Britain, Europe, and the world

Abstract

Abstract There are few greater myths in British history than ‘our island story’, not least because ‘Britain’ is not an island, but an archipelago. In 1603 the union of the crowns between England and Scotland combined with the successful imposition of effective English military control throughout Ireland created for the first time-on a governmental level at least-a single relationship with the outside world. Before 1603 the position was far more complex. In 1500 England’s relations both within and without the British Isles were still defined by what were essentially feudal relationships of considerable antiquity. The most important of these was the English crown’s substantial if fluc tuating interests in France. In 1340 Edward III had laid claim to the crown of France itself, a claim revived by Henry V in 1420 and not abandoned by his successors until 1801. It was to prevent an English succession that the ‘Salic Law’, which barred claims to the French crown by the female line, had been invented. In 1453 the French possessions had been reduced to the Pale of Calais and the Channel Islands, but the pretensions remained, even if Edward IV and Henry VII were prepared to barter them for a pension, whose symbolic value as tribute was more important than regularity of payment.