That Sweet Enemy...

"The English hate the French. Who reciprocate … A pureé of prejudice on a bed of inherited loathing." Such was the no-nonsense verdict of a reputable French magazine a few years ago. Whether intelligent or stupid, people have indeed been prone for centuries to assume the worst of everyone on the other side of the Channel, that stretch of water which is far too narrow to allow for good neighbors. Certainly, each nation has formed its identity in some measure through competition with the other.

For the British, France was the country from whose northern ports might originate invasion and conquest. This fear necessitated a standing defense policy, and a diplomacy to ensure that the Low Countries and the German states were neutral, or better still, allies. Conversely, the French had to try to dominate the Low Countries, and encourage the Irish and the Scots to rebel and help break up the United Kingdom. French rulers from Louis XIV to Napoleon kept on repeating this strategy, attempting but botching no less than six invasions in that whole period. During this second Hundred Years War, the English monarchs were actually Hanoverian, that is, of German extraction...."

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