 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (December 2011) |
 Map shows Central Europe 1797 | |
| Context | Failed congress to compensate the German princes dispossessed by the War of the First Coalition. |
|---|---|
| Drafted | 1797–1799 |
| Location | Rastatt |
| Parties | |
The Second Congress of Rastatt, which began its deliberations in November 1797, was intended to negotiate a general peace between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Empire, and to draw up a compensation plan to compensate those princes whose lands on the left bank of the Rhine had been seized by France[1] in the War of the First Coalition. Facing the French delegation was a 10-member Imperial delegation made up of delegates from the electorates of Mainz, Saxony, Bavaria, Hanover, as well as the secular territories of Austria, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg, and the imperial cities of Augsburg and Frankfurt.[2] The congress was interrupted when Austria and Russia resumed war against France in March 1799 at the start of the War of the Second Coalition, thus rendering the proceedings moot. Furthermore, as the French delegates attempted to return home, they were attacked by Austrian cavalrymen or possibly French royalists masquerading as such. Two diplomats were killed and a third seriously injured. The congress was held at Rastatt near Karlsruhe.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rastatt". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 913–914.
- ^ John G. Gagliardo, Reich and Nation. The Holy Roman Empire as Idea and Reality, 1763-1806, Indiana University Press, 1980, pp. 188-189.
