The Four Horsemen: Riding to Liberty in Post-Napoleonic Europe

by Richard Stites

In a series of revolts starting in 1820, four military officers rode forth on horseback from obscure European towns to bring political freedom and a constitution to Spain, Naples, and Russia; and national independence to the Greeks. The men who launched these exploits from Andalusia to the snowy fields of Ukraine--Colonel Rafael del Riego, General Guglielmo Pepe, General Alexandros Ypsilanti, and Colonel Sergei Muraviev-Apostol--all hoped to overturn the old order. Over the next six years, their revolutions ended in failure. The men who led them became martyrs.
In The Four Horsemen, the late, eminent historian Richard Stites offers a compelling narrative history of these four revolutions. Stites sets the stories side by side, allowing him to compare events and movements and so illuminate such topics as the transfer of ideas and peoples across frontiers, the formation of an international community of revolutionaries, and the appropriation of Christian symbols and language for secular purposes. He shows how expressive behavior and artifacts of all kinds--art, popular festivities, propaganda, and religion--worked their way to various degrees into all the revolutionary movements and regimes. And he documents as well the corruption, abandonment of liberal values, and outright betrayal of the revolution that emerged in Spain and Naples; the clash of ambitions and ideas that wracked the unity of the Decembrists' cause; and civil war that erupted in the midst of the Greek struggle for independence.
Richard Stites was one of the most imaginative and broad-ranging historians working in the United States. This book is his last work, a classic example of his dazzling knowledge and idiosyncratic yet accessible writing style. The culmination of an esteemed career, The Four Horsemen promises to enthrall anyone interested in nineteenth-century Europe and the history of revolutions.

Genres: History, European History, Nonfiction

454 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Richard Thomas Stites (December 2, 1931 – March 7, 2010) was a historian of Russian culture and professor of history at Georgetown University.

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four men with a passion for liberal government, hampered by populations still living in illiteracy and ignorance, saw their efforts to lead their countries into constitutional government fail after varying degrees of initially successful revolt. Aligned against them were European sovereigns willing to cooperate with erstwhile enemy royals (often relatives) in order to protect ‘legitimate’ kings being challenged by rebels from what might prove to be a contagious fever of independence. Taking the long view, however, the harsh reprisals and continuance of authoritarian, class-based societies that followed suppression of these revolts bred resentment and fuel for eventual successful revolutions.

I found the book fascinating, but I have been reading around this period; if you don’t have basic familiarity with the Napoleonic period, in particular the Russian campaign, the Peninsular War and Napoleon’s habit of installing family members on client thrones, a quick review would help. Also some awareness of Russo-Turkish wars under Catherine and Alexander. I found reading this helped knit together

Danube: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Memoirs of the Prince de Ligne: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
War and Peace: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

and Stendhal, and serves as background for much of mid-nineteenth century continental literature (Perez Galdos, Manzini, etc.)

Even so, the first chapter overview assumes the background of a semi-academic in this period, so don’t get too bogged down; it will make more sense as a wrap-up.

The first rebellion, and the one that provided reference points, if not inspiration, for the others occurred in Spain. There were in fact two rebellions, the first against Napoleonic rule (successful) and the second against their own repressive king, put down with help, perversely, from the French. Colonel Rafael del Riego comes off as the best leader among these four, tragically matched against a truly despotic and treacherous monarch. The Italian rebellion was short-lived and put down by the Austrians, the country that the other European leaders had agreed would act on their behalf in the matter. The Greek, Alexandros Ypsilanti, was a weak leader of a diaspora-born effort to liberate Greece from Ottoman rule; his Balkan campaign failed amidst atrocities on both sides although a pan-European effort eventually did free Greece. Finally, Colonel Sergei Muraviev-Apostol led the Southern branch of the truly doomed Decembrist movement in Russia.

Stites does a masterful job of describing the political context and the cultural surroundings of these movements. In each country there were circles of men with common ideas gathered into liberal discussion clubs with Masonic trappings. These ranged from the cultured circulio of Spain to the carbonari of Naples, which could verge on gangs of bandits. There were roving soldiers who moved from one army to the next, from country to country. Most important, there were large contingents of army officers who had spent years defeating Napoleon. They had freed their countries from the ‘oppressor’, only to see a return of absolutist rule. They had been educated during the late enlightenment, came of age in the era of Byron and high romanticism, and viewed ‘back to normal’ with dismay. But this was also the era of Czar Alexander’s Holy Alliance. Initially a liberal monarch, Alexander shifted rightward and toward religious mysticism. Amid the disorder of the late Napoleonic period, he proposed the mutual support league to his peers.

Stites tracks the convoluted histories of the movements’ pronunciamientos, proposed constitutions, news organs, and political catechisms. He covers the details of the planning and actual campaigns. The role of the church is inevitable, particularly in Spain, where the rebels made the big political mistake of seizing church property. In each country, the rebels faced the consequences of a peasantry that had no exposure to the ideals that motivated the leaders, and reacted with indifference at best, resistance at worst. (In Spain there was initial general support, but that was more directed at driving out the French than in securing a constitution.)

Stites is even-handed in describing the violence and pillage on both sides in each country. The torture and killing in the Greek situation is particularly horrific. We also learn the fates of these leaders and their supporters, which ranged from humiliating hanging ceremonies to years buried in solitary confinement or Siberian exile. Fernando VII of Spain is portrayed as an unbelievably vindictive and treacherous man, dealing out punishment to the men who fought to restore his throne to him not once, but twice. We also learn something of the fates of these leaders in their countries’ memories. It was particularly interesting to me to hear Stites caustic comments on Alexander Herzen’s ‘inaccurate’ glorification of the Decembrists.

This review is too short to even mention many of the topics that Stites covers in clear and (mostly) relevant detail. He is masterful in managing it all and keeping each country’s story distinct, while relating it to the others. For example, the Greek case is unique because the rebels were fighting to expel an occupier and liberate the Greek-Orthodox worshippers, which eventually brought the monarchs in on the side of liberation, although not of cowboy-led liberation. Looking across all four, one sees later echos the Crimean War, in Garibaldi’s campaigns, the Republican-Falangist conflict, the civil wars in Greece after WWII, and of course the twentieth century Russian revolutions. (There is a long and interesting section here on the varying Decembrist attitudes toward czar-murder or constitutional monarch, which Fernando VII’s treachery influenced heavily; Spain proved you couldn’t trust a monarch to sign the constitution—he’d repudiate it the first chance he got.)

In short, an excellent book if you have any interest in the history of independence movements or related European history.

[JW · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to the liberal revolts in 1820s Europe. Stites clearly shows the strong influence of Spain’s 1812 constitution upon Italian, Greek and Russian revolutionaries. Still, a large part of the picture seems to be missing. Concentrating on the liberals was the author’s aim, but by only offering a sketch of their opponents these liberals become free from context. Stites shows that the broad masses were either indifferent or actively opposed to the liberal project. Liberalism is generally portrayed as a middle class ideology, but not all bourgeoisie supported it. There were aristocrats, clergy and peasants among the revolutionaries, but how many? The traditionalists felt as strongly about their ideology as the liberals did for theirs. The clash of ideas was also a clash of cultures. This book would have presented a more complete picture by covering both the right as well as the left. But then, that would have made it a completely different book.
The book doesn’t deal adequately with the bloodless victories of the liberal revolutions in Spain and Naples. In other words, the victories seem to have been almost too easy. There isn’t any coverage of divisions within the elites. Initially, the traditionalist elites were out maneuvered by the liberal elites. The traditionalists came back, but only with the support of foreign intervention. But then, in Spain after the period covered by the book, the liberals came back to rule. The struggle between left and right was a struggle for power using ideologies. Idealists used, and were useful to, both sides.
Also, how much of the support for liberalism was the result of idealism, and how much was motivated by the desire to acquire monastic property?
Surprisingly, the hardcover edition has a Kindle-level share of typos and/or editing problems.

[Bear Kosik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author highlights a very rarely investigated part of European history. The brevity and low impact of the four episodes on their respective states demonstrate why they are not often discussed. So, this volume fills a gap. Unfortunately, as seems to be the case with many recent works on history, the author ends up repeating himself many times. For example, there are only so many times the reader needs to be reminded that the autocratic powers believed these coups or attempted coups were linked in a pan-European revolutionary movement when they were only tenuously aligned. Moreover, the author pays scant attention to how the continental political system was established by the Congress of Vienna in the aftermath of Napoleon. This crucial context is hinted at, not fully explored, yet it is the prime reason the Four Horsemen proved unsuccessful in the end. Also, it would have helped for the author to be clearer in establishing that the "liberty" in the title was limited; the protagonists did not believe the common people were prepared for freedom.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

re-orients the story of post-Napoleonic revolution and reform movements as ripple emanating from southern Europe, rather than France and Britain.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The shelving categories I have given this book are, mostly, simplistic but I didn't want to create new shelves so forgive the limitations of my system but don't imagine that it reflects on the quality, breath of vision and sheer magnificence of this volume. Although it might be misleading to describe this as a work of popular history this work is an example of how academic history should be written, in beautiful clear comprehensible prose without any of the obscurantism the genre tends to attract, if not encourage.

Professor Stites looks at looks at military rebellions/pronunciamientoes that took place between 1820-25 in Spain, Naples (then the capital of the independent Kingdom of the Two Sicily's. It would only become part of 'Italy' after 1848), Greece and Russia. They were all unsuccessful, though the Greek rebellion lead, eventually to the rebellion that liberated Greece (then part of the Ottoman empire) but they all had ongoing influences, for good or ill, in the history of the countries. This period, the post Napoleonic restoration Europe is not a period on any syllabuses except as a prelude to the various unification/independence wars of the mid and late 19th century. But it is a fascinating period and hold plenty of parallels with today's world.

The great powers were obsessed with the threat of external revolutionaries undermining their control at home and suspected foreign individuals and ideas. They worked in concert to intervene and stamp out regime change that they didn't like and tried to track and control the spread of ideas they didn't approve of by means of censorship and lustration (a word I love and can't resist using even though Professor Stites doesn't - it refers to postal censorship). But Professor Stites is to good an historian to indulge in Neil Fergusson's simplistic use of history to boost his career with think tanks and talk radio shows. He doesn't even suggest any current relevance, you have to find it yourself and surprisingly there is a great deal.

I found this book fascinating and in many respects a revelation - particularly how informed and influenced the various groups in Spain, Naples and Russia were with each other (the Greek rebellion actually involved the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, modern Romania, but was intended as a 'Greek' rebellion). Perhaps because I read most of my history long before the collapse of the Soviet Union when the 'iron curtain' still stood a great deal of it looked at the past through the prism of the then present. 'Eastern Europe' (a term defined by post WWII politics alone) and Russia were seen as separate from the rest of Europe. In fact the rebel groups in Spain, Naples and Russia were well aware of each other, not least because of their contacts during the Napoleonic war. Stites also also restores the Russian Emperor Alexander I and the Russian Empire to a central and important place in the Napoleonic wars and in the peace and reconstruction, or 'restoration', that came after.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in 19th century history, particularly Napoleonic and post Napoleonic, because there are so many roots of what would happen later in these episodes. It is also wonderfully readable. I can't imagine a history buff who won't adore it.