Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T03:56:53.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

British Foreign Policy in the Eighteenth Century: A Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Jeremy Black
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Il est vray que dans un gouvernement comme celuy d'Angleterre, il ne faut compter sur rien. [Chauvelin (1728)]

Eighteenth-century British foreign policy has been a marginal subject for several decades. During that period much good work has been produced, particularly on the diplomacy of the first four decades of the century, but this work has not been integrated into the general scholarship of the period. The textbooks for the century, commonly written by experts in high politics, generally offer a hurried account of foreign policy, that is, a jumble of names and dates that are not related to the problems discussed in the rest of the work. Foreign policy is rarely perceived as a crucial problem of political management or debate. Eighteenth-century scholars complain often, particularly in conversation, about what they regard as the excessively detailed nature of foreign policy studies and their supposed failure to address themselves to problems of general relevance.

The strong diplomatic bias of eighteenth-century foreign policy studies has certainly led to the production of many works that have few points of access for the general scholar. The domestic context of foreign policy and, in particular, the extent to which policy was debated are subjects that have received relatively little attention. Partly this is a result of the development of the subject. The great age of foreign policy studies was the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth, an age in which history existed to study the growth and exalt the triumphs of the nation-state.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 1: England's Foreign Relations , January 1987 , pp. 26 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Germain-Louis de Chauvelin, French foreign minister, to Louis Chammorel, French chargé d'affaires, July 29, 1728, Archives du Ministère des Affairs Etrangères, Quai d'Orsay, Paris, Correspondance Politique Angleterre (CP Ang.), suppl. 8, fol. 54.

2 Chance, J. F., George I and the Northern War (London, 1909)Google Scholar, and The Alliance of Hanover: A Study of British Foreign Policy in the Last Years of George I (London, 1923)Google Scholar; Hatton, R. M., George I: Elector and King (London, 1978), p. 311Google Scholar.

3 Vaucher, Paul, Robert Walpole et la politique de Fleury, 1731–1742 (Paris, 1924)Google Scholar; Wilson, Arthur N., French Foreign Policy during the Administration of Cardinal Fleury, 1726–1743: A Study in Diplomacy and Commercial Development (Cambridge, Mass., 1936)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lodge, R., Great Britain and Prussia in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1923)Google Scholar.

4 Lodge, R., Studies in Eighteenth-Century Diplomacy, 1740–1748 (London, 1930)Google Scholar.

5 Lodge, R., “The Treaty of Seville, 1729,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th ser., 16 (1933): 32Google Scholar.

6 Mckay, Derek, “Diplomatic Relations between George I and the Emperor Charles VI, 1714–19” (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1971)Google Scholar; Dunthorne, H. L. A., “The Alliance of the Maritime Powers, 1721–40” (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1978)Google Scholar.

7 For different views on Stanhope, see Hatton; Williams, B., Stanhope: A Study in Eighteenth-Century War and Diplomacy (Oxford, 1932)Google Scholar; Black, J., “Parliament and the Political and Diplomatic Crisis of 1717–18,” Parliamentary History 3 (1984): 95Google Scholar.

8 Horatio Walpole to the duke of Newcastle, secretary of state in the Southern Department, February 6, 1726, British Library (BL), Additional (Add.) MS 32746.

9 Letter to the author, October 1985.

10 Hatton, R. M., Diplomatic Relations between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, 1714–1721 (London, 1950)Google Scholar; Mckay, D., “The Struggle for Control of George I's Northern Policy,” Journal of Modern History 45 (1973): 367–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gibbs, G., “Parliament and Foreign Policy in the Age of Stanhope and Walpole,” English Historical Review 77 (1962): 18–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar, “Newspapers, Parliament and Foreign Policy in the Age of Stanhope and Walpole,” in Mélanges offerts à G. Jacquemyns (Brussels, 1968), pp. 293–315Google Scholar, “Parliament and the Treaty of Quadruple Alliance,” in William III and Louis XIV, ed. Hatton, R. and Bromley, J. S. (Liverpool, 1968), pp. 287–305Google Scholar, and “Laying Treaties before Parliament in the Eighteenth Century,” in Studies in Diplomatic History, ed. Hatton, R. and Anderson, M. S. (London, 1970), pp. 116–37Google Scholar.

11 MacLachlan, A. D., “The Great Peace: Negotiations for the Treaty of Utrecht, 1710–13” (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1965)Google Scholar, and “The Road to Peace, 171013,” in Britain after the Glorious Revolution, 1689–1714, ed. Holmes, G. (London, 1969), pp. 197–215CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Schweizer, K. W., “Frederick the Great, William Pitt and Lord Bute: The Origin, Development and Dissolution of the Anglo-Prussian Alliance, 1756–63” (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1976)Google Scholar, “Lord Bute and William Pitt's Resignation in 1761,” Canadian Journal of History 8 (1973): 111–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar, “Newcastle, Prussia and The Hague Overtures,” Albion 8 (1977): 72–97Google Scholar, and “The Non-renewal of the Anglo-Prussian Subsidy Treaty, 1761–1762: A Historical Revision,” Canadian Journal of History 13 (1978): 383–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schweizer, K. W. and Leonard, C. S., “Britain, Prussia, Russia and the Galitzin Letter: A Reassessment,” Historical Journal 26 (1983): 531–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Rice, G., “The Diplomatic Career of the Fourth Earl of Rochford, 1749–68” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 1973)Google Scholar, and “Great Britain, the Manila Ransom, and the First Falkland Island Dispute with Spain, 1766,” International History Review 2 (1980): 386–409CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Scott, H. M., “Great Britain, Poland and the Russian Alliance, 1763–1767,” Historical Journal 19 (1976): 53–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “British Foreign Policy in the Age of the American Revolution,” International History Review 6 (1984): 113–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Tracy, J. N., “The Royal Navy as an Instrument in British Foreign Relations, 1763–75” (Ph.D. thesis, Southampton University, 1972)Google Scholar, “Parry of a Threat to India, 1768–1774,” Mariner's Mirror 59 (1973): 35–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar, “The Gunboat Diplomacy of the Government of George Grenville, 1764–1765,” Historical Journal 17 (1974): 711–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar, “The Administration of the Duke of Grafton and the French Invasion of Corsica,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 8 (1974–1975): 169–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “The Falkland Islands Crisis of 1770: Use of Naval Force,” English Historical Review 90 (1975): 40–75Google Scholar. Webb, P. L. C., “The Navy and British Diplomacy, 1783–93” (M. Litt, thesis, Cambridge University, 1972)Google Scholar, “The Naval Aspects of the Nootka Sound Affair,” Mariner's Mirror 61 (1975): 133–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Sea Power in the Ochakov Affair,” International History Review 2 (1980): 13–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Gradish, S. F., “The Establishment of British Sea Power in the Mediterranean, 1689–1713,” Canadian Journal of History 10 (1975): 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Black, J., “The British Navy and British Foreign Policy in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century,” Studies in History and Politics 4 (1985): 137–55Google Scholar.

12 Hatton, George I.

13 Dureng, J., Le duc de Bourbon et l'Angleterre, 1723–26 (Paris, 1911)Google Scholar.

14 Baudrillart, A., Philippe V et la cour de France, 5 vols. (Paris, 1890–1901)Google Scholar. Smith, L. B., “Spain and Britain, 1715–19: The Jacobite Issue” (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1978)Google Scholar. A good work on relations later in the century is Lasala, J. A. Lalaguna, “England, Spain and the Family Compact, 1763–83” (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1968)Google Scholar.

15 Vaucher (n. 3 above); Lodge, Great Britain and Prussia in the Eighteenth Century (n. 3 above).

16 Hartmann, P. C., Geld als Instrument europäischer Machtpolitik im Zeitalter des Merkantilismus: Studien zu den finanziellen und politischen Beziehungen der Wittelsbacher Territorien Kurbayern, Kurfalz und Kurkoln mil Frankreich und dem Kaiser von 1715 bis 1740 (Munich, 1978)Google Scholar.

17 Black, J., Natural and Necessary Enemies: Anglo-French Relations in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1986)Google Scholar.

18 Marini, R. A., La politico Sabauda alla corte inglese dopo il trattato di Annover (1725–30) nella relazione dell ambasciatore piemontese a Londra (Chambéry, 1918)Google Scholar; Quazza, G., “I negoziati austro-anglo-sardi del 1732–33,” Botlettino storico bibliografico subalpino 46 (1948): 73–92Google Scholar; 47 (1949): 45–74; di Vesme, C. Baudi, La politica mediterranea inglese … 1741–48 (Turin, 1952)Google Scholar; Jones, G. H., “Inghilterra, granducato di Toscana e Quadruplice Alleanza,” Archivio storico italiano 138 (1980): 59–87Google Scholar, and “La Gran Bretagna e la destinazione di Don Carlos al trono di Toscano, 1721–32,” Archivio storico italiano 140 (1982): 47–82Google Scholar; Black, J., “The Development of Anglo-Sardinian Relations in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century,” Studi piemontesi 12 (1983): 48–60Google Scholar.

19 Browning, R., “The Duke of Newcastle and the Imperial Election Plan, 1749–1754,” Journal of British Studies 7, no. 1 (1967): 28–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “The British Orientation of Austrian Foreign Policy, 1749–1754,” Central European History 1 (1968): 299–323CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Significant work on the Continental dimensions of policy has been published by Roberts, Michael, “Great Britain and the Swedish Revolution, 1772–73,” Historical Journal 7 (1964): 1–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar, “Great Britain, Denmark and Russia, 1763–1770,” in Hatton, and Anderson, , eds. (n. 10 above), pp. 238–68Google Scholar, Macartney in Russia, English Historical Review suppl. 7 (London, 1974)Google Scholar, and British Diplomacy and Swedish Politics, 1758–1773 (London, 1980)Google Scholar. Scott, H. M., “Anglo-Austrian Relations after the Seven Years' War: Lord Stormont in Vienna, 1763–72” (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1977)Google Scholar.

21 Zartz, F. P., “Studies in the Formulation of British Foreign Policy, 1783–85” (Ph.D. project under the supervision of I. R. Christie, University of London)Google Scholar, and “The ‘Pole-Carew Memorandum’ in the Context of British Policy towards Russia in the 1780s,” Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia Newsletter 10 (1982): 12–17Google Scholar.

22 Black, J., “Sir Robert Ainslie: His Majesty's Agent-Provocateur? British Foreign Policy and the International Crisis of 1787,” European History Quarterly 14 (1984): 253–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Black, J., “The Marquis of Carmarthen and Relations with France, 1784–1787,” Francia 12 (1985): 283–303Google Scholar.

24 Butler, R., Choiseul (Oxford, 1980), vol. 1Google Scholar.

25 Schweizer, “Frederick the Great, William Pitt and Lord Bute” (n. 11 above), and “Newcastle, Prussia and The Hague Overtures” (n. 11 above).

26 Black, J., “British Foreign Policy, 1727–1731” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham, 1982), pp. 142–47Google Scholar.

27 Black, J., “A Survey of Sources for Anglo-Russian Diplomatic Relations in the Eighteenth Century,” in The Study of Russian History from British Archival Sources, ed. Hartley, J. (London, 1986)Google Scholar.

28 The third earl of Malmesbury, , ed., Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, 4 vols. (London, 1844), 2:112–13Google Scholar.

29 Chevenix-Trench, C., George II: “A King in Toils” (London, 1973)Google Scholar.

30 LordHervey, John, Some Materials towards Memoirs of the Reign of King George II, ed. Sedgwick, R. R., 3 vols. (1931)Google Scholar.

31 Gregg, E., Queen Anne (London, 1980)Google Scholar; Hatton, George I (n. 2 above). Hatton has recently returned to the subject in her stimulating essay “New Light on George I of Great Britain,” in England's Rise to Greatness, 1660–1763, ed. Baxter, S. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1983), pp. 213–55Google Scholar. Baxter, S., “The Conduct of the Seven Years' War,” in Baxter, , ed., pp. 323–48Google Scholar; Clark, J., The Dynamics of Change: The Crisis of the 1750s and English Party Systems (Cambridge, 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Owen, J. B., “George II Reconsidered,” in Statesmen, Scholars and Merchants, ed. Whiteman, A., Bromley, J. S., and Dickson, P. G. M. (Oxford, 1973), pp. 113–34Google Scholar. Black, J., “George II Reconsidered: A Consideration of George's Influence in the Conduct of Foreign Policy in the First Years of His Reign,” Mittelungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 35 (1982): 35–56Google Scholar; Blanning, T. C. W., “‘That Horrid Electorate’ or ‘Ma Patrie Germanique’? George III, Hanover, and the Fürstenbund of 1785,” Historical Journal 20 (1977): 311–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Blanning, T. C. N. and Haase, C., “Kürhannover, der Kaiser und die ‘Regency Crisis’ von 1788/89,” Blatter für deutsche Landes geschichte 113 (1977): 432–49Google Scholar. Mackesy, P., War without Victory: The Downfall of Pitt, 1799–1802 (Oxford, 1984)Google Scholar.

32 Newcastle to Arthur Villettes, December 3, 1741 (OS), Public Record Office (PRO), State Papers (SP) 92/44.

33 Utterodt to Augustus III of Saxony-Poland, January 10, 24, 1741, Staatsarchiv, Dresden, Geheimes Kabinett, Gesandschaften 2677, 3, fols. 27, 84; Giuseppe Ossorio to Charles Emmanuel III, March 21, 1742, Archivio di Stato, Turin, Lettere Ministri Inghilterra, 48.

34 Mediger, W., Mecklenburg, Russland und England-Hanover, 1706–21, 2 vols. (Hildesheim, 1967)Google Scholar; Mckay, “The Struggle for Control of George I's Northern Policy” (n. 10 above).

35 True Briton (June 7, 1723 [OS]).

36 Black, J., British Foreign Policy in the Age of Walpole (Edinburgh, 1985), pp. 27–48Google Scholar.

37 Brigadier Charles Du Bourgay to Viscount Townshend, secretary of state for the Northern Department, December 25, 1725, PRO, SP 90/19.

38 Dann, U., “Hanover and Great Britain, 1740–60” (D.Phil, thesis, Oxford University, 1981)Google Scholar, published as Hannover und England, 1740–1760: Diplomatie und Selbsterhaltung (Hildesheim, 1986)Google Scholar.

39 Recent work by Hatton, R. M. includes The Anglo-Hanoverian Connection, 1714–1760 (London, 1982)Google Scholar.

40 François de Bussy to Antoine-Louis Rouillé, French foreign minister, July 29, 1755, Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Quai d'Orsay, Paris, Correspondence Politique, Brunswick-Hanovre 52, fols. 24–25.

41 Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams to Henry Fox, June 17, 1751, July 27, 1752, BL, Add. MS 51393, fols. 52, 111.

42 George Macartney to Fox, December 12, 1764, BL, Add. MS 51388, fol. 167.

43 The earl of Albemarle to Charles Watson-Wentworth, second marquis of Rockingham, September 15, 1766, and Newcastle to Rockingham, September 17, 1766, City Library, Sheffield, Wentworth Woodhouse MS Rl-692, 694; Joseph Yorke to Sir Robert Murray Keith, October 9, 1778, BL, Add. MS 35515, fol. 54; Keith to Viscount Stormont, secretary of state for the Northern Department, December 4, 1779, BL, Add. MS 35517, fol. 311.

44 Marcum, J. W., “Vorontsov and Pitt: The Russian Assessment of a British Statesman,” Rocky Mountain Society Scientific Journal 10 (1973): 49–51Google Scholar.

45 Manuscript newsletter, April 17, 1741, Archivo di Stato, Turin, Lettere Ministri Inghilterra, 47; Ward, A., Great Britain and Hanover: Some Aspects of the Personal Union (Oxford, 1899), p. 59Google Scholar; Haase, C., Deeters, W., and Pitz, E., Ubersicht uter die Bestande des Niedersachischen Staatsarchivs in Hanover, 2 vols. (Göttingen, 1965–1968)Google Scholar.

46 On George II's failure to keep papers, see Brown, P. D. and Schweizer, K. W., The Devonshire Diary, Camden Society, 4th ser., vol. 27 (London, 1982), p. 50Google Scholar.

47 Niedhart, G., Handel und Krieg in der Britischen Weltpolitik, 1738–63 (Munich, 1979)Google Scholar; Jones, J. R., Britain and the World, 1649–1815 (London, 1980)Google Scholar; Symcox, G., Britain and Victor Amadeus II; or, The Use and Abuse of Allies,” in Baxter, , ed. (n. 31 above), pp. 151–52Google Scholar. Fisher, H. E. S., The Portugal Trade: A Study of Anglo-Portugese Commerce, 1700–70 (London, 1972)Google Scholar; Hunt, N. C., “The Russia Company and the Government, 1730–42,” Oxford Slavonic Papers, vol. 7 (1957)Google Scholar; Jubb, M. J., “Fiscal Policy in England in the 1720s and 1730s” (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1977)Google Scholar; Ormrod, D. J., “Anglo-Dutch Commerce, 1700–1760” (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1973)Google Scholar; McLachlan, J., Trade and Peace with Old Spain, 1667–1750 (Cambridge, 1940)Google Scholar; Reading, D. K., The Anglo-Russian Commercial Treaty of 1734 (New Haven, Conn., 1938)Google Scholar.

48 James Craggs, secretary of state for the Southern Department, to Stanhope, September 27, 1720 (OS), and Lord Harrington, secretary of state for the Northern Department, to Sir Cyril Wych, envoy in the Hansa towns, August 29, September 9, 1732, PRO, SP 43/64/22, and SP 82/50/32.

49 Board of Trade to George I, September 25, 1717 (OS), BL, Add. MS 35875, fol. 73; Townshend to Robert Walpole, September 8, 1723, PRO, SP 43/4/342–43.

50 Daniel Pulteney, envoy in Copenhagen, to Townshend, January 29, 1715, PRO, SP 75/35/29–30.

51 W. Morton Pitt to the earl of Grantham, October 8, 1782, and Grantham to Pitt, October 11, 1782, Bedford County Record Office, Lucas Papers, 30/14/308/3–6. I would like to thank Lady Lucas for permission to quote from these letters.

52 Colley, L., “The Apotheosis of George III: Loyalty, Royalty and the British Nation, 1760–1820,” Past and Present, no. 104 (1984), pp. 94–129Google Scholar.

53 Black, J., “Press and Politics in the Age of Walpole,” Durham University Journal 11 (1984): 87–93Google Scholar, and “The Political Impact of the Eighteenth-Century British Press,” Journal of Newspaper and Periodical History 1, no. 2 (1985): pp. 12–19Google Scholar.

54 Anderson, M. S., “Eighteenth-Century Theories of the Balance of Power,” in Hatton, and Anderson, , eds. (n. 10 above), pp. 183–98, 184–85Google Scholar.

55 Black, J., “The Theory of the Balance of Power in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century: A Note on Sources,” Review of International Studies 9 (1983): 55–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Mid-Eighteenth-Century Conflict with Particular Reference to the Wars of the Polish and Austrian Successions,” in The Origins of War in Early Modern Europe (Edinburgh, in press)Google Scholar.

56 Baxter, S., “The Myth of the Grand Alliance,” in Anglo-Dutch Cross Currents in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Sellin, P. R. and Baxter, S. (Los Angeles, 1976), pp. 43–59Google Scholar; Roberts, M., Splendid Isolation, 1763–1780 (Reading, 1970)Google Scholar; H. M. Scott, unpublished paper on eighteenth-century Anglo-Austrian relations (presented at Anglo-Austrian Historical Symposium, London, November 1983).

57 Newcastle to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, September 6, 1751, BL, Add. MS 35412, fol. 18.

58 Newcastle to Hardwicke, June 14, 1752, BL, Add. MS 35412, fol. 121.

59 Sheridan, Richard is quoted in Parliamentary History, 29:213–14, April 12, 1791Google Scholar.

60 Cunningham, A., “The Oczakov Debate,” Middle Eastern Studies 1 (1964–1965): 209–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.