Anglo-Corsican Kingdom

Infobox Former Country
native_name = "Regno di Corsica"
conventional_long_name = Anglo-Corsican Kingdom
common_name = Corsica
status = Unrecognized state
continent = Europe
region = Western Europe
country = France
era = Age of Enlightenment
year_start = 1794
year_end = 1796
date_start = June 17
date_end = October 19
event_start =
event_end = Conquered
p1 = French First Republic
flag_p1 = Flag_of_France.svg
s1 = French First Republic
flag_s1 = Flag of France.svg

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flag_type = Flag¹

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symbol_type = Coat of arms

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image_map_caption = Location of Corsica in Europe
national_motto = "Amici e non di ventura"
(English: "Friends, and not by mere accident")
national_anthem = "Dio vi Salvi Regina"
capital = Corte, then Bastia
common_languages = Italian, Corsican, French, English
religion = Roman Catholic
government_type = Parliamentary democracy and Constitutional monarchy
title_leader = King²
leader1 = George III
year_leader1 =
title_deputy = President of the Council of State
deputy1 = Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo
legislature = Parliament
house1 =
house2 =
stat_year1 =
stat_area1 = 8680
stat_pop1 =
stat_year2 =
stat_area2 =
stat_pop2 =
currency = soldi
footnotes = ¹The flag of the kingdom was the Corsican Moor's head united with the British royal arms. ² Represented by a Viceroy.After the French revolution, Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli, who had been exiled under the monarchy, became something of an idol of liberty and democracy. In 1789 he was invited to Paris by the National Constituent Assembly and was celebrated as a hero in front of the assembly. He was afterwards sent back to Corsica having been given the rank of lieutenant-general.

Eventually however Paoli split from the French Revolution over the issue of the execution of the king and threw in his lot with the royalist party. Accused of treason by the French National Convention, he summoned a "consulta" (assembly) at Corte in 1793, with himself as president and formally seceded from France. He requested the protection of the the British government, then at war with revolutionary France, and suggested the Kingdom of Ireland as a model for an autonomous kingdom under the British monarch. In 1794 Britain sent a fleet under Admiral Samuel Hood. For a short time, Corsica was added to the dominions of King George III, chiefly by the exertions of Hood's fleet, and Paoli's cooperation.

Sir Gilbert Elliot represented the king's government as viceroy. Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo was procureur-general-syndic (chief of the civil government) and later president of the council of state.

The relationship between Paoli's government and the British was never clearly defined, however, resulting in numerous questions of authority. Tensions arose from the conflict between Sir Gilbert's loyalty to the British monarchy and Paoli's republican leanings and desire to defend Corsican autonomy. There was also a pronounced division between Corte, the traditional capital and inland stronghold, and Bastia on the coast, where Sir Gilbert moved the capital in early 1795, and which was the center for French and Corsican royalists. [cite book |title=Pasquale Paoli: An Enlightened Hero 1725-1807 |last=Thrasher |first=Peter Adam |year=1970 |publisher=Archon Books|location=Hamden, CT |isbn=0208010319 |pages=pp 291-326] At last the crown invited Paoli to resign and return to exile in Britain with a pension, which, having no other options, he did in 1796. On October 19, 1796, the French reconquered Bastia, the British withdrew, and Corsica became a French "département". [cite book|pages=p 171 |title=The ungovernable rock: a history of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom and its role in Britain's Mediterranean strategy during the Revolutionary War, 1793-1797|first=Desmond|last=Gregory|date=1985|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|location=London|id=ISBN 0838632254]

References

ee also

*Pasquale Paoli
*Corsican Republic

External links

* [http://www.pasqualepaoli.com/english/royaume.htm Second Corsican constitution (1794)]