Throughout early-modern history, France and Britain had been enemies on opposite sides of the so-called Second Hundred Years’ War. Nevertheless, during the Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), Britain became a haven for almost 40,000 French emigrants, and by 1814 France’s restored monarchy no longer viewed Britain as the enemy. The émigrés’ experience in Britain, its impact on long-term diplomatic ties between the two countries, and its wider repercussions for European history is the focus of my research. Did émigré diplomats knowingly follow a policy intended to foster a lasting alliance with Britain? Scholars who view the émigrés as politically impotent ignore the powerful impact French presence had on Britain’s elite. Even as early as 1793, the émigrés’ plight was an asset used by the British government in its negotiations with other European powers. My thesis will answer the aforementioned question by exploring a neglected aspect of the French experience in Great Britain: the émigrés’ social and political interactions with the British public and government and how this may have affected Franco-British diplomacy during the nineteenth century. / Graduate / 0335 / 0582 / sguenett@uvic.ca
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/4759 |
| Date | 19 August 2013 |
| Creators | Guenette, Salam |
| Contributors | Alexander, R. S. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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