A korzikai angol királyság, avagy a kölcsönös meg nem értés története
The English Kingdom of Corsica, or a history of mutual misunderstanding

Summary/Abstract: In the spring of 1794, the Corsican people declared their union with Great Britain. A special, short-lived state, the Anglo-Corsican kingdom was created. Its political backspace – a strong, revolutionary France, and Bonaparte’s successful Italian campaign – did not give a great chance of surviving to this little state. As well as due to the events of world history, the Anglo-Corsican state did not have a great future because of its serious inner conflicts. Since these two years were not successful stories for the participant nations, for the most part, English, French, and Corsican historical narratives ignore this episode. This paper tries to examine the political disturbances, conflicts of the island of Corsica, and attempts at their resolution in the years of 1794–1796. These projects aimed at dealing with the troubles proved totally unsuccessful. The main problem was the distance between the eighteenth-century English, and the contemporary Corsican society and politics. The English politicians, arriving in the island – such as Sir Gilbert Elliot –worshipped English parliamentarism, the whig political tradition, and the constitution, like idols. They were persuaded that the English constitution would be the sole remedy for all the Corsican problems, and the island was an extraordinary happy country for getting this constitution as a present. However, Corsica had an archaic society with the clan-system, banditism, and the tradition of the vendetta. Eighteenth-century Corsica was not able to put the English constitution into practice. This paper deals with the problems of the Catholic religion, the innovation of the jury-system, and its immediate withdrawal, the characteristics of the taxation, and the island’s specific foreign policy. The Englishmen’s being full of self-confidence, and arrogance evoked the national hypersensibility of the Corsicans. Between the English and Corsican leaders (also within the two groups) the political differences were surpassed by serious personal discords. To resolve these conflicts there were only a few, mainly unsuccessful attempts. The English regime – in spite of its unquestionably good intentions, and gallant gestures – quickly became unpopular.

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