Franco–British Union

A Franco-British Union is a concept for a union between the states of the United Kingdom and the French Republic. Such a union was proposed during certain crises of the 20th century; it has some historical precedents.

Historical unions

England and France

Ties between France and the Kingdom of England have been intimate since the Norman Conquest, in which the Duke of Normandy, an important French fief, became King of England, while also owing feudal ties to the French crown.

Such a relationship could never be stable, and only endured as long as the French crown was weak. From 1066 to 1214, the King of England held extensive fiefs in northern France, adding to Normandy the counties of Maine, Anjou, and Touraine, and the Duchy of Brittany. After 1154, the King of England was also Duke of Aquitaine (or Guienne), together with Poitou, Gascony, and other southern French fiefs dependent upon Aquitaine. Together with the northern territories, this meant that the King of England controlled more than half of France – the so-called Angevin Empire – though still nominally as the King of France's vassal. The centre of gravity of this composite realm was generally south of the English channel; four of the first seven kings after the Norman Conquest were French-born, and all were native speakers of French. For centuries thereafter the royalty and nobility of England were educated in French as well as English. In certain respects, England became an outlying province of France; English law took the strong impress of local French law, and the English language itself was saturated with French words.

This anomalous situation came to an end with the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, when the King of France deposed the King of England from his northern French fiefs; in the chaos that followed, the heir to the throne of France was offered the throne of England by rebellious English barons from 1216 to 1217 and travelled there to take it (but was eventually defeated). England was ultimately able to retain a reduced Guienne as a French fief, which formed the base for English attacks on France when war between the two kingdoms resumed in 1337. From 1340 to 1360, and from 1369 on, the King of England assumed the title of "King of France"; but although England was generally successful in its war with France, no attempt was made to make the title a reality until Henry V's invasion of France in 1415. By 1420, England controlled northern France (including the capital) for the first time in 200 years. The King of France was forced to disinherit his own son, the Dauphin Charles, in favour of Henry V. As Henry predeceased the French king by a few months, his son Henry VI became the first joint king of England and France in 1422 -- the first and only time that Anglo-French union was a reality. The party of the deposed Dauphin retained control over parts of southern France, however.

The effective union was brief, however, as from 1429 the Dauphin's party counterattacked and succeeded in crowning the Dauphin as king. Fighting between England and France continued for more than twenty years after, but by 1453 the English were expelled from all of France except Calais, which was lost in 1558. England also briefly held the town of Dunkirk in 1658-1662. The Kings of England and their successor Kings of Great Britain, purely as a habitual expression and with no associated political claim, continued to use the title "King of France" until 1801; the heads of the house of Stuart, out of power since 1688, used the title (now just as unreal as their other claims) until their extinction in 1807.

cotland and France

Norman or French culture first gained a foothold in Scotland during the Davidian Revolution, when King David I introduced Continental-style reforms throughout all aspects of Scottish life, social, religious, economic and administrative. He also invited immigrant French and Anglo-French peoples to Scotland. This effectively created a Franco-Scottish aristocracy, with ties to the French aristocracy as well as many to the Franco-English aristocracy. From the Wars of Scottish Independence, as common enemies of England and its ruling House of Plantagenet, Scotland and France started to enjoy a close diplomatic relationship, the Auld Alliance, from 1295 to 1560. From the Late Middle Ages and into the Early Modern Period Scotland and its burghs also benefited from close economic and trading links with France in addition to its links to the Low Countries, Scandinavia and the Baltic.

The first and only prospect of dynastic union came in the 16th century, when the King of Scotland, James V, married two French brides in succession. His daughter, Mary, succeeded him on his death in 1542, and Scotland was ruled by a French noblewoman as regent. She succeeded in marrying her daughter to the child Dauphin Francis, who thus became nominal King of Scotland; when he succeeded as King of France in 1559, France and Scotland were tentatively united in a kind of personal union. Had Francis survived to have a son with Mary, their child would have become King of both France and Scotland (and later of England as well); but in fact Francis died in 1560, and Mary returned to a Scotland heaving with political revolt and religious revolution, which made a continuation of the alliance impossible.

Cordial economic and cultural relations did continue however, although throughout the 17th century, the Scottish establishment became increasingly Presbyterian, often belligerent to Roman Catholicism, a facet which was somewhat at odds with Louis XIV's aggressively Catholic foreign and domestic policy. The relationship was further weakened by the Union of the Crowns in 1603, which meant from then on that although still independent, executive power in the Scottish government, the Crown, was shared with the Kingdom of England and Scottish foreign policy came into line more with that of England than with France.

Modern concepts

Entente Cordiale (1904)

In April 1904, the United Kingdom and the Third French Republic signed a series of agreements marking the end of centuries of intermittent conflict between the two colonial powers, and the start of a peaceful co-existence. Although French historian Fernand Braudel described England and France as a single unit, nationalist political leaders from both sides were uncomfortable with the idea of such a merging.

World War II (1940)

On 16 June 1940, during World War II with French military collapse imminent in the Battle of France, Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered a solemn Union to France in which the proposed constitution would establish joint organs of defense, foreign, financial and economic policies. The government of France, under Philippe Petain, did not respond before accepting an armistice from Germany.

Suez Crisis (1956)

In September 1956, during the Suez Crisis due to a common foe an Anglo-French Task Force was created. French Prime Minister Guy Mollet proposed a union between the United Kingdom and the French Union with Elizabeth II as head of state and a common citizenship. As an alternative, Mollet proposed that France join the Commonwealth of Nations. British Prime Minister Anthony Eden rejected both proposals and France went on to join the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community and strengthened the Franco-German cooperation. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/15/nfrance115.xml] [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/europe/article1293250.ece]

Frangleterre (2007)

When the Mollet proposal was first made public in the United Kingdom on 15th January 2007 through an article by Mike Thomson published on the BBC News' website [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6261885.stm "When Britain and France nearly married", Mike Thomson, BBC News, January 15 2007] ] , it received rather satirical treatment in the media of both countries, including the unhappy name, coined by the BBC, of Frangleterre (merging "France" with "Angleterre", which is the French word for 'England'). The UK broadcaster stated that Mollet's proposal originated from newly declassified material, arguing no such archive documents exist in France.

On 16th January 2007 during a LCP television programme French journalist Christine Clerc asked former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua (Gaullist) about Mollet's 1956 proposal. Pasqua answered, "if his demand had been made official, Mollet would have been brought to trial for high treason". [ [http://www.lcpan.fr/emission.asp?seriemission=200039_____quest_devenu_le_gaullisme__16-01-2007_211190 "Où? Quand? Comment? l'Histoire: Qu'est devenu le Gaullisme?", Jean-Pierre Gratien, Charles Pasqua, Christine Clerc, Alain-Gérard Slama, broadcasted on LCP public channel, January 16, 2007] ]

Notes

See also

* Anglo-French relations
* Gallic Empire
* Carausian Revolt

External links

* [http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1940/400616a.html British offer of Franco-British Union]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,978645,00.html Britain fights on]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1990794,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12 France and UK considered 1950s 'merger']
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070115.shtml An unlikely marriage]
* [http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/17/news/letter.php Letter From Britain: Darker realities behind Britons' longing for Frangleterre]
* [http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/societe/2007/01/15/005-france-gb-union.shtml?prov=ms&ref=ms Le rêve inachevé de la Franglettere]
* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0094%28197407%299%3A3%3C27%3APTDTBO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I&size=SMALL Prelude to Downfall: The British Offer of Union to France, June 1940]