England v France

When responding to a journalist asking about the comments by Marc Lièvremont, the French rugby coach in the week prior to the recent England v France Six Nations’ Championship match at Twickenham that his team and all the Six Nations sides hated England, Martin Johnson England’s coach said “There’s history to this.” Too right there is.

From the opening fixture in this long-running battle (which we the English lost comprehensively in 1066) hostilities have raged on and off for a thousand years. Let us not be fooled by the fact that we haven’t engaged our traditional enemy in warfare since 1815 nor by the anomalous twentieth century wars against Germany; France is and always has been our “bête noire.” I wonder if the French have a word for that………

As any good student of history knows, the destinies of England and that of France have been inextricably intertwined since the Norman Conquest. Under Angevin Plantagenet rule, England and vast swathes of modern France were administered by the same monarchs. Under Henry II (anyone remember Peter O’Toole and Catherine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter?) Angevin lands stretched from Ireland and the border with Scotland south across France as far as the Pyrenees; The Royal Demesne of France being restricted to Paris and the east of the country. Years of warfare with successive French Kings continued as the English monarchs took on a more distinctively nationalistic character and despite notable triumphs at Agincourt during the hundred years’ war in 1415 when English archers defeated numerically superior French forces, our lands in France were gradually reduced until 1558 under Mary Tudor when Calais was lost after 211 years of rule. Wars continued regularly throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries until Wellington finally put paid to Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.

When facing a common foe, we and the French have proved uneasy and ineffective allies. Jealousy and bitter rivalry characterised relations between Philip II and Richard the Lionheart during the third crusade in 1191 when the French withdrew after making little real contribution. After the Crimean War 1855-7, the interdict on Russia having a military presence in the Black Sea was undone by Napoleon III urged on by Bismarck. In the twentieth century we twice fought in France and twice helped rid them of occupying Germans. In return, de Gaulle blocked Britain’s first and second applications to join the Common Market in 1963 and 1967. Since then, French support for NATO and joint-US action in Iraq and Afghanistan has been distinctly lukewarm.

We are different: temperamentally; politically; economically and culturally. We have different ways of looking at the world and very different interests and yet our geographical proximity and shared history has provided a common thread. Voltaire was impressed by English liberties and English nineteenth century writers have admired French literature, particularly Balzac. But when it comes to serious things like rugby, foreign policy and war, it’s les rosbifs vs the frogs.

Since we’ve stopped fighting them on the battle field, few things give an Englishman more pleasure than beating them at rugby. England 17 France 9 February 26 Twickenham. Mind you, they will be a hard side to beat on neutral territory in New Zealand come the World Cup.