On 11th March 2025, in the Gazette Brasserie, at the Institut Français, members of the Franco-British Society had the pleasure to attend a lecture – “Louis XVIII and George IV, friends, allies and fathers of the Entente Cordiale” by author and historian Philip Mansel.
The talk was followed by a buffet lunch.
We would like to thank Philip Mansel for such a fascinating talk and people from Gazette Brasserie for hosting us.
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Lecture “Louis XVIII and George IV, friends, allies and fathers of the Entente Cordiale” by author and historian Philip Mansel, Franco-British Society literary award winner 2019
The entente cordiale is older than we think. The Anglophilia of Louis XVIII, the last king to die on the French throne, equalled the Francophilia of George IV. Louis XVIII knew English history, literature and language ‘perfectly’,followed Castlreagh’s secret instructions about his Declaration to the French in 1813, considered the interests of France and Britain as ‘inseparable’, and welcomed thousands of British visitors to Paris after his restoration, sometimes blowing kisses to them in the street. For his part the Prince Regent, later George IV, decorated his palaces like French palaces, promised Louis XVIII as early as 1808 not to make peace with France until he had restored the Bourbons to the throne, and organised triumphal receptions for Louis XVIII in London in 1811 and 1814. From Louis XVIII’s restoration (except during the Hundred Days,) long before Palmerston first used the term entente cordiale in 1831, France and Britain acted as allies in Europe. |
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Philip Mansel
Philip Mansel’s books include lives of Louis XVIII (1981) and Louis XIV (2019), for which he won th Franco-British Society’s book prize, a book on Napoleon’s court, The Eagle in Splendour (reprint 2015) and a history of Paris after 1814, Paris between Empires (2001). Seven of his books have been translated into French. He has lied and studied in Paris and is a committee member of the Society for Court Studies, the Centre de Recherche du Chateau de Versailles, and the Levantine Heritage Foundation, and Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et Lettres. He will be speaking on Louis XVIII and Wellington to the Wellington Association at the East India Club at 6pm on 7 May. For more information about Philip Mansel - http://www.philipmansel.com/ |