The war eventually fizzled out in France's favour but because no formal peace treaty was ever signed the English monarch continued to use the title 'King of France' for the next three centuries. After the French monarchy was abolished in 1792 and Napoleon came to power soon afterwards, the British agreed to come to an understanding with him and George III quietly dropped the title after the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland came into being in 1801.
For the next 12 years matters remained in abeyance and then trouble flared up again when the new French king demanded Edward III pay him homage for his French territories. Edward then countered by re-instating his claim to the French throne and so began the Hundred Years War. Edward originally intended to use his claim as a bargaining chip to obtain full sovereignty over his French territories. Eventually the French were forced to agree to this after King Jean II was captured in battle and taken to London as a prisoner. However when Jean's successor, Charles V reneged on his father's treaty with Edward the latter revived again his claim to the French throne and matters dragged on up until the reigns of Henry V and VI who were able to re-inforce what had become an evermore dubious claim (they after all had usurped the English throne from Richard II and his rightful heirs) by Henry V's defeat of the French in battle and forcing a new treaty on Charles VI, who was weakened by mental illness, to recognise Henry as his heir in place of his own son the Dauphin (there were widespread rumours that the latter was not the biological son of his father and Charles VI may have let this influence his willingness to agree to Henry V's terms). In the event Henry V predeceased Charles VI leaving only an infant son as his successor and the French took the opportunity to rally round the disinherited Dauphin championed by the likes of Joan of Arc and push back against English domination.
Thanks, I was unaware or forgot about those negotiations with the revolutionary government in France after the overthrow of the monarchy there. I should also have stated originally "English" rather than "British" as far as the claim to the title of King of France, since that existed from the time of Henrvy VI forward through the Act of Union and through the reign of George II. A bit odd though, how all reigning Queens from Mary I through Queen Anne actually used the style of "Queen of France" when France never has had a reigning Queen. Not even a French king could change that part to please Henry V.
The Act of Union 1707 declared the joining of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to a new Kingdom of Great Britain. They also styled themselves Queen/King of France; however, none of them made any official move to depose Louis XIV and his successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI, or the First French Republic that followed them. The monarchs were:
Queen Anne
King George I
King George II
King George III
During the French Revolution, the monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792, replaced with the French Republic. In the War of the First Coalition British–French negotiations were held in Lille from July to November 1797. The French demanded that the English monarch drop the title. James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury was prepared to omit it from the king's signature to the envisaged peace treaty but had not conceded further by the time the talks collapsed. In the Commons William Pitt the Younger called the title "a harmless feather, at most, in the crown of England" In 1800, the Act of Union joined the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland to a new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. George III chose this opportunity to drop his claim to the now defunct French throne, whereupon the fleurs-de-lis, part of the coat of arms of all claimant Kings of France since the time of Edward III was also removed from the British royal arms. Britain recognised the French Republic by the Treaty of Amiens of 1802. Dropping the French claim resulted in a change of status for the Channel Islands. The constitutional relationship of the Islands with Great Britain has never been enshrined in a formal constitutional document. Until 1802 this link existed through the Crown's French claim. Starting in 1802 the islands became British Crown dependencies.
238
Message Thread
« Back to index