Declaration of Pillnitz
 The Declaration of Pillnitz on August 27, 1791, was a statement
issued at the Castle of Pillnitz by the Habsburg Holy Roman
Emperor Leopold II and Frederick William II of Prussia.
 Called on European powers to intervene if Louis XVI of France
was threatened
 This declaration was intended to serve as a warning to the French
revolutionaries not to infringe further on the rights of Louis XVI
and to allow his restoration to power.
 The statement helped begin the French Revolutionary Wars.
 The declaration stated that Austria would go to war if and only if
all the other major European powers would also go to war with
France.
 Leopold chose this wording so that he would not be forced to go to
war; he knew William Pitt, prime minister of Great Britain, did not
support war with France.
 Leopold merely issued the declaration to satisfy the French émigrés
taking refuge in his nation who called for foreign interference in
their homeland.
 The National Assembly of France misunderstood this document,
interpreting it to mean that Leopold was going to declare war
 Radical Frenchmen who called for war, such as Jacques Pierre
Brissot, gained influence thereafter.