SHELBURNE EHQ.pdf (420.48 kB)
Francophilia and political failure: Lord Shelburne and Anglo-French interactions, c1760-1789
journal contribution
posted on 2016-11-18, 12:28 authored by Nigel AstonThis essay draws attention to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne’s (1737-1805) capacity
for fostering a culture of mutual respect and constructive interaction in Anglo-French
relations that had no contemporary equivalent, and explores his contacts with the French
political world before the Revolution. For someone who was usually lambasted for
sophistry and inconsistency, his career long commitment to Anglo-French cordiality over
three decades stands out, and his activities thus offer the historian a major case study in
Gallophilia, that neglected enlightened counterpart to its obverse: rooted antipathy to the
French ‘other’. This paper argues that this apparently enlightened attitude played a
significant and neglected part in explaining why an individual as gifted as Shelburne
failed so conspicuously as a politician.
Funding
Research for this article was made possible by the award of a British Academy Small Personal Research grant.
History
Citation
European History Quarterly, 2017, 47(4), pp. 613 - 633Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of HistoryVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Published in
European History QuarterlyPublisher
SAGE Publications (UK and US)issn
0265-6914eissn
1461-7110Acceptance date
2016-10-07Copyright date
2017Available date
2017-10-13Publisher DOI
Publisher version
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265691417723267Language
enAdministrator link
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