Congress of Vienna - Consequences of a Restored Papal Avignon

[miguelrj]

Let's imagine the Pope sees his Comtat Venaissin restored after the Napoleonic Wars.

The butterfly effect will grow exponentially but still, it's apparently such a meaningless move that I can't see butterflies altering the macro events in the next decades - the Spring of Nations, the rise of Napoleon III, a Savoy-led unification of Italy...

IOTL the Pope played all that Prisoner in the Vatican role because he had nowhere to go. If the Italians move in, it's been suggested that he could just retreat to Avignon and keep sovereignty there. This would definitely butterfly away any Lateran Treaty because the Pope already has his own statelet. He'd eventually accept the Italian sovereignty over Rome but I wonder if he'd ask for extraterritorial status for the Vatican Palace and occasionally or permanently set up residence there...

Another thing that should be weighed in is a little boring because it will converge with OTL. Napoleon III was a pal for his friends but he asked for something back. He accepted to recognize the expansion of the Kingdom of Sardinia at the cost of Nice and Savoy. He accepted to protect the Pope from Italian annexation to please Catholics. But ITTL how likely would it be that Napoleon III would demand Avignon in exchange for garrisoning Rome?

 

[Simreeve]

These are actually ideas that I've already been considering for inclusion in my own TL... but I think that unless you have France in a significantly weaker position at the Congress of Vienna then it could & would successfully manage to retain the area... and even if it didn't do so then a successful pro-French rebellion in 1848 would be more likely than continued papal rule after that point.

 

[LSCatilina]

It's quite unlikely : see, the Comtat Venaissin was de facto a french protectorate since the XVII century, and several times occupied by royal troops.
During these occupation, merchants and bourgeois of the Comtat benefited from being "part of the kingdom" regarding taxes, access to markets and products, etc.

During the French Revolution, the population was asked by the legate to do their own doleances. It quickly went to force him to have a tricolour cocard to his clothes. Now, the nobles and important guys preferred the maintain of status-quo and opposed union. It went to a small civil war, that went quickly to "unionist" and revolutionarist side, most supported by population.

Finally, there was little incitative for Papacy to claim back Avignon when they had enough luck to get their italians lands back. Furthermore, the Vienna Congress was about making a stable conservative Europe, forcing France to give too many lands would have been counter-productive.
See, originally, France was to keep more places as Savoy, places in Belgium, etc if Napoleon didn't come back and led congressist to be more strict.

And as it was also about simplifying the map, with removing all the pocket's states and small exclaves and enclaves...It didn't made great sense to create ex-nihilo the Comtat as well recreating Mulhouse Republic.

It's not really impossible, but...Hell, if such reborn Comtat existed, it would be a miracle to have it still there during the 1830 Revolution.

 

[miguelrj]

Weren't the people of the Comtat mostly tax-exempt? Because that should be a good reason not to rebel away at the first opportunity...

I understand the reasoning behind not restoring Avignon to the Pope but I'm a little surprised that he wasn't compensated with land elsewhere for its loss. The spirit of the Congress was to always compensate a prince that lost territory with other territory. Unless that prince was meant to be punished, of course...

 

[LSCatilina]

Weren't the people of the Comtat mostly tax-exempt? Because that should be a good reason not to rebel away at the first opportunity...

There's a little confusion with lightly taxed and tax-exempted.
Population was less taxed than in neighbouring french Provence, but still was. For some taxes, they were indeed exempted. Still, the Comtat periodically lacked money and used extraordinary contribution, or collected unpayed taxes, etc.
You had revolts against taxes in 1789's Comtat.

Furthermore, as the papacy had little power concerning France's trade taxes, you have to take in consideration commercial issue and remember that the Comtat depended havily for his ravitailment of French goods...

I understand the reasoning behind not restoring Avignon to the Pope but I'm a little surprised that he wasn't compensated with land elsewhere for its loss.

Any land compensation would have been made at the expense of Austria or Austria's allies. He was eventually lucky enough to have all its italian lands back.

The spirit of the Congress was to always compensate a prince that lost territory with other territory. Unless that prince was meant to be punished, of course...

I wouldn't call it a spirit : they did so mainly for Germany and even there...They mostly relied on realism : Bavaria remained a kingdom and kept many of the lands it annexated with napoleonic help.
Congress of Vienna was a room for negociation, exchanges, tractations and participants were far from agreeing, ciritcally with Talleyrand participating and managing to divide the coalised.

Papacy did try to get Avignon back but it was quite pointless, without real local support...So "tough luck".