Erfurt, Principality of

Francis II gives up his title of Emperor and declares the Holy Roman Empire dissolved on August 6, following an ultimatum by Napoleon.

In the years that follow, twenty-three more German states will join the Confederation; Francis's Habsburg dynasty will rule the remainder of the empire as Austria.

Only Austria, Prussia, Danish Holstein, and Swedish Pomerania stay outside, not counting the west bank of the Rhine and Principality of Erfurt, which will be annexed by the French empire after the defeat of Prussia in the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt in October, while the surrounding Thuringian states join the Confederation.

According to the treaty, the confederation is to be run by common constitutional bodies, but the individual states (in particular the larger ones) want unlimited sovereignty.

Instead of a monarchical head of state, as the Holy Roman Emperor had been, its highest office is held by Karl Theodor von Dalberg, the former Arch Chancellor, who now bears the title of a Prince-Primate of the confederation.

As such, he is President of the College of Kings and presides over the Diet of the Confederation, designed to be a parliament-like body though it never actually assembles.

The President of the Council of the Princes is the Prince of Nassau-Usingen.

The Confederation is above all a military alliance: the members have to supply France with large numbers of military personnel.

In return for their cooperation, some state rulers are given higher statuses: Baden, Hesse, Cleves, and Berg are made into grand duchies, and Württemberg and Bavaria become kingdoms.

States are also made larger by incorporating the many smaller Kleinstaaten, or small former imperial member states.

The Congress of Erfurt, intended to reaffirm the alliance concluded the previous year with the Treaties of Tilsit that had followed the end of the War of the Fourth Coalition, begins on September 27, 1808.

At Tilsit, Napoleon had made an admirer of Alexander I of Russia, but by the time of the meeting at Erfurt anti-French sentiment at the Russian court is beginning to threaten the newly forged alliance.

Napoleon and his foreign minister Jean-Baptiste Nompère de Champagny seek to strengthen the alliance once more in order to settle affairs in Spain and prepare for the expected war with Austria.

Working at cross-purposes to Napoleon is Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord who has by this time come to the conclusion that Napoleon is leading France to destruction, and who secretly advises Alexander to resist Napoleon's demands.

The city of Erfurt is under the direct control of the Emperor of the French at this time as Principality of Erfurt.

Napoleon has attempted to awe Alexander with the glories of the French Empire.

The meeting has become a great conference involving an array of kings, princes, dukes, barons and notables from all over Europe.

Among the attendees is Talma and the entire Comedie Française, who have presented sixteen French tragedies over the course of the Congress.

Goethe is courted by Napoleon himself and the twenty-year-old Arthur Schopenhauer has arrived in Goethe's train and cast a cynical eye over the proceedings.

Out of the meetings come an agreement, the Erfurt Convention, in fourteen articles, calling upon Britain to cease its war against France, recognizing the Russian conquest of Finland from Sweden, and stating that in case of war with Austria, Russia should aid France "to the best of its ability."

The two emperors depart for their homelands on October 14.

Six months later the expected war with Austria will begin, and Alexander will barely live up to his agreement, aiding France as little as possible.

By 1810 both emperors will be considering war with one another.

Erfurt is the last meeting between the two leaders.