Perfidious Albion

"Perfidious Albion" is a hostile epithet for England or the United Kingdom: "perfidious" ("see also: ") signifies one who does not keep his faith or word, while "Albion" is an ancient name for Britain.

The use of the adjective "perfidious" to describe Britain has a long history; instances have been found as far back as the 13th century.Schmidt, H.D. 'The Idea and Slogan of "Perfidious Albion"'. "Journal of the History of Ideas", Vol. 14, No. 4 (Oct., 1953), pp. 604–616.] A very similar phrase was used in a sermon by the eminent seventeenth-century French bishop, preacher and theologian Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet:

The Catholic bishop's reference is to England's lack of loyalty to the Catholic faith: although England received the Catholic faith from Rome in the time of Pope Gregory the Great despite its isolation, since the Reformation it had become a Protestant country.

The coinage of the phrase in its current form, however, is conventionally attributed to Augustin, Marquis of Ximenez, a Frenchman who in a 1793 poem wrote:

which means "Let us attack perfidious Albion in her waters." In this context, Britain's perfidy was political: in the early days of the French Revolution many in Britain, the most liberal of the European monarchies, had looked upon the Revolution with mild favour, but following the overthrow and execution of Louis XVI, Britain had allied herself with the other monarchies of Europe against the Revolution in France. This was seen by the revolutionaries in France as a "perfidious" betrayal.

"La perfide Albion" became a stock expression in France in the 19th century, to the extent that the Goncourt brothers could refer to it as "a well-known old saying". It was utilised by French journalists whenever there were tensions between France and Britain, for example during the competition for colonies in Africa culminating in the Fashoda incident. The catchphrase was further popularised by its use in "La Famille Fenouillard", the first French comic strip, in which one of the characters fulminates against "Perfidious Albion, which burnt Joan of Arc on the rock of Saint Helena" (This is, of course, a joke - carried away by his anti-English fury the character mixes up Joan of Arc with Napoleon, also a "victim" of England).

Cultural references

Today it is a conventional Anglophobic epithet, used in many anti-British contexts, and largely divorced from its historic origins.
* It is used by Argentinians in the context of the long-standing football rivalry between the Argentine and English national teams, born after the Falklands War in 1982.
* It is used in the Traditional Irish song Foggy Dew, about the Easter Rising of 1916, "Oh the night fell black and the rifles' crack Made "perfidious Albion" reel".
* It is used in popular culture (such as in the video game ) to establish characters' anti-British sentiments.
* It is the name of a two-player wargame, " [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/13392 Perfidious Albion: Napoleon's (Hypothetical) Invasion of England, 1814] ".
* It was used by Salman Rushdie in his 1982 essay on racism, [http://www.english.ccsu.edu/hegglund/206/rushdie_empire.htm "The New Empire Within Britain"]

It is also often used in a humorous context, notably in France (Perfide Albion) and in Italy ("Perfida Albione").

External links

* [http://1973themackintoshman.spaces.live.com/ Pérfida Albión - Spanish-language list of old and new grudges which make Spanish-speakers use the term]

References