Peace of Pressburg

The day after the battle Francis II asked for a meeting; the armistice was signed on 6 December at the mill of Nasiedlowitz. The Russians evacuated Germany and Austria undertook to treat alone. Talleyrand argued for a moderate peace that would make Vienna a lasting ally; the Emperor chose severity.

Signed on 26 December in the former primatial palace of Pressburg, today Bratislava, the treaty cost Austria a sixth of its population. It ceded Venetia, Istria and Dalmatia to the Kingdom of Italy, the Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Bavaria, its last Swabian possessions to Württemberg and Baden, and paid forty million francs in indemnity.

In exchange it received Salzburg, whose prince-elector was moved to Würzburg. Bavaria and Württemberg became sovereign kingdoms and Baden a grand duchy: crowns distributed by France.

By recognising the full sovereignty of the German princes, Pressburg emptied the Holy Roman Empire of all substance: Francis II would abdicate the imperial crown eight months later, after the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine.

Austria lost its access to the Adriatic and its position in Italy. It would attempt two failed revenges, in 1809 and then through the marriage of 1810, before joining the decisive coalition of 1813.