An Ancient Quarrel Mutual Suspicion	An Ancient Quarrel Accusations of treachery still fly backward and forward over Britain's position in Europe. The subject arouses passion throughout the population and polarises political parties, particularly the Conservatives, making their return to office, for the time being at least, untenable. But why are relations with our closest neighbour so ambivalent. France is only 20 miles away, not more than 20 minutes by Eurostar or an hour by ship? Much of today's antagonism can be traced back to Henry VIII's reign (1509-47), and his break from Rome and Catholicism fuelled by papal refusal to allow him to divorce his first wife. For seven years from 1529, his Reformation Parliament enacted 137 statutes, and this zeal was, most significantly, directed at destroying the medieval church. ^TOP Although the Reformation and Protestantism had a significant place in Europe, such as with Martin Luther in Wittenberg, much of the continent remained loyal to the Pope. England's position became increasingly entrenched, cutting off payments to the Pope, and in 1533 with the Act of Restraint of Appeals decreeing 'this realm of England is an empire'. In 1534 financial ties with Rome were broken and the constitutional revolution was later formalised in the Act of Supremacy. This proclaimed Henry Tudor as the absolute 'Supreme Head of the Church of England', with divine law no longer considered to be supreme. Those clerics and monks who opposed Henry were executed, among them the lord chancellor Sir Thomas More. But public protests were ambiguous in their motives, as much inspired by social conflict as by enthusiasm for Rome. Monasteries were destroyed and their property confiscated, filling Henry's coffers, but by 1603 most of the land had to be sold in the aftermath of wars and foreign policy. However, this spread in ownership of former church property meant there was a huge number of people with a strong incentive to rally attacks on papal Catholicism. ^TOP This legacy, plus persistent wars over the centuries between England and Continental European countries, particularly France, laid the foundations for continuing cross-Channel distrust. In 1558 England had lost control of Calais in a battle with France, but English support for the Protestant Huguenots in a struggle with the Catholic League and the Catholic monarchy during the French Wars of Religion from 1562 to 1598 nearly destroyed the French state. Between 1627 and 1629, Britain was again at war struggling for European supremacy with France, where the merciless Cardinal Richelieu served as chief minister under Louis XIII. Unrest continued after the English beheaded Charles I in 1649 and in the years leading up to the transfer to power from the monarch to parliament with the Glorious Revolution and the Bill of Rights in 1689, which finally brought to an end the fear of Catholic succession. ^TOP Mutual Suspicion The French supported the American colonies against the English in the 1775-1776 War of Independence. England's aristocrats, in turn, helped their French counterparts who suffered at the hands of the French Revolution in 1789. So when, in 1798, Napoleon massed his Army of England on the Channel coast, the English fully expected an invasion. Calling the country to arms, the prime minister William Pitt the younger knew that the country's ragged army was no match for the French. The Royal Navy ruled the water, however, and Napoleon abandoned the invasion. Instead of direct attack on England, Napoleon went for an assault on the country's economic interests in Egypt. This culminated in Horatio Nelson's famous destruction of the French fleet in the Nile. A long struggle between the two countries for control of various European and worldwide economic interests then followed, during which time France under Napoleon came to dominate most of the Continent. ^TOP As much as anything else, it is a difference in approach to ideas that has characterised the conflicts between France and England. Baron Charles Montesquieu (1689-1755), for example, satirised French pre-revolutionary society and held up the model of the English division of state powers between the executive (government), legislative and judicial bodies as most beneficial for individual liberty. Others in the Age of Enlightenment, from Descartes, Locke and Newton to Voltaire, Rousseau and Hume were to make similar comparisons. This fuelled revolutionary fervour in France and America, inspired writers and politicians such as Paine and Jefferson, and added to the mutual suspicions of the two countries facing each other across La Manche. Today the UK constitution, setting out the relations between the executive, legislature and judiciary, is based on convention and custom stretching back 1,000 years. UK laws are largely the product of judicial rulings. In France the written constitution and its laws flow from the Civil Code, the Code Napoleon. The English are subjects of the Queen, while most people in Europe are citizens of a republic. ^TOP Anti-Europeans argue that the 300 relatively tolerant and settled years in England since the Glorious Revolution would be compromised by closer and cultural ties with countries in Europe that over the same period veered in and out of ruthless dictatorships. Pro-Europeans argue that without an empire, England must look to her closest neighbours to survive in the world of multinationals and global capitalism. They consider the constitution is in need of urgent modernising along the lines of the more recent models in mainland Europe. In short, England's state may have been advanced in the 18th century, but now is woefully behind the times. ^TOP