"Perfidious Albion" is a pejorative phrase used within the context of
international relations diplomacy to refer to acts of diplomatic slights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances formed with other nation states) by monarchs or governments of the
United Kingdom (or
Great Britain prior to 1801, or
England prior to 1707) in their pursuit of self-interest.
Perfidious means not keeping one's faith or word (from the
Latin word perfidia), while Albion is an ancient and now poetic name for
Great Britain.
Origins and use
The use of the adjective "perfidious" to describe England has a long history; instances have been found as far back as the 13th century.[1] A very similar phrase was used in a sermon by 17th-century French
bishop and
theologianJacques-Bénigne Bossuet:[2]
'L'Angleterre, ah, la perfide Angleterre,
que le rempart de ses mers rendoit inaccessible aux Romains,
la foi du Sauveur y est abordée.
England, oh perfidious England,
Shielded against the Romans by her ocean ramparts,
Now receives the true faith.
The coinage of the phrase in its current form, however, is conventionally attributed to
Augustin Louis de Ximénès, a French-Spanish playwright who wrote it in a poem entitled "L'Ère des Français", published in 1793:
Attaquons dans ses eaux la perfide Albion.
Let us attack perfidious Albion in her waters.
In this context,
Great Britain's perfidy was political. In the early days of the
French Revolution, when the revolution aimed at establishing a
liberalconstitutional monarchy along British lines, many in Great Britain had looked upon the Revolution with mild favour. However, following the turn of the revolution to
republicanism with the overthrow and execution of
Louis XVI, Britain had allied itself with the other monarchies of Europe against the Revolution in France. This was seen by the revolutionaries in France as a "perfidious" betrayal.[3]
"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 catch-phrase was further popularized by its use in La Famille Fenouillard [
fr], 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 sentence mixes two major incidents in French history that can be related to the UK's perfidy: Joan of Arc, whose execution may have been due to English influence; and
Napoleon, who died in exile on Saint Helena. He may have died by being poisoned, according to the Swedish toxicologist
Sten Forshufvud.[4]) There is however, significant speculation that the use of
arsenic as a dye may be related to Napoleon's death.[5]
In German-speaking areas, the term "das perfide Albion" became increasingly frequent, especially during the rule of the
German Empire (1871–1918) against the backdrop of rising British-German tensions.[6]
Examples of usage
The term often refers to the
Kingdom of England reneging on the
Treaty of Limerick of 1691, which ended the
Williamite War between the predominantly Roman Catholic
Jacobite forces and the English forces loyal to
William of Orange, giving favourable terms to the Irish Catholics, including the freedoms to worship, to own property and to
carry arms, but those terms were soon repudiated by the
Penal Laws of 1695.[7][8]
The Irish ballad "
The Foggy Dew" includes the term in its lyrics. The song concerns the
Easter Rising and the hypocrisy that England is concurrently fighting
World War I so that "Small Nations might be free", while Ireland's struggle for freedom is forcibly suppressed.[9][10]
Bastiat uses the term sarcastically in his satirical letter "The Candlemakers' Petition", first published in 1845.[12]
The
Italian term "perfida Albione" (perfidious Albion)[13] was used in the
propaganda of Fascist Italy to criticise the global dominion of the British Empire. Fascist propaganda depicted the British as ruthless colonialists, who exploited foreign lands and peoples to feed extravagant lifestyle habits like eating "five meals a day".[14] The term was used frequently in Italian politics after the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War, because despite having gained large colonial territories for itself, Britain approved of trade sanctions in the wake of Italian aggression against
Ethiopia. The sanctions were depicted as an attempt to deny Italy its "rightful" colonial dominions, while at the same time, Britain was trying to extend its own influence and authority.[15] The same term was used after World War I related to the so-called
mutilated victory.[16]
During the
Vichy French regime,
Philippe Petain made frequent use of the term "blood-soaked Perfidious Albion" and described the UK as the relentless "eternal enemy" of France. Such sentiments were exacerbated by the British
Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, which caused great bitterness in France and went a great way towards reinforcing the perfidious stereotype. Petain further regarded England as always having been France's most implacable enemy, with Vichy propaganda mixing Anglophobia with racism and anti-Semitism to portray the British as a racially degenerate "mixed race" working for Jewish capitalists, in contrast to the "racially pure" peoples on the continent of Europe who were building a "New Order."
In his book I'm Not the Only One (2004), British politician
George Galloway expressed the opinion that
Kuwait is "clearly a part of the greater Iraqi whole, stolen from the motherland by perfidious Albion".[20]
In 2012,
Fabian Picardo, the
Chief Minister of Gibraltar, used the phrase to describe the UK government's position on the
UN Decolonisation Committee: "Perfidious Albion, for this reason ... The position of the United Kingdom is as usual so nuanced that it's difficult to see where they are on the spectrum, but look that's what Britain's like and we all love being British".[21]
The term was used in reference to a possible
United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union in the run up to the
referendum on the issue in 2016. An article in the French newspaper Le Parisien claimed that a poll showing that only 54% of French people supported UK membership of the EU (compared to 55% of British people) showed that "the British will always be seen as the Perfidious Albion".[22] In contrast, the editor of the Financial Times,
Lionel Barber, has written that "Too many people in the UK are under the illusion that most European countries cannot wait to see the back of perfidious Albion."[23] Eventually,
the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU.[24]
In arguing for a "hard"
Brexit, and the EU rejecting a possible extension requested by the UK of the deadline to leave the EU, the Brexit-supporting British MP
Mark Francois said to the
Bruges Group in April 2019: "My message to the European Council ... If you now try to hold on to us against our will, you will be facing Perfidious Albion on speed. It would therefore be much better for all our sakes if we were to pursue our separate destinies, in a spirit of mutual respect."[25]
^Schmidt, H. D. (1953). "The Idea and Slogan of 'Perfidious Albion'". Journal of the History of Ideas. 14 (4): 604–616.
doi:
10.2307/2707704.
JSTOR2707704.
^Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, "Sermon pour la fête de la Circoncision de Notre-Seigneur" in: Oeuvres complètes, Volume 5, Ed. Outhenin-Chalandre, 1840,
p. 264
^H. James Burgwyn. "Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period 1918–1940". BJC McKercher and Keith Neilson (eds.), Praeger Studies of Foreign Policies of the Great Powers.
"Perfidious Albion" is a pejorative phrase used within the context of
international relations diplomacy to refer to acts of diplomatic slights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances formed with other nation states) by monarchs or governments of the
United Kingdom (or
Great Britain prior to 1801, or
England prior to 1707) in their pursuit of self-interest.
Perfidious means not keeping one's faith or word (from the
Latin word perfidia), while Albion is an ancient and now poetic name for
Great Britain.
Origins and use
The use of the adjective "perfidious" to describe England has a long history; instances have been found as far back as the 13th century.[1] A very similar phrase was used in a sermon by 17th-century French
bishop and
theologianJacques-Bénigne Bossuet:[2]
'L'Angleterre, ah, la perfide Angleterre,
que le rempart de ses mers rendoit inaccessible aux Romains,
la foi du Sauveur y est abordée.
England, oh perfidious England,
Shielded against the Romans by her ocean ramparts,
Now receives the true faith.
The coinage of the phrase in its current form, however, is conventionally attributed to
Augustin Louis de Ximénès, a French-Spanish playwright who wrote it in a poem entitled "L'Ère des Français", published in 1793:
Attaquons dans ses eaux la perfide Albion.
Let us attack perfidious Albion in her waters.
In this context,
Great Britain's perfidy was political. In the early days of the
French Revolution, when the revolution aimed at establishing a
liberalconstitutional monarchy along British lines, many in Great Britain had looked upon the Revolution with mild favour. However, following the turn of the revolution to
republicanism with the overthrow and execution of
Louis XVI, Britain had allied itself with the other monarchies of Europe against the Revolution in France. This was seen by the revolutionaries in France as a "perfidious" betrayal.[3]
"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 catch-phrase was further popularized by its use in La Famille Fenouillard [
fr], 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 sentence mixes two major incidents in French history that can be related to the UK's perfidy: Joan of Arc, whose execution may have been due to English influence; and
Napoleon, who died in exile on Saint Helena. He may have died by being poisoned, according to the Swedish toxicologist
Sten Forshufvud.[4]) There is however, significant speculation that the use of
arsenic as a dye may be related to Napoleon's death.[5]
In German-speaking areas, the term "das perfide Albion" became increasingly frequent, especially during the rule of the
German Empire (1871–1918) against the backdrop of rising British-German tensions.[6]
Examples of usage
The term often refers to the
Kingdom of England reneging on the
Treaty of Limerick of 1691, which ended the
Williamite War between the predominantly Roman Catholic
Jacobite forces and the English forces loyal to
William of Orange, giving favourable terms to the Irish Catholics, including the freedoms to worship, to own property and to
carry arms, but those terms were soon repudiated by the
Penal Laws of 1695.[7][8]
The Irish ballad "
The Foggy Dew" includes the term in its lyrics. The song concerns the
Easter Rising and the hypocrisy that England is concurrently fighting
World War I so that "Small Nations might be free", while Ireland's struggle for freedom is forcibly suppressed.[9][10]
Bastiat uses the term sarcastically in his satirical letter "The Candlemakers' Petition", first published in 1845.[12]
The
Italian term "perfida Albione" (perfidious Albion)[13] was used in the
propaganda of Fascist Italy to criticise the global dominion of the British Empire. Fascist propaganda depicted the British as ruthless colonialists, who exploited foreign lands and peoples to feed extravagant lifestyle habits like eating "five meals a day".[14] The term was used frequently in Italian politics after the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War, because despite having gained large colonial territories for itself, Britain approved of trade sanctions in the wake of Italian aggression against
Ethiopia. The sanctions were depicted as an attempt to deny Italy its "rightful" colonial dominions, while at the same time, Britain was trying to extend its own influence and authority.[15] The same term was used after World War I related to the so-called
mutilated victory.[16]
During the
Vichy French regime,
Philippe Petain made frequent use of the term "blood-soaked Perfidious Albion" and described the UK as the relentless "eternal enemy" of France. Such sentiments were exacerbated by the British
Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, which caused great bitterness in France and went a great way towards reinforcing the perfidious stereotype. Petain further regarded England as always having been France's most implacable enemy, with Vichy propaganda mixing Anglophobia with racism and anti-Semitism to portray the British as a racially degenerate "mixed race" working for Jewish capitalists, in contrast to the "racially pure" peoples on the continent of Europe who were building a "New Order."
In his book I'm Not the Only One (2004), British politician
George Galloway expressed the opinion that
Kuwait is "clearly a part of the greater Iraqi whole, stolen from the motherland by perfidious Albion".[20]
In 2012,
Fabian Picardo, the
Chief Minister of Gibraltar, used the phrase to describe the UK government's position on the
UN Decolonisation Committee: "Perfidious Albion, for this reason ... The position of the United Kingdom is as usual so nuanced that it's difficult to see where they are on the spectrum, but look that's what Britain's like and we all love being British".[21]
The term was used in reference to a possible
United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union in the run up to the
referendum on the issue in 2016. An article in the French newspaper Le Parisien claimed that a poll showing that only 54% of French people supported UK membership of the EU (compared to 55% of British people) showed that "the British will always be seen as the Perfidious Albion".[22] In contrast, the editor of the Financial Times,
Lionel Barber, has written that "Too many people in the UK are under the illusion that most European countries cannot wait to see the back of perfidious Albion."[23] Eventually,
the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU.[24]
In arguing for a "hard"
Brexit, and the EU rejecting a possible extension requested by the UK of the deadline to leave the EU, the Brexit-supporting British MP
Mark Francois said to the
Bruges Group in April 2019: "My message to the European Council ... If you now try to hold on to us against our will, you will be facing Perfidious Albion on speed. It would therefore be much better for all our sakes if we were to pursue our separate destinies, in a spirit of mutual respect."[25]
^Schmidt, H. D. (1953). "The Idea and Slogan of 'Perfidious Albion'". Journal of the History of Ideas. 14 (4): 604–616.
doi:
10.2307/2707704.
JSTOR2707704.
^Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, "Sermon pour la fête de la Circoncision de Notre-Seigneur" in: Oeuvres complètes, Volume 5, Ed. Outhenin-Chalandre, 1840,
p. 264
^H. James Burgwyn. "Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period 1918–1940". BJC McKercher and Keith Neilson (eds.), Praeger Studies of Foreign Policies of the Great Powers.