A History of England

Last time, we looked at the developing impact of the French Revolution, but mostly from the French point of view. We saw how France slipped towards increasing violence in its politics and eventually into war. And then how, despite suffering many defeats, it also managed a surprising victory allowing it to launch a counter-invasion against its enemies. This time, we see how Britain had to cope with...

We’re into the slide into the most destructive of the series of wars of that rocked the eighteenth century. It would be a war that had a devastating effect on most of Europe. It was also the last war between Britain and France, and by far the biggest. But, oddly enough, in the run up to it William Pitt had worked hard, and with an apparently high degree of success, to rebuild Britain’s status as a...

The French Revolution! A turning point in the history of the world. Or so it’s frequently claimed. But in the myth-busting spirit of this podcast, this episode questions that belief, without denying that the wars to which the revolution led had a pretty dramatic impact. At least in Europe, though claiming that a European event changed the world may be a slight overreach. It also takes a look at ho...

The mid-1780s were a good time for Pitt. He’d mastered the nation’s finances and cleverly manoeuvred government spending not just into balance, but into surplus, despite spending more on the navy than before. Even the Opposition had to congratulate him. He was facing down the French and he was bringing the possessions in India more firmly under Britain’s control. Even after the king went mad, he c...

Like so many good things, this one could have some fairly lousy consequences. Just like the United States, if not quite to the same extent, Britain after the War of American Independence was pushing forward the notion of limited government. The king, while still powerful, couldn’t do just what he wanted. So while he’d campaigned hard to get his man, William Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister, it h...

Losing an Empire? Not a problem if you’re the world power Britain was in the late eighteenth century. You just have to build a new one. In part that would come from new journeys of so-called discovery (the people in the ‘discovered’ lands didn’t think they’d been undiscovered before the Europeans showed up). The most famous of the British explorers was Captain James Cook, whose sad end showed that...

As we emerge from the serious instability in Britain caused by the defection of the American colonies and the war that followed, and as we stand on the brink of Britain’s pursuit of a second empire to replace the first, we pause for a moment to talk about Adam Smith, a man whose ideas have rung down the centuries to today. It turns out they’re not exactly what many of his admirers might suggest. B...

After a period of serious instability, the fifth government in a period of a mere two years secured itself a position in which it would last for the best part of two decades. The process was a particularly curious one, since it involved what has been referred to as a coup d’état by the king against his own government. That succeeded only thanks for the clever work of the monarch, and above all of...

While there’s much talk about the huge gains made by the American colonists, and the triumphant launching of the United States of America, far less is generally said about the effect of the American war in the mother country itself. Since Britain was also fighting France, Spain and Holland, the impact on its economy was massive, and on the political establishment if anything even more massive. Loy...

With the fall of Lord North’s government, king George III found himself obliged to submit to the authority of parliament and appoint a government led by the Marquess of Rockingham, a man he deeply disliked and distrusted. His resentment was all the deeper because Rockingham, almost certainly at the urging of his secretary the remarkable Edmund Burke, laid down conditions for the formation of the g...

We’ve seen how the British war in North America led to yet another world war, and how that war then reacted back on the American fighting by, in effect, making the victory of the rebel colonists ultimately all but certain. In this episode, we think about what the impact of all that was on life in Britain itself. There, it played a huge role in the never-ending battle between royal and parliamentar...

What led to the British defeat in North America? Was it a battle at Yorktown in Virginia, brilliantly won by George Washington and the Count of Rochambeau's American and French armies? And did that victory at Yorktown immediately lead to US independence? This episode sets out to give the context to Yorktown and reinterpret the common narrative about the Franco-American victory. Essential to a new...

The revolting Americans, by the time of this episode, have decided they’ve had it right up to here with the Brits. It’s time to part company. So they adopt a Declaration of Independence, basically serving divorce papers on the Mother Country. Which refuses to sign them, of course, ensuring that the ugly dispute lasts another few years. As for that dispute, it goes on with the advantage swinging fr...

Enjoy the words of two remarkable people in England who battled on for the cause of conciliation between the home country and the colonists in America. Neither was listened to. This was a time when many in Britain wanted only to turn a deaf ear to the Americans and their concerns. Meanwhile, back out there, General Gage was still in command of a military force occupying Boston. He decided it was t...

It’s time for that exciting moment in American (and British) history, the Boston Tea Party. But tea, as well as being a commodity deeply rooted in the British soul, is also a wonderful link between the two wings of Britain’s growing Empire, India and North America. In India, of course, power was still being exercised by the East India Company. That had disastrous results in the subcontinent, and a...

The moment has arrived. The Americans are, at last, revolting. And it was far from inevitable. What made sure it would happen was the brainlessness of British leaders, most specifically in this episode, General Thomas Gage in America and Lord North in London. Gage landed troops in Boston to restore order. But putting an army amongst a resentful civilian population was never going to end well. And...

Faced with deepening and increasingly violent resistance to its rule in the American colonies, Britain's new Prime Minister, the Marquess of Rockingham, repealed the Stamp Act that had excited so much anger. William Pitt, in particular, spoke out forcefully against that Act, and Benjamin Franklin warned British parliamentarians of the difficulties ahead. However, Rockingham and even Pitt, still be...

The British government of the 1760s couldn’t complain that nobody had warned it of the catastrophic consequences of trying to inflict taxes on the American colonists, without their consent. 'American' was increasingly the right word for them, as various forces, including non-English immigration, began to change the nature of the population. Even so, they remained for the most part wedded to their...

Lord Bute, as Prime Minister, did what he could to attack the British public debt by reducing costs. But there were limits to how far he could go. Eventually, he needed to raise taxes too. With his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Pitt’s former friend and now political enemy George Grenville, he pushed through a tax on cider. Then, after Bute fell and was replaced by the same Grenville, it was time to...

It may not come as a surprise to discover that many authorities believe that, if you’re doing a long journey at sea, it can be helpful to know where you are. Working out your latitude was relatively simple and had been known for a long time before the eighteenth century. Longitude was another matter. The British government even put up a prize for the first to come up with a really viable solution....

You may like or loathe the British Empire. But if the aim was to build it, few people did it with such skill or such success as William Pitt the Elder when, at last, he found himself the driving force in government. However, to achieve his goal, he spent huge amounts of money, for which he drove up the national debt to levels many thought unacceptable, because unsustainable. And one of those peopl...

The second of our Two Young Men Unleashed , after James Wolfe, is Robert Clive. He too was of minor gentry background, but the resemblance ends there. His childhood was marked by some violence, courage, and even criminality: he ran a protection racket for a time. These qualities served him well as he emerged as an unexpectedly gifted soldier in the service, not of Britain, but of the British East...

The original jewel in the British imperial crown wasn't India but North America. And William Pitt the Elder, Prime Minister in all but name since our last episode, was going to make sure the armed forces there were up to the task of breaking the stranglehold of the French. That meant spending what was needed, but also making sure that forces were well-led. Pitt was ready to do whatever it took to...

An Admiral’s career reaches a sticky end as he’s shot to encourage the others to do better. A remarkable politician, denied advancement repeatedly, finally breaks through to power. Another war spreads across the world but, with fine leadership, this time Britain will spend the money necessary to make sure it’s truly decisive. It’s the beginning of the Seven Years’ War and the time of William Pitt...

In the uneasy peace between the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, Britain set about securing its growing imperial power. Central to it was its position in North America, as many visionaries saw, not least the then committed supporter of the Empire, Benjamin Franklin, in Pennsylvania. But that meant dealing with the French stranglehold around the British Colonies in what is now t...