Franco-British History
10 November 2011
Stéphane Jettot (Paris 4-Sorbonne), autour de son livre, Servir le roi et la nation. Représentation diplomatique et représentation parlementaire dans l’Angleterre de la Restauration (1660-1702) (PUPS,  2011).

Note: This podcast is in French

Abstract Translation: England under the Restoration continues to be traversed by deep tensions inherited from the Civil War. A key issue debated in Parliament in London, in cities and pamphlets, revolves around the performance. In addition to the reflections of Hobbes or Locke, we remember the failure of the Anglican Church to represent all the Protestants, the failure of the last Stuarts to embody the various and conflicting interests of their subjects or the growing suspicions in the population vis-à-vis the elite members. Similarly, in the diplomatic field, the allies of England question the reliability of their partners and enemies working to maintain the conflict within the court and Parliament. The Glorious Revolution, placing the country in the camp of the allied powers against Louis XIV, raised some uncertainties, but the debate continues about the limits of the royal prerogative, the place of ministerial or how to arbitrate religious interests, commercial or colonial. These well-known problems are revisited from the study of a small group of members whose common point is to combine both a seat in the House of Commons and experience in the embassies on the continent. Their family papers, speeches in Parliament and Europe and their memories can be a personal point of view and concrete on the interactions between domestic crises and diplomatic negotiations in the England of the last Stuarts.

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