The Quintuple Alliance came into being at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, when France joined the Quadruple Alliance created by Russia, Austria, Prussia and Britain to uphold the European peace settlement concluded at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

After Aix-la-Chapelle (now Aachen), the Alliance powers met three more times: in 1820 at the Congress of Troppau (Opava), in 1821 at the Congress of Laibach (Ljubljana; and in 1822 at the Congress of Verona.

While Britain stood largely aloof from the Alliance's illiberal actions, the four Continental monarchies were successful in authorising Austrian military action in Italy in 1821 and French intervention in Spain in 1823 to suppress constitutionalist movements.

The Alliance is conventionally taken to have become defunct along with the Holy Alliance of the three original Continental members with the death of Tsar Alexander I of Russia in 1825.