STRATFORD CANNING AND THE ROMANIAN PRINCIPALITIES

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to enrich the Romanian historiographical research concerning the British interest towards the Romanian Principalities in the nineteenth century. Historians such as Paul Cernovodeanu, Radu Florescu, Beatrice Marinescu and Constantin Ardeleanu presented us with different phases of this interest. Two of them, Marinescu and Florescu, also approached the subject of Stratford Canning`s preoccupation towards the Principalities, but Marinescu did not have access to the ambassador`s correspondence with the British State Secretary, the correspondence being at the Foreign Office Archives, while Florescu focused more on the British Consuls`activity in the Principalities than on the activity of the ambassador at Constantinople. Having access to the papers at the British Archives, this study comes to enrich the view of how the Principalities`space was perceived by Great Britain through the work and the diplomatic papers of a British ambassador in the capital of the suzerain power in a time when the Principalities were going through significant changes.

Keywords

• stratford canning
• romanian principalities
• british interests
• anglo-romanian relations