Isabelle Janvrin - The French in London : from William the conqueror to Charles de Gaulle

WILMINGTON SQUARE BOOKS

An imprint of Bitter Lemon Press

First published in 2016 by

Wilmington Square Books

47 Wilmington Square

London WC1X 0ET

www.bitterlemonpress.com

Copyright 2013 Editions Bibliomane

First published in 2013 by Editions Bibliomane, Paris

www.editionsbibliomane.com

Translated by Emily Read

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-90852-466-9

2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1

Designed and typeset by Jane Havell Associates

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

A city... in which Chateaubriand and Voltaires genius was awakened, where Louis-Napoleon dreamt of a new Europe, where Verlaine wept can such a city lack a soul?

PAUL MORAND

C oncealed within the great cosmopolitan metropolis that is London there lies a French city. Any visitor, whether French or English, wandering at random through its streets, could not fail to notice the many clues left behind: why do streets such as Beauchamp Place or Beaufort Street have French names? Why do the royal family have a French motto, Dieu et mon droit? How did so many French works of art end up in London collections? Why are there commemorative plaques to Voltaire, Rimbaud and Verlaine, and a statue of Marshal Foch in London? To find the answers one must go back to the eleventh century, when William of Normandy, a vassal of the king of France, invaded England in 1066 in order to claim his inheritance. This invasion, which brought with it the language and culture of France, was the only one ever to succeed, and it would transform the course of British history. It marked the beginning of a long-lasting and uneasy relationship between the two countries, constantly veering between admiration and mistrust.

Since that time, French men and women of all social classes and professions have flocked to Britain, greatly contributing to the wealth of the country and of London in particular. Although many are now forgotten, others are still remembered, and their stories reveal an aspect of the British character that is rarely described, namely the warmth of the welcome extended to its so-called traditional enemies, when they came in search of asylum: persecuted Huguenots, royalists escaping from the French Revolution, political exiles in the nineteenth century, right up to the Free French during the Second World War. As well as these refugees, hundreds of French artists, writers and intellectuals came to seek inspiration in London. It is impossible to mention any but a few of these French visitors, but short portraits of some of the most captivating or strange characters can bring to life some of those who left their mark on the city. Even Napoleon, although he never came to London, left his traces. An English reader might perhaps be surprised to learn about the French origins of such famous Britons as David Garrick, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Augustus Pugin as well as of the grandest hotels in London; also of how much the French influenced the renewal of English Catholicism in the nineteenth century.

After each chapter is a list of places (following the order of the text) in London and its outskirts where the French lived and worked an opportunity for some interesting and unusual expeditions.

A LASTING FRENCH INFLUENCE

England is an old French colony which turned out badly

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

A part from the dig at perfidious Albion, Clemenceaus description of England as an ancient colony of France has a certain historical accuracy. It takes us back to the beginning of the last millennium when, in 1002, the English king Ethelred married Emma of Normandy. She had several children, one of whom was known, because of his great piety, as Edward the Confessor. After his father was deposed by King Canute of Denmark in 1016, Edward spent thirty years in exile in Normandy, before being recalled to England in 1042, where he married Edith Godwinson. When he died without heirs on 4 January 1066, his wifes brother Harold, an important figure at the court, claimed, with the support of the English barons, that he had been promised the throne. He pretended to have forgotten that he had been sent to Normandy by Edward to offer the crown to his nephew William, and that he had sworn allegiance to him.

The result of this betrayal was the Norman conquest of England. William, outraged by the usurpers coronation at Westminster Abbey on 6 January 1066 and assured of support from the pope, crossed the Channel in September, and won a great victory at the Battle of Hastings where Harold was killed. William, henceforth known as the Conqueror, was crowned on Christmas Day 1066 in Westminster Abbey. It took him five years to establish his authority. The agitated atmosphere of these times can be illustrated by one tragic misunderstanding: just after the coronation the Norman soldiers posted around the Abbey took the shouts of acclamation for cries of revolt, and began setting fire to the surrounding houses. In the ensuing panic the congregation fled and the ceremony was brought to a hasty and undignified end.

The Normans had to deal with several uprisings between 1067 and 1071: they were just seven thousand men, facing a hostile population of between one and two million people. In this precarious situation and to protect the Thames valley, they built a series of fortresses in and around London, including Baynard Castle, Montfichet, the Tower of London and Windsor Castle. At the beginning of his reign, however, the Conqueror made no attempt to change existing institutions, and addressed his new subjects with these words: William, the King, salutes all the burghers in London, French or English, in a friendly fashion. And I would have you know that I wish to leave with you the enjoyment of all the laws that were yours at the time of King Edward. However, in the course of suppressing one revolt after another, the King gradually wiped out the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, and transferred their lands and the governance of the state and the church to Normans. By 1070 all Anglo-Saxon prelates had been replaced by Norman bishops. The kings friend and advisor, Abbot Lanfranc, from the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen, became Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 1086, William ordered a census of all property throughout the kingdom, in order to fix rates of taxation. In this extraordinary document everything in the country is listed, from buildings and lands to animals, windmills and even duck ponds. The Domesday Book reveals a huge transformation in the ownership of property: more than four thousand small Anglo-Saxon landowners had already been replaced by fewer than two hundred barons, mostly Norman. They all retained their possessions across the Channel, too England and Normandy would henceforth be a single state, dominated by the new Anglo-Norman aristocracy. That arrangment lasted until 1204, when John Lackland lost Normandy.

Introduction of a French feudal system

The Normans, having unified the country with their reforms, proceeded with the successful introduction of a French feudal system. The lord in his castle would ensure the protection of his people. In judicial matters, the local magistrates were replaced by a judge from the royal court assisted by a jury. The Confederation of the Cinque Ports organised coastal defences and transport between England and Normandy. French merchants and artisans developed commerce between England and the continent and their guilds were encouraged to organise the administration of the City of London, under the authority of the Lord Mayor. Romanesque and then Gothic art flourished and fortresses, churches, abbeys and public buildings were built throughout England. The addition of the territories of Anjou and then Aquitaine to the crowns possessions only served to increase the new masters cultural domination; henceforth, until the thirteenth century, the English aristocracy spoke French. The Normans encouraged universities in Oxford and Cambridge. Jean de Ballieul, descendant of an Anglo-Norman baron who arrived at the time of William Rufus and was the father of the king of Scotland, founded Balliol College in 1263. The French Queen Marguerite dAnjou, wife of Henry VI, founded Queens College in 1448. These early Norman monarchs strengthened their personal authority and that of the Crown, but in 1215 the unpopularity of John Lackland led the barons to impose the Magna Carta on him, putting an end to absolute monarchy.