Right-Wing Refugees and British Politics, 1830-1871

This thesis investigates the role of right-wing refugees in British politics during the middle years of the nineteenth century, considering the relationships which these refugees established with British politicians, and the difficulties which their multifarious activities created for the makers of British foreign policy. Whereas the contribution of left-wing refugees to British politics and diplomacy during the Victorian era has been considered at length by numerous historians, the relationships which their right-wing counterparts formed with British politicians and the diplomatic concerns which they created have found little attention. This thesis seeks to redress this imbalance by analysing an overlooked but nevertheless important series of networks and controversies in which these exiles became involved during the tumultuous middle years of the nineteenth century. The study first considers the largely diplomatic implications of the presence of the former Charles X of France and his court in Britain during 1830-32, before turning to the difficulties and opportunities which both the Carlist and Miguelite pretenders and their refugee supporters presented for British governments and politicians alike throughout the 1830s and 1840s. The next three chapters consider the apogee of refugee influence over British politics during the years 1848-50, when the victims of the European revolutions of 1848 intrigued with allies in both Britain and continental Europe alike. The final two chapters then chart the rise of the refugee Orléans branch of the French royal family into highly-regarded political actors, whilst considering the diplomatic implications of their presence in Britain. This study suggests that whereas left-wing refugees boasted a modest political legacy and provoked several international controversies, those of the right not only enflamed diplomatic dispute but often actively intervened in British high politics. It therefore posits that refugees played a far wider and more important role in nineteenth-century Britain than previously noted