Universal Monarchy

The English feared that Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, would create a Universal Monarchy in Europe, and devoted their efforts to frustrating this goal.

While Spain had been the dominant world power in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the English had often sided with France as a counterweight against them. This design was intended to keep a European balance of power, and prevent one country gaining overwhelming supremacy. Key to English strategy, was the fear that a Universal Monarchy of Europe would be able to overwhelm the British Isles.

Following the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, as Spain's power weakened, France began to take on a more assertive role under the 'Sun King' Louis XIV of France with an expansionist policy both in Europe and across the globe. English foreign policy was now directed towards preventing France gaining supremacy on the continent and creating a Universal Monarchy. To the French, England was an isolated and piratical nation heavily reliant on naval power, and particularly privateers which they referred to as Perfidious Albion.

There was a sharp diversion in political philosophies in the two states. In England a king, Charles I, had been executed during the English Civil War for exceeding his powers, and another, James II of England, had been overthrown in the Glorious Revolution. In France the power of the monarchs and their advisors went largely unchecked.

England and France fought each other in the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697) which set the pattern for relations between France and Great Britain during the eighteenth century. Wars were fought intermittently, with each nation part of a constantly shifting pattern of alliances known as the stately quadrille.

Formation of Great Britain

The Act of Union was passed in 1707 partly to unify Great Britain against the perceived French threat.

Partly out of fear of a continental intervention the Act of Union was passed, that created the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, formally merging England (and Wales) with Scotland. While the new Britain grew increasingly parliamentarian, France continued its system of absolute monarchy.

The newly united Britain fought France in the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1713), and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), attempting to maintain the balance of power in Europe. The British had a massive navy but maintained a small land army, so Britain always acted on the continent in alliance with other states such as Prussia and Austria as they were unable to fight France alone. Equally France, lacking a superior navy, was unable to ever launch a successful invasion of Britain.

The War of the Austrian Succession was one of several wars in which states tried to maintain the European balance of power.

France lent support to the Jacobite pretenders who claimed the British throne, hoping that a restored Jacobite monarchy would be inclined to be more pro-French. Despite this support the Jacobites failed to overthrow the Hanoverian monarchs.

As the century wore on, there was a distinct passage of power to Britain and France, at the expense of traditional major powers such as Portugal, Spain and the Dutch Republic. Some observers saw the frequent conflicts between the two states during the eighteenth century as a battle for control of Europe, through most of these wars ended without a conclusive victory for either side. France largely had greater influence on the continent while Britain posed more of a threat to French colonies abroad due to its greater naval superiority.