This volume is a comprehensive discussion of British diplomats and diplomacy in the formative period in which Britain emerged as the leading world power.

Number 16 in the Royal Society Guides and Handbooks series.

This is the first detailed and comprehensive study of British foreign policy before and during the war which led to the loss of the American colonies, a period from 1756 to 1783 in which Britain's position in Europe was transformed. H. M. Scott examines the nature and the role of British diplomacy in the age of the American Revolution in the context of Britain's other eighteenth-century conflicts. Two themes receive particular attention: Britain's continuing rivalry with the Bourbons, exemplified by the great crisis over the Falkland Islands in 1770-1, and the unsuccessful efforts to strengthen Britain diplomatically by concluding alliances with major Continental powers. Dr Scott has provided a major scholarly reassessment of British diplomacy in this period, analysing both the impact of the personalities involved, and the successes and failures of their policies.

Excerpt from Notes on the Diplomatic Relations of England and France, 1603-1688: Lists of Ambassadors From England to France and From France to England T1115 lists which follow have been compiled in order to facilitate the study of the relations of England and France during the Stuart period. The absence of any published lists of English ambassadors anterior to 1790 is a great obstacle to the sys tematic study of the foreign policy of Great Britain. The printed list of ambassadors originally inserted by Beatson in his Polz'lz'm/ [mic-tr, 1806, and continued by Haydn and Ockerby, begins with the year 1760. (see Haydn, Boo/e of Dz'gm'lies, ed. H. Ockerby, London, 1890, pp. 112 It is hoped some time to continue the present list from 1688 to 1760, and also to complete it by adding similar lists dealing with the relations of England to other European states. It seemed desirable, however, to print this as it stands, because it was needed for immediate use by pupils. For their benefit also an attempt has been made to show where the original despatches of each particular ambassador are to be found, and what part of them is accessible in print. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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