University of Leicester
Browse
SHELBURNE EHQ.pdf (420.48 kB)

Francophilia and political failure: Lord Shelburne and Anglo-French interactions, c1760-1789

Download (420.48 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2016-11-18, 12:28 authored by Nigel Aston
This 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 - 633

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of History

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

European History Quarterly

Publisher

SAGE Publications (UK and US)

issn

0265-6914

eissn

1461-7110

Acceptance date

2016-10-07

Copyright date

2017

Available date

2017-10-13

Publisher version

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265691417723267

Language

en

Usage metrics

    University of Leicester Publications

    Categories

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC