French Invasions of Britain and Ireland, 1797-1798: The Revolutionaries and Spies who Sought to Topple the Government of King George

1-240920

Irish dreams of independence, and of Revolutionary France's goal of securing her borders against the monarchies of Europe, coalesced. What better way of keeping Britain out of a war if her troops were tied down in Ireland? If the French could support an Irish Revolution, this would ensure the British Crown would be more focused on internal security than fighting overseas. The French, with a network of secret agents in Ireland and England, made their preparations for invasion.

A network of spies spread out across the England, Scotland, and Ireland gathering information for the French and arming radical groups. Everything was set for an invasion. But it took six years for the French to finally mount their attacks upon Britain. And when the invasions were eventually launched, they crumbled into chaos. This book seeks to charts the events that led up to the French invasion of Ireland in 1798, and how the invasion was foiled by William Pitt's own web of secret agents. William Huskisson, best known for being killed at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, led a dangerous life as a spy master, whose agents foiled the French at every step.

Drawing on documents in the French Army Archives, as well as the records of the French Foreign Ministry and The National Archives in London, the largely forgotten story of the last invasion of Britain in 1797, as well as the final act of 1798, is revealed. Key documents are the campaign diary of the French commander from 1798, General Humbert, which has never been published in French or English. This, then, is the complete untold story of the French invasions and their sabotage, told for the first time in some 200 years.