Abstract
Whether the Italian policy of Great Britain was ‘so successful and so wise’ is not the scope of this chapter to determine. However, I agree with Trevelyan’s statement that the knowledge the British had of Italy was uniquely comprehensive. Thanks to a mix of personal passions and interests and to a blend of political and religious issues, the British thought that they knew Italy well enough to participate in the process that led to its formation as a united state. Necessarily, the presence of the Papacy in Rome gave them another reason to be particularly interested in Italian affairs, and to act in favour of the completion of Italian unification and against the temporal power of the Pope. This notwithstanding, after unification had been achieved in 1861, the support of the British government to the new Italy was mild, and at times even hesitant and contradictory, as this chapter argues. In fact, British antipathy of the Pope did not always translate into support for Italy. However, their involvement grew steadily over the years, until reaching a peak in 1864, an exceptional year for at least three reasons: the publication of the Syllabus of Errors, a document with which the Pope condemned what he believed to be the ‘errors’ of the modern world, thus alienating Britain’s residual sympathies; Garibaldi’s visit to England, where he sought successfully to increase the popularity of the Italian cause against Rome; and the September Convention, with which Italy and France agreed to the withdrawal of the French garrison from Rome and the contemporaneous move of the capital from Turin to Florence (with the promise, on the part of Italy, that they would not attempt to move the capital to Rome).
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Notes
G.M. Trevelyan, ‘Englishmen and Italians. Some aspects of their relations past and present’, in Proceedings of the British Academy. London, 1919, p. 91.
Ibid. See R. Davenport-Hines, ‘Russell, Odo William Leopold, first Baron Ampthill (1829–1884)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004;online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24332, accessed 22 August 2013].
P. Cullen, Letter to the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Dublin on some recent instances of bigotry and intolerance. Dublin, 1859, cit. in Bowen, Paul Cardinal Cullen and the shaping of modern Irish Catholicism, p. 198.
E. Larkin, ‘Economic growth, capital investment and the Roman Catholic Church in nineteenth century Ireland’, American Historical Review, 72 (1966–1967), p. 866.
Odo Russell to Lord John Russell, in Blakiston, The Roman Question, p. 44 — 30 July 1859. Giacomo Antonelli was Secretary of State from 1848 to 1876. During his tenure as the Vatican’s ‘Prime Minister’, Antonelli played a leading and greatly influential role as diplomatic agent in Italy, Europe, and the world.
See F.J. Coppa, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli and Papal politics in European affairs. Albany, 1990.
Odo Russell to Lord John Russell, in Blakiston, The Roman Question, pp. 100–101 — 1 May 1860.
Ibid., p. 102 — 10 May 1860. On the Irish brigade, see also A. O’Connor, ‘That dangerous serpent: Garbaldi and Ireland, 1860–1870’, Modern Italy, 15:4 (2010), pp. 401–409.
F.N. Göhde, ‘A new military history of the Italian risorgimento and Anti-Risorgimento: the case of “transnational soldiers”’, Modern Italy, 19:1 (2014), pp. 21–39.
Odo Russell to Lord John Russell, in Blakiston, The Roman Question, p. 117–10 July 1860.
See D. Raponi, ‘Il governo e l’opinione pubblica britannica in rapporto a Castelfidardo’, in G. Piccinini (ed.), L’Europa e Castelfidardo: I volontari sul campo della battaglia e le ripercussioni politiche internazionali. Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Studi. Castelfidardo 18 settembre 2010. Rome, 2011, pp. 103–111.
Matsumoto-Best, ‘Odo Russell’s mission to Rome’, p. 142. See also A. O’Connor, ‘Triumphant failure: the return of the Irish Papal Brigade’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 114 (2009), pp. 51–62.
O.J. Wright, ‘British representatives and the surveillance of Italian affairs, 1860–70’, in Historical Journal, 51:3 (2008), pp. 672–673.
See Buschkühl, Great Britain and the Holy See; and M. De Leonardis, L’Inghilterra e la Questione Romana 1859–1870. Milan, 1980.
On the different perceptions of Protestant and Catholic Ireland of the Risorgimento, see J. O’Brien, ‘Irish public opinion and the Risorgimento, 1859–60’, Irish Historical Studies, 135 (May 2005), pp. 289–305. See also C. Barr, ‘Lord Acton’s Irish elections’, Historical Journal, 51:1 (2008), pp. 87–114.
See the Dublin Review and the Tablet; in De Leonardis, L’Inghilterra e la Questione Romana, pp. 92–93. See also J.L. Altholz, The liberal Catholic movement in England: the ‘Rambler’ and its contributors, 1848–1864. London, 1962.
In E.S. Purcell, The life of Cardinal Manning, vol. 2. London, 1896, pp. 165–166.
See N. Ferguson, Colossus: the rise and fall of the American empire. London, 2004.
N. Ferguson, Empire: how Britain made the modern world. London, 2003.
In W.F. Monypenny and G.E. Buckle, The life of Benjamin Disraeli Earl of Beaconsfield, vol. II. London, 1929, pp. 61–62.
See Lord Russell to Sir James Hudson, London, TNA, FO 45/7 — 10, 14 April 1861;Lord Russell to Hudson, London, TNA, FO 45/2 — 24 July 1861; Hudson to Russell, London, TNA, FO 45/7 — 20 June 1861;Odo Russell to Lord Russell — 20 March 1861, in N. Blakiston (ed.), The Roman Question. London, 1962, p. 167;and Finlayson, The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, p. 457.
J.S. Mill, The collected works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XV: The later letters of John Stuart Mill, 1849–1873, ed. by F.E. Mineka and D.N. Lindley. Toronto, 1972, pp. 610–611, cit. in Howe, ‘Friends of moderate opinions’, p. 609.
On the role played by Britain’s policy-makers, in particular through Russell and Hudson, in the escalation that led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in March 1861, see P. Pastorelli, 17 marzo 1861. L’Inghilterra e l’Unità d’Italia. Soveria Mannelli, 2011.
N.E. Carter, ‘Hudson, Malmesbury and Cavour: British diplomacy and the Italian Question, February 1858 to June 1859’, Historical Journal, 40:2 (1997), pp. 389–413.
E. Greppi and E. Pagella (eds.), Sir James Hudson nel Risorgimento italiano. Soveria Mannelli, 2012.
See N. Blakiston, Garibaldi’s visit to London in 1864. London, 1964.
D.E.D. Beales, ‘Garibaldi in England: the politics of Italian enthusiasm’, in J. Davis and P. Ginsborg (eds.), Society and politics in the age of the Risorgimento, Essays in honour of Denis Mack Smith. Cambridge, 1991, pp. 184–216;and Riall, Garibaldi, pp. 330–344.
Palmerston to Lord John Russell — 23 September 1862, in G.P. Gooch, The later correspondence of Lord John Russell, 1840–78. London, 1925, vol. II, p. 281.
D. Beales, ‘Gladstone and Garibaldi’, in P.J. Jagger (ed.), Gladstone. London, 1998, p. 153. See also Riall, Garibaldi, pp. 330–344.
N. Blakiston, Garibaldi’s visit to London in 1864. London, 1964.
D. Beales, ‘Il governo inglese e la visita di Garibaldi in Inghilterra nel 1864’, in V. Frosini (ed.), Il Risorgimento e l’Europa: studi in onore di Alberto Maria Ghisalberti. Catania, 1969, pp. 27–40.
D. Beales, ‘Garibaldi in England: the politics of Italian enthusiasm’, in J. Davis and P. Ginsborg (eds.), Society and politics in the age of the Risorgimento. Essays in honour of Denis Mack Smith. Cambridge, 1991, pp. 184–216.
See Queen Victoria, Letters of Queen Victoria, II series, vol. I, pp. 174–175; and J. Ridley, Garibaldi. London, 1976, p. 642.
For more examples, see D. McElrath, The Syllabus of Pius IX. Some reactions in England. Louvain, 1964.
See L. Sandoni (ed.), Il Sillabo di Pio IX. Bologna and Rome, 2012.
In A. Quacquarelli, La crisi della religiosità contemporanea dal Sillabo al Concilio Vaticano. Rome and Bari, 1946.
For a history of conservatism, see C. Robin, The reactionary mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin. Oxford, 2011.
On the reception of the Syllabus by the French, English and Italian press, and on the possible misunderstandings arising from its interpretation, see E. Papa, Il Sillabo di Pio IX e la stampa francese, inglese e italiana. Rome, 1968;and Sandoni, Il Sillabo di Pio IX.
See also J. Ratzinger, Theologische Prinzipienlehre. Bausteine zur Fundamentaltheologie. Munich, 1982, pp. 398–399. Historically inaccurate, to say the least, is instead R. De Mattei, Pius IX. Leominster, 2004, where De Mattei praises the Syllabus and argues that it should still be a binding document for all Catholics. A Catholic fundamentalist, De Mattei was a vice-president of the Italian National Research Council, although he does not believe in evolution and has repeatedly professed his anti-science convictions. He was appointed to that position in 2004 by Letizia Moratti, Minister of Education, University and Research of the second government led by Silvio Berlusconi.
Lord Acton to Mary Gladstone, in H. Paul (ed.), Letters of John Acton to Mary, daughter of W.E. Gladstone. London, 1904, p. 135 — 21 March 1882.
J.L. Althoz, The Liberal Catholic movement in England. The “Rambler” and its contributors, 1848–1864. London, 1962, p. 234.
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Raponi, D. (2014). Religion and foreign policy: from Unification to the ‘desperate folly’ of the Syllabus, 1861–1864. In: Religion and Politics in the Risorgimento. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137342980_4
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