best of ennemies
...61680; to french : it was a sign of Divine disapproval • 1678: Titus oates emerged frm obscurity & described a plot allegedly hatched by the pope, louis XIV & england’s leading catholics to murder King Charles & force evryone to turn catholic. It subsequently emerged that this was a pure fabrication england’s paranoia as regards Jacobites Charles II had to negotiate secretly with Louis XIV the treaties which resulted in an anglo-french cooperation against the Dutch • 1685: after intensifying his persecution of the Huguenots, Louis revoked Henri IV’s magnanimous Edict of Nantes & expelled all Protestants of France. Most of these came to england what had been a trickle of frch visitors to England became a flood: pastors, craftsmen (created te silk industry in England & also contributed to the manufacture of glass, paper, clocks, tapestries, gold…) anglomania • 1685: James II (Charles II’s son) • 1688: Glorious Revolution James II & his family fled to France where they were lodged at St Germain by their cousin Louis XIV • 1689: William III & Mary II crowned + declared war on France “King’s William War” or the “War of the English Succession” (1689-1697) • 1697: with England all-powerful at sea & France invincible on land, the war was concluded with the peace of Ryswick. The most crucial clauses in the treaty were those in which Louis recognised the monarchy of William & formally conceded that protestantism was england’s state religion III- EIGHTEENTH CENTURY • FRANCOPHILIA: while in the 17thC the english manifested a growing fondness for travel, in the course of the 18thC, this fondness became a veritable passion. Italy remained the ultimate destination for most of these travellers, as it had been since the Renaissance but it became fashionable to linger in France on the way english satirists were not slow to mock their fellow’s obsession & adulation of France fr as the language of international diplomacy & of all civilised Europeans • FRANCOPHOBIA: reputation of the frch for frivolity & high fashion envy because of f’s manifest cultural superiority & fear because of its economic & military might (natural resources & population three time as large as england’s & maintained a standing army) • 1702: Queen Ann + “War of Spanish Succession” (1702-1713) fought mainly to determine whether Louis XIV’s grandson should become King of Spain the anglo-dutch coalition against Louis was commanded by Marlborough whose war-aims were to expel the Bourbons & their allies frm the erman empire, Italy & the Netherlands, to turn the mediteranean into a british lake & to smash frch power for good & all dazzling victories at Blenheim in 1704, Ramilles in 1706 & Oudenarde in 1708 • 1713: treaty of Utretcht, Gibraltar & Minorca were ceded to Britain & in North America Louis XIV was obliged to hand over Hudson Bay, Nova Scotia • 1727: George II • 1740: Britain involved in the “War of the Austrian Succession” (1740-48) to safeguard her interests in Hanover & avert the threat of french hegemony in Europe. Serious & & more significant was the fighting over the lucrative West Indian trade • ANGLOPHILA from 1740s onwards: Montesquieu praised the English constitution (De l’Esprit des Lois) , Diderot hailed E as “the country of philosophers, systematisers & men of inquiring mind”, Voltaire (Lettres Philosophiques) impressed by the much greater frredom the english enjoyed compared to the frch while class division remained inflexible n France Admiration bcs it had developped efficient agriculture & prosperous trade on a world-wide scale French plays marking the impact of anglomania, ex: L’Anglomane, by Bernard Saurin, wittily mocked the excessive adulation of things English in the same way as the English Restoration wits had satirised exaggerated Francophilia a century before • 1756: the acquisition of overseas together with the weakening of frch competition became the principal british objective in the so called “Seven Years War” (1756-63) , fought accross the sea btw Fr & England • 1763: treaty of Paris, all the valuable west indian islands restored to France Pitt the elder & his City friends were outraged • 1760: George III • 1774: Louis XVI on French throne • 1775: outbreak of american war of independence France was for a time prepared to support the britsh if they handed back Canada but once it became clear that this was not going to happen, it sympathised more overtly with the american colonists • 1777: Fr formally declared war & a large force of frch troops was dispatched to help the rebel cause under the young Marquis Lafayette • 1783: treaty of Versailles, the thirteen rebellious states were granted their independence • 1786: as an admirer of the “Wealth of Nations” Pitt was resolved to put Adam smith’s free trade theories into practise. A Commercial Treaty was signed btw Eden & De Rayneval, establishing reciprocal freedom in trade & navigation • 1789: French revolution as the century moved twds its end, democratic forces seemed everywhere on the move: there had been successful revolution America, there was agitation for political reform in Engalnd, unrest in Ireland, an anti-Orangist rebellion in the united provinces & it did not seem without significance to demagogues in both london & paris that 1788 marked the centenary of that Glorious Revolution in England itself Edmund Burke & “Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790): condemned the concept of inherent natural rights as a pernicious illusion, the real rights of the people were, he argued, specific entitlements to particular advantages related to the indiv’s social position. To destroy the fabric of society & refashion it anew was, in his view, to invite anarchy, chaos & disaster + Chateaubriand fought with the royalist but forced to exile in london after injury >< Br revolutionary proponents: Coleridge, Blake +The leading radicals of the day were confident that what had happened in France in the summer 1789 was the prelude to much-needed electoral reform in england. They were all members of the Revolution society which had been founded in 1788 to celebrate the centenary of england’s own Glorious (bt incomplete in their view) Revolution. The most prominent of them were religious Dissenters. + Tom Paine & “the Rights of Man” (1791) counter-attacked Burke, believed that the proclamation of LIBERTY, EQUALITY & FRATERNITY heralded an age of reason, prosperity & peace • September 1792: Paris mob invaded the prisons & slaughtered 1200 prisoners + victory at Valmy + habeas Corpus english opinion outraged. Walpole : “a whole nation of monsters”, “inferno-human beings” fear: the more extreme of the Revolutionaries (ex: Danton) threatened to export their doctrines beyond France’s boundaries by force of arms • 1793: Louis XVI excecuted & England declared war on France (threat in the Netherlands of england’s all-important gateway to its European markets) xenophobic cartoons: on one side Gillray’s figure of John Bull, admired by the foreigners for his fat, jolly face & ample belly, whose basic diet is roast beef & pudding & who is invariably blunt, honest & sensible. On the other side the archetypal frenchman, with “thin jaws & lank guts”, the result of his diet of “french frogs & soup meagre”, irredeemably “saucy, envious, unreliable & deceitful” + oppositions: religion/ atheism, loyalty/rebellion, obedience/anarchy, industry/ indleness, national prosperity/ private ruine, happiness/ misery • 1797: naval mutinies at Spithead & the Nore but no charismatic popualr leader emerged in england to exploit social discontent (>< Fr: Robespierre, Danton & Marat) • 9 November 1799: General Napoleon Bonaparte- Burke’s “new despost”- seized Paris (le 18 Brumaire, an VIII in the new calendar) & made &st Consul IV- NINETEENTH CENTURY • throughout the Revolutionary & Napoleonic wars , France was consistently confronted by military alliances of the european powers. There were seven such coalition, the partners sometimes changed but what is sure is that from first to last –over a period of 20 years- Britain was a constant anatgonist (Perfidy of Albion) • 1798: Aboukir Bay & Nelson bonaparte took the same lofty view of F’s cultural preeminence as Louis XIV & Robespierre had done before him. When he led his expedition to Egypt in 1798 he had two different aims: one was to cut england’s vital trade route to india by taking possession of Egypt, the other was to increase knowledge of the Middle East. The latter objective proved easier to attain than the former • 1799: Napoleon made a personal appeal for peace to George III refusal to deal with “ a new, impious, self-created aristocrat” • 1802: stalemate (GB mistress of the seas & Fr unbeatable on land) so Peace of Amiens signed. Fighting ceased & it was agreed that english monarchs, who had continued to call themselves “king of France” since the reign of Edward III, would renounce all claim to the title • 1803: hostilities resumed propaganda & jingoistic handbills: Gb seen as “ a nation of merchants” (>< Fr “ a nation of shop-keepers) whose exclusive concern was the extending of their commercial empire • 1805: Frch victory at Ulm & Austerlitz over Austrians & Russians, but jubilation was short-lived. A week later french fleet was defeated in the battle of Trafalgar lead by Nelson, seen as a national hero in GB. His death (killed by frch canon) infuriated english • 1806: Napoleon imposing an economic blockade, the Continental System, which was designed to exclude br goods from all the ports in Europe • 1807: Br retaliates with the “Orders in Council” • 1812: Napoleon ‘s ill-fated march in Moscow • 1813: Nap defeated by the armies of the 6th coalition at Leipzig • 1814: Wellington (arthur Wellesley who emerged in the Peninsular war which starts in 1808) captured Bordeaux, allies invaded Paris. Nap retired to the Island of Elba (exile) & Louis XVIII became king (restoration of the Bourbons) • 1815: returned to France, “100 days campaign”. Defeat at Waterloo (belgium) • 1830: crisis over whom should access the Belgian throne French gave up & Palmerston grateful coined a version of the phrase “l’entente cordiale” with his “good & cordial understanding” • 1840: direct confrontation in the Middle East • 1841: Queen Victoria & her foreign secretary Aberdeen seeking a rapprochement with Louis-Philippe. The latter received Victoria & Albert in his chateau at Eu, near Dieppe (the first meeting of a frch & english sovereign on French soil since the Field of Cloth of Gold • 1844: Louis Philippe came to Windsor, the first frch king to set foot on english soil since Jean II arrived as a state hostage after the battle of Poitiers in 1356 (1848: exiled to Br under the pseudonym of Mr Smith) • 1851: Louis Napoleon seized power in a coup d’état, one year later, was proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III political exilles twds London: Hugo • 1855 : English & French on their way together to wage war against the Russian Army in the Crimea + Nap visiting Victoria & Victoria even paid respects to Napoleon I in the Invalides • great wave of ANGLOMANIA sweeping France: people coming in FR btw 1830/1870 multiplied by 4 (therapeutic as well as touristic) horses & clothes are imported/ english shops & taverns appeared in various part of Paris/ respectable “milords” & leading dandies married french ballerinas/ english upperclass ladies opened salons & gave lavish receptions/ ambitious young frenchmen were lured to paris at the prospect of marrying a wealthy english heiress/ there was a fashionable way of tying one’s tie, of carrying one’s cane & of mounting one’s horse as the english were supposed to do/ fame of english gothic story writers (Ann Radcliff) / Scott, Byron & Dickens seen as cult figures • great wave of FRANCOMANIA sweeping england: BEGINNING OF CENTURY the well to do as well as the middle class discovered paris Paris, the most popular destinattion: adding to its traditional tourist attractions the sites of recent Revolutionary activities such as the ruins of the Bastilles, the Tuileries Palace (its walls riddled with bullets when the monarchy fell in1792), the Place de la Concorde (where Louis XVI was guillotined), the Louvre Palace (filled with Napoleon’s plunder) Praising french art, cooking & adulation for the french working class (George Eliot “our working classes are eminently inferior to the mass of the french people. In France the mind of the people is highly electrified, they are full of ideas on social subjects, they really desire social reform + see the 1848 Revolution under Louis-Philippe, described in Flaubert’s “L’Education Sentimale”) UNDER NAP III (anglophile: Rapprochement ? Crowds of english visitors attracted to Paris in the 1850s as Baron Haussmann’s bold rebuilding programme was put into effect. The picturesque gabled houses & dark narrow streets of the old city were swept away as he drove his two great highways from south to north & from east to west Exposition Universelle of 1855 heralded the age of mass excursion to Paris spectacular expansion of the Frch railway network for the construction of which thousands of british navvies were recruited. Travel became more comfortable, safer & cheaper english adoption of the Côtes d’Azur (Cannes) • 1858: reconsidering Channel Tunnel project BUT assassination attempt on Nap (hatched from London), relations deteriorated • 1861: after the sudden death of Prince Albert, London was plunged by royal decree into deepest mourning for several years. Paris, in contrast seemed to be permanently en fête fr decadence, immorality & moral laxity Naturalist writers dismissed , by English, as worshippers “of the great goddess Lubricity” - “La Fille Elisa” (the Goncourt Brothers) & “Nana” (Zola) : both have as central characters prostitute- • 1870: Nap went to war against Prussia, disaster (Zola’s novel “La Débâcle”), collapse of the second empire, a new republic proclaimed in Paris hardened english Francophes: nap as a wanton aggressor, like his uncle before him • 1871: refugees from the Commune fleed to Soho (London) Britain maintained its reputation as a safe-haven for frch political refugees (see Zola who was sentenced for publishing his open letter “J’accuse”, protesting against the wrong imprisonment of Dreyfus) 19THC: OSCILLATION BTW ADULATION & ANTIPATHY V- TWENTIETH CENTURY A- LAST DECADE OF 19THC • last decade of 19thC: imperial rivalry, who was to be the dominant european power in Egypt. Britain won the opening rounds in the contest: France was ousted of Egypt in 1898. Predictably, they championed the Boers against the British in their war at the turn of the century • 1904: another Entente Cordiale was formally signed. The effect of the principal clauses was to allow Br a free hand in Egypt & the Nile Valley, while France was allowed to safeguard its special interests in Morocco the Entente was to be tested in WW1 B- WWI • the war that erupted in august 1914 grew from yrs of european competition over trade, colonies, allies & armaments. 2 powerful alliance systems had formed: the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary & Italy; and the Triple Entente of BR, FR & Russia. All had imperial holdings & ambitions for more, but Germany seemed particularly bold as it rivalled BR for world leadership. • while France decreed general mobilsation & put 94 divisions into the field, the british gvt agreed to sen just 4 divisions. Conscription was not introduced in GB until 27 january 1916 • Until 1917, there was no unified command & communication btw the so called allies (see Dardanelles Campaign & the fact Br launched their own offensive on the Somme on 1 July 1916. Then allied placed under the supreme command of France’s Marshall Nivelle. Haig was not best pleased. They disagreed over strategy. • Then replaced by Pétain, the saviour of Verdun & the attempt to work under a unified command is given up • Frch believed in the perfidiousness of the english seemend to them justified in 1917 when they were shown a memorandum from the Chief of the Imperial General Staff on Britain’s war objectives. It included comments such as “the maintenance of british maritime supremacy” “ the maintenance of a weak power in the Low Countries” copies of this memorandum were widely used in France for anti-English propaganda • 1918: allied forces, almost overwhelmed by the ferocity of a Ludendorff’s assault, placed under the Supreme Command of Marshal Foch • before the armistice ended the war in Western Europe on 11 november 1918, bitter rivalry btw GB & Fr surfaced over the carving up of the Middle East Empire of the defeated Turks. Fr wanted Syria & most of the Levant; br was anxious to safguard Arab interests (to ensure the safety of the major trade-route of the Suez Canal) over what the peace terms should be. Clemenceau’s overriding concern was for the security of France so he insisted on swingeing reparations, a permanent diminution in Germany’s military strength & secure land frontiers. Lloyd George gave the highest proirity to Br’s national & commercial interests • 1920: Fr sent a military force accross the border to occupy Frankfurt seen as “provocative people” • 1925: Br opposed all Fr’s aims & policies during the Locarno Conference (which was meant to ensure peace & security in Europe). Britains refused to coerce Germany into paying France reparations, refused to pledge military assistance to Fr should German aggression recur, was unsympathetic to Fr’s case for building up its own armaments Fr seen as nationalistic, militaristic & vindictive (twds Germany) • ART & CULTURE growing number of englishmen who were appreciative of the french art & cul...