Erfurt

In the autumn of 1808 Spain was ablaze and Napoleon had to go there in person. Before stripping Germany of troops he needed assurance that Austria would not move and that Russia would keep its Tilsit commitment. Hence the Erfurt meeting, from 27 September to 14 October: a display of power staged as a show.

Everything there was theatre, literally. He brought the Comédie-Française: Talma played Racine, Corneille and Voltaire before a house where the kings of Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg and Westphalia filled the stalls. Hence the famous phrase about a pit full of kings. On 2 October he received Goethe, spoke to him of Werther, which he claimed to have read seven times, and said as he came in: there is a man.

Behind the décor, the negotiation failed. Alexander promised little and committed to nothing against Austria. The reason was in the wings: Talleyrand, in disgrace but present, met the Tsar every evening at the Princess of Thurn and Taxis's and advised him to hold firm — the sovereign of France, he said, is civilised, but his people are not, and it falls to Europe to resist. It was outright treason.

The Erfurt convention, signed on 12 October, was an empty shell. Six months later Austria attacked in Bavaria while Napoleon was in Spain — precisely what Erfurt was meant to prevent. The meeting stands as the visible summit of imperial prestige and the moment when, unknowingly, it began to crumble.