French Invasions of Britain and Ireland, 1797–1798  
The Revolutionaries and Spies who Sought to Topple the Government of King George
Author(s): Paul L Dawson
Published by Pen and Sword
Publication Date:  Available in all formats
ISBN: 9781399068109
Pages: 0

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ISBN: 9781399068109 Price: INR 1695.99
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Not since 1066 – at least in popular myth – has an enemy force set foot on British soil. The Declaration of War with Revolutionary France in 1793 changed all that. In Ireland, the desire for home rule led Irish republicans to seek support from France and like-minded radicals in England. The scene was set for the most dangerous period in British history since William the Conqueror.

Irish dreams of independence, and of Revolutionary France’s goal of securing her borders against the monarchies of Europe, coalesced. What better way of keeping Britain out of a war if her troops were tied down in Ireland? If the French could support an Irish Revolution, this would ensure the British Crown would be more focused on internal security than fighting overseas. The French, with a network of secret agents in Ireland and England, made their preparations for invasion

The invasion plan had been prepared by the English-born American political activist, philosopher, theorist and revolutionary Thomas Paine, whose writings had helped inspire the Americans to fight for independence from Britain. Paine sought to seize on discontent in England against the government of William Pitt and the increasing radicalism fostered by Wolfe Tone in Ireland for home rule, to topple the government, and bring about an Irish and English Republic.

A network of spies spread out across the England, Scotland and Ireland gathering information for the French and arming radical groups. Everything was set for an invasion. Mad King George’s throne was set to be toppled, Charles James Fox installed as leader of the embryonic English Republic, while Ireland, under Wolfe Tone, would have home rule – so too Scotland.

But it took six years for the French to finally mount their attacks upon Britain. And when the invasions were eventually launched, they crumbled into chaos. This book seeks to charts the events that led up to the French invasion of Ireland in 1798, and how the invasion was foiled by William Pitt’s own web of secret agents. William Huskisson, best known for being killed at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, led a dangerous life as a spy master, whose agents foiled the French at every step.

Drawing on documents in the French Army Archives, as well as the records of the French Foreign Ministry and The National Archives in London, the largely forgotten story of the last invasion of Britain in 1797, as well as the final act of 1798, is revealed. Key documents are the campaign diary of the French commander from 1798, General Humbert, which has never been published in French or English. This, then, is the complete untold story of the French invasions and their sabotage, told for the first time in some 200 years.
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Not since 1066 – at least in popular myth – has an enemy force set foot on British soil. The Declaration of War with Revolutionary France in 1793 changed all that. In Ireland, the desire for home rule led Irish republicans to seek support from France and like-minded radicals in England. The scene was set for the most dangerous period in British history since William the Conqueror.

Irish dreams of independence, and of Revolutionary France’s goal of securing her borders against the monarchies of Europe, coalesced. What better way of keeping Britain out of a war if her troops were tied down in Ireland? If the French could support an Irish Revolution, this would ensure the British Crown would be more focused on internal security than fighting overseas. The French, with a network of secret agents in Ireland and England, made their preparations for invasion

The invasion plan had been prepared by the English-born American political activist, philosopher, theorist and revolutionary Thomas Paine, whose writings had helped inspire the Americans to fight for independence from Britain. Paine sought to seize on discontent in England against the government of William Pitt and the increasing radicalism fostered by Wolfe Tone in Ireland for home rule, to topple the government, and bring about an Irish and English Republic.

A network of spies spread out across the England, Scotland and Ireland gathering information for the French and arming radical groups. Everything was set for an invasion. Mad King George’s throne was set to be toppled, Charles James Fox installed as leader of the embryonic English Republic, while Ireland, under Wolfe Tone, would have home rule – so too Scotland.

But it took six years for the French to finally mount their attacks upon Britain. And when the invasions were eventually launched, they crumbled into chaos. This book seeks to charts the events that led up to the French invasion of Ireland in 1798, and how the invasion was foiled by William Pitt’s own web of secret agents. William Huskisson, best known for being killed at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, led a dangerous life as a spy master, whose agents foiled the French at every step.

Drawing on documents in the French Army Archives, as well as the records of the French Foreign Ministry and The National Archives in London, the largely forgotten story of the last invasion of Britain in 1797, as well as the final act of 1798, is revealed. Key documents are the campaign diary of the French commander from 1798, General Humbert, which has never been published in French or English. This, then, is the complete untold story of the French invasions and their sabotage, told for the first time in some 200 years.
Table of contents
  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • Prologue
  • Chapter 1 The Road to Revolution
  • Chapter 2 The Revolutionaries
    • The London Corresponding Society
  • Chapter 3 The Rights of Man
    • The Bishop of Autun
  • Chapter 4 Agent Provocateurs
  • Chapter 5 Thomas Attwood Digges
    • Why Wakefield?
    • Who was Digges Working For?
    • Clandestine Book Distribution
  • Chapter 6 Tom’s ‘Truth’
    • White’s Hotel
    • Pitt’s Response
  • Chapter 7 Invading Ireland
    • Thomas Paine
    • The Mission of Colonel Oswald
    • Enter William Duckett
    • The Mission of Richard Ferris
    • A Scottish Republic
  • Chapter 8 The Fatal Naïvety of the Revd William Francis Jackson
    • The Treason Trials
  • Chapter 9 Exporting Revolution
    • Paris
    • The United Threat
    • United Colombia
  • Chapter 10 Order from Chaos
    • The Mission of Eugene Aherne
    • The Return of Wolfe Tone
    • Scotland Forever
    • The Aborted Mission of Eugene Aherne
    • Enter Fitzgerald
  • Chapter 11 England and Scotland
    • The Invasion that Never was
  • Chapter 12 Planning Invasion
    • The Mission of Bernard MacSheehy
    • Royalist Agents
  • Chapter 13 Bantry Bay
    • Colonel Tate and ‘Chouanization’
    • Invasion
  • Chapter 14 Failure
    • Hoche Returns
    • Mutiny!
    • The French Response.
    • Dr William James MacNeven.
    • Coup and Plot
  • Chapter 15 Scotland
    • Thomas Muir
  • Chapter 16 The Mission of Father O’Coigly
    • Bonaparte
    • William Duckett
  • Chapter 17 English Revolution is Planned
    • The United Englishmen
    • Arrests are Made
  • Chapter 18 Rebellion and Invasion
    • Humbert’s Invasion.
    • Napper Tandy
  • Chapter 19 The Fate of Wolfe Tone
    • The Secret Expedition
    • Duckett’s Mission
    • Reflection
  • Chapter 20 Coping with Defeat
    • Planning Invasion
    • General Humbert Returns
    • The Mission of Charles Cavan
    • New Arrivals
    • Dr Robert Watson
    • Coup d’État
  • Chapter 21 Famine?
    • Napoléon and General Napper Tandy
    • Exploiting Chaos
  • Chapter 22 England and Ireland?
    • Submarines and Sedition
    • Despard’s Coup
    • Paris
  • Chapter 23 Emmet’s Rebellion
    • The Black Lamp
    • Rebellion in Ireland
    • The Last-Chance Saloon
    • DuPont d’Erval
    • Paris
  • Chapter 24 The Invasion that Never Was
    • Hervey Montmorency Morres
    • Humbert Once More
  • Chapter 25 The Failed Revolution of 1812
    • General Hoche’s Ghost
    • The Revolutionaries.
  • Chapter 26 Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Select Bibliography
  • Plates Section
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