hereditary domains of the
House of Austria and on behalf of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. The signatories were
Joseph Bonaparte and Count
Ludwig von Cobenzl, the Austrian foreign minister. The treaty formally ended Austrian and Imperial participation in the
War of the Second Coalition and the
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
, as well as the Imperial
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...
.
The
Austrian army had been defeated by
Napoleon Bonaparte at the
Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800 and then by
Jean Victor Moreau at the
Battle of Hohenlinden on 3 December. Forced to sue for peace, the Austrians signed the Treaty of Lunéville, which largely confirmed the
Treaty of Campo Formio (17 October 1797), which itself had confirmed the
Peace of Leoben (18 April 1797). The
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
was the sole nation still at war with France for another year.
The Austrians would resume
war against France in 1805.
Negotiations
On 25 December 1799, Bonaparte wrote to Francis II to propose peace. The imperial response was delayed. On 20 January 1800, Austria and Britain signed a convention of alliance against France. On 25 January, Austria responded negatively to Bonaparte's offer. When Bonaparte renewed his offer after Marengo, however, the Austrian response was positive. A series of three negotiations followed.
Two armistices preceded the opening of negotiations: the
Convention of Alessandria (15 June 1800) in Italy and the
Armistice of Parsdorf (15 July) in Germany.
First round
Count
Joseph von Saint-Julien arrived in Paris on 21 July 1800 and was received with enthusiasm. He met with French Foreign Minister
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord on 22–24 and 27 July. On 28 July, both signed a preliminary peace, which was mostly a copy of the Treaty of Campo Formio. The main difference was that the House of Austria was to be indemnified for its losses with territory in Italy, rather than in Germany. On 30 July, Saint-Julien left for Vienna accompanied by a French plenipotentiary,
Géraud Duroc, although the French had intended for the final treaty to be signed in Paris.
Duroc was not allowed to cross the Austrian lines. Saint-Julian arrived in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
on 5 August, but his preliminary peace was rejected by the emperor. On 13 August, Duroc was denied a passport and given a letter from Austrian Foreign Minister
Johann Amadeus von Thugut, the architect of the Anglo-Austrian alliance, to Talleyrand. Duroc returned to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
on 20 August. It is thought that his report on the state of the Austrian forces, based on his stay at General
Paul Kray's headquarters, influenced Napoleon's decision to launch a new offensive in September.
Shortly after Duroc had delivered the Austrian response, Saint-Julien was imprisoned and accused of signing a treaty without authorisation.
Second round
After the Saint-Julien fiasco, Thugut expressed a desire for Austria and Britain to negotiate together, but Napoleon rejected the idea of a peace conference. Britain, in turn, rejected French proposals for a
separate peace. On 7 September, British Foreign Minister,
Lord Grenville dispatched a counterproject to Paris, which contained a proposed naval armistice. The offer was received on 10 September, and Napoleon extended the armistice one week to consider the proposal, which was rejected. As a result, by the
Convention of Hohenlinden of 20 September 1800, Austria ceded the fortresses of
Ulm,
Philippsburg and
Ingolstadt to France in exchange for a one-month extension to the armistice. On 25 September, Thugut resigned as Austrian foreign minister.
Final round
The emperor originally nominated
Ludwig Conrad von Lehrbach as his plenipotentiary for the peace talks in Lunéville. As Lehrbach had signed the Convention of Hohenlinden and caused Thugut's fall, he was unacceptable to the British. He was replaced by
Ludwig von Cobenzl, who was not initially authorised to negotiate apart from the British. The final round of negotiations thus began with a long period during which France and Austria haggled over the terms of negotiating while the armistices lapsed in late November.
The peace conference was supposed to open in Lunéville on 7 October, but Cobenzl did not arrive for over two weeks, and Lord Grenville never appeared. By 25 October, Cobenzl, without instructions, had gone from Lunéville to Paris. He left a week later, the French having failed to separate him from his British allies. Cobenzl returned for a meeting with Napoleon before his first negotiation at Lunéville on 9 November with
Joseph Bonaparte. Since Cobenzl was not authorised to treat for a separate peace, and Joseph was authorised only to treat with Austria, the negotiations began at a deadlock. Joseph proposed that a secret treaty could be negotiated, with the British being invited to a public conference for appearance's sake only after negotiations had been effectively complete and the treaty publicly signed and all earlier copies burnt, only in March 1801, after the expiration of the Anglo-Austrian alliance. The British, meanwhile, had by 23 November suspended payment of the second installment of the subsidy that they had agreed to pay Austria on 20 June.
During the negotiations at Lunéville, the French actively sought the alliance of
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. After a rapprochement had been made, Napoleon withdrew the offer to admit a British representative under any circumstances on 7 December. On 3 December, the French had won their victory at Hohenlinden. New instructions reached Cobenzl on 26 December. He was authorised to sign a preliminary separate peace to obtain a general armistice. In fact, an
armistice covering Germany had already been signed by the commanders in the field on 25 December. On 26 December, the
Second League of Armed Neutrality was formed. On 27 December, Francis II informed King
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
of the United Kingdom of being unable to meet his obligations as an ally. On 31 December, Cobenzl informed the French that he would negotiate without Britain.
The final negotiations concerned mainly boundaries and indemnities in Italy. The
Grand Duchy of Tuscany was a major issue. The terms of Campo Formio were accepted by Austria for Germany, and only the nature and the methods of compensation for imperial princes losing territory had to be decided. As of 30 December, the emperor was offering to accept the
Oglio (rather than the
Adda) as the boundary of his territory in Italy if he held onto the
Legations, and the
Duke of Modena was indemnified for his losses in Italy, not Germany. Since the fighting continued in Italy while negotiations were underway at Lunéville, Cobenzl was forced to adjust his demands successively eastward as the French advanced in Italy. By 5 January, he was willing to accept the
Chiese, by 9 January the
Mincio and by 15 January the
Adige and the .
On 16 January, the Austrian and French commanders in Italy concluded the
Armistice of Treviso, which left the fortress of
Mantua in Austrian hands. Cobenzl was not aware of that at the time of his sixth official conference with Joseph on 25 January. France demanded the cession of the fortresses of Mantua,
Peschiera,
Legnano,
Ferrara and
Ancona and the expulsion of the Grand Duke of Tuscany from Italy in return for an armistice in Italy. Since the Armistice of Steyr was expiring, both sides agreed to extend it as well. As a result, Mantua was lost to Austria.
On 1 February, France accepted an Austrian request to allow a representative of
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
and
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
to take part in the negotiations although that did not happen. The final week was taken up by the issue of the
Left Bank of the Rhine and the Empire. Austria wanted another congress like the
Congress of Rastatt to make peace for the Empire. Napoleon demanded that Francis sign on behalf of himself, his own territories and the Holy Roman Empire. The treaty was finally signed at 5:00 in the evening on 9 February 1801.
Terms
The Treaty of Lunéville declared that "there shall be, henceforth and forever, peace, amity, and good understanding" among the parties. The treaty required Austria to enforce the conditions of the earlier Treaty of Campo Formio.
The independence and sovereignty of the
Cisalpine,
Ligurian,
Batavian and
Helvetic republics was recognized. The entire left bank of the Rhine, including the
Austrian Netherlands, was ceded to France.
Imperial Italy was also ceded by the Empire, becoming parts of France and the new
Italian Republic.
Whereas Campo Formio had not affected the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Lunéville ceded it to France. In another change from Campo Formio, certain
imperial fortresses on the right bank of the Rhine were to be demolished.

Those princes who lost territory, including the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena, were to be compensated with territory in Germany east of the Rhine. This was to be accomplished largely thought a programme of
secularization of ecclesiastical principalities as laid out at the Congress of Rastatt. France would supervise the process. Although Austria had been promised the
Archbishopric of Salzburg and some
Bavarian lands at Campo Formio, those promises were withdrawn at Lunéville. The Austrian acquisition of the
Venetian ''Terraferma'',
Venetian Dalmatia and all of
Istria was confirmed.
Imperial deputation
The treaty was accepted by the
Imperial Diet on 7 March.
The task of compensation was left to an Imperial deputation (German: ''Reichsdeputation''). France and Russia greatly influenced the negotiations in the Imperial Deputation, with France urging for larger new territories to be formed, which it hoped would later ally with them, and Russia favouring "a more traditional balance". Eventually, the ''Reichsdeputationshauptschluss'' (Final Recess of the Imperial Deputation), the final document that reorganised the Empire, was signed on 25 February 1803. The Recess did far more than simply satisfy the need to compensate the princes, but it fundamentally restructured the Empire by secularising all ecclesiastical states except for the
Electorate of Mainz. Almost all
free imperial cities lost their sovereignty. The ''Reichsdeputationshauptschluss'' was the last major law in the history of the Holy Roman Empire before
its dissolution in 1806.
See also
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Oranienstein Letters
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Treaty Of Luneville
Luneville
1801 in France
1801 in the Holy Roman Empire
Luneville
Luneville
Luneville
Treaties of the French First Republic
France–Holy Roman Empire relations
February 1801
Ligurian Republic
Batavian Republic
Cisalpine Republic
Helvetic Republic
French Consulate
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville
Joseph Bonaparte