How did the French Revolution affect

England?
The French Revolution (1789 – 1799), had a deep and lasting
impact upon the whole of Europe, profoundly challenging
traditional notions of authority and political power. Many in
England were inspired by the movement’s core ideals of social
equality and popular sovereignty, believing that a new era of
political change had been heralded. Members of the
establishment, however, felt a fundamental threat from these
new ways of thinking, and the heated debate that followed
would provoke a substantial literary and political response from
all sections of society.
Immediate political effect
In the early months and years of the revolution, several English observers drew
comparisons with the American Revolution which had taken place a decade earlier,
seeing both events as popular uprisings against unfair taxation and authoritarian rule.

More conservative critics disagreed, some taking the view – compellingly articulated by
the prominent Whig politician Edmund Burke – that the French Revolution was of a
wholly different character from its predecessor, and that its sudden and sweeping
changes could only result in catastrophe. Burke’s argument not only served to rally
critics of the revolution, it also provided a focal point around which politically radical
thinkers were able to centre their attacks upon the British establishment.

The execution of Louis XVI in 1793 and the bloody events of The Terror were seen by
some to realise Burke’s predictions, but many continued to believe in the ideals on
which the revolution had been founded. Britain’s decision to go to war with France, in
coalition with other European states, received strong criticism from these individuals,
although the increasingly aggressive conduct of the French Republic in later years
silenced much opposition.

Literary impact
The French Revolution had demonstrated the real possibility of large-scale political
change, and this profoundly influenced the literature subsequently produced in Britain.
Notions of personal freedom and the role of the state permeate the novels, poems, and
plays of the period, with many of them containing vivid commentaries on the political
significance of events over the Channel.

The Romantic movement

The French Revolution is also more broadly associated with the origins of the Romantic
movement in Britain, the start of which is commonly dated to 1789, the year of the
revolution. Romanticism, with its rejection of established conventions of literary and
artistic taste, mirrors the French revolutionaries’ overturning of the ancient political
systems and traditions of the monarchy.

Lyrical Ballads
This aspect of Romanticism is embodied in William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s 1798 collection of poetry, Lyrical Ballads, one of the best-known and most
influential works of the movement. The poems of this collection, many of which were
composed whilst the two poets were staying in rural Somerset, avoid the often florid and
mannered language of their popular contemporaries, aiming instead for a more natural
and unaffected tone.

Wordsworth and Coleridge’s approach was subsequently felt by many to have captured
the spirit of the age, echoing the scepticism towards inherited customs and prejudices
that the French Revolution had championed.

Lasting influence
The revolution continued to have a strong influence on British society well into the
nineteenth century, fuelling public debate about political reform and the role of
government. A large number of political emigrants from France had made their home in
Britain in the years after the revolution, markedly changing the character of some of the
areas in which they settled.

Art and furniture, which had been taken out of France by the fleeing nobility and
bourgeoisie, also found its way into Britain over the following decades. The revolution
became a subject that fascinated historians and collectors well into the nineteenth
century, some of whom, notably Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, brought together
collections which document the period.