“The interests of our Allies”: Allied public diplomacy in Britain and the making of the Treaty of Utrecht

Abstract

Between late summer 1711, when secret Anglo-French negotiations to end the War of the Spanish Succession became public, and the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in April 1713, Britain’s political discourse focused principally on the making of peace. While this discourse has been closely studied, coinciding as it did with the emergence of Habermas’s model public sphere, the role of Britain’s Allies in it has received relatively little attention. Following recent studies in the field of public diplomacy, this paper seeks to redress the balance, demonstrating how the Allies intervened in British political discourse to influence public opinion, Parliament and the negotiations in pursuit of their diplomatic objectives.

Keywords

• War of the Spanish Succession
• Treaty of Utrecht
• public opinion
• political discourse