War & Englishness

This webpage functions mainly as the appendix for Chapter 5: War, Food and Englishness.

Ch5/1: The Napoleonic Wars (1803-15)

According to World Encyclopedia, the Napoleonic Wars were

[c]ampaigns by a series of European coalitions against French expansion under Napoleon I. In 1803, Britain declared war and formed the Third Coalition with Austria, Russia, and Sweden in 1804. Napoleon defeated the Austrians at Ulm, and the Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz (both 1805), but the British under Admiral Nelson won a decisive naval victory at Trafalgar (1805). Prussia joined the Fourth Coalition (1806) but was decisively defeated at Jena. Resistance to the French occupation of Portugal (1807) began the Peninsular War. In 1808, French troops were sent to quell a Spanish rebellion, but were faced by the British army led by the Duke of Wellington. The Fifth Coalition collapsed with the defeat of Austria at Wagram (1809). In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia. Bitter winter forced his retreat from Moscow, and much of his army died of starvation, hypothermia or were killed by the pursuing Russian forces under Mikhail Kutuzov. The Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon at Leipzig (October 1813). In March 1814, Allied forces entered Paris. While the coalition was negotiating at the Congress of Vienna, Napoleon escaped from exile in Elba and overthrew Louis XVIII. War renewed during the Hundred Days of Napoleon's return to power and [sic] ended in his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (June 1815).[i]

[i] ‘Napoleonic Wars (1803–15)’.

Source: Own design

Ch5/2: Jane Austen and France

Jane Austen never went to France herself, but her brothers travelled abroad. Frank and Charles in their capacity of sailors, Edward because of his grand tours of Europe and Henry went with his wife, Eliza, to France to try to claim back some of her ex-husband's property. According to Maggie Lane, 'anything French was an anathema' [hateful, odious] for Jane Austen,[i] and that Austen's own 'patriotism was fierce.'[ii] This may account for her preferring plain English food to sophisticated French cooking [Ch5/3-4]. It may also explain why the jealous Mr Knightley condemns Frank Churchill as being French:

'No, Emma, your amiable young man can be amiable only in French, not in English. He may be very “amiable,” have very good manners, and be very agreeable; but he can have no English delicacy towards the feelings of other people: nothing really amiable about him.’ (E:118)

Her loathing of anything French seems apparent from these lines in a letter (145] to Cassandra (8th-9th September, 1816):

'Edward was in [sic] his way to Selborne. We found him very agreable [sic]. He is come back from France, thinking of the French as one cd [sic] wish, disappointed in every thing. He did not go beyond Paris.'[iii]

Lucy Worsley is not as hard in her verdict of Austen's feelings, as she writes that Austen was ambivalent about the French, but agrees that there is a 'subtle thread of anti-French feeling' in Austen's novels.[iv]

[i] Lane, ‘French Bread’, 138.

[ii] Lane, Jane Austen and Food, 151.

[iii] Le Faye, Jane Austen’s Letters, 335.

[iv] Worsley, Jane Austen at Home, 88.

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Ch5/3: Distrust of French Food

Maggie Lane writes in Jane Austen and Food that at the time of Jane Austen

[d]istrust of French food was wide-spread. Robert Campbell, in The London Tradesman of 1747, railed against “Meats and Drinks dressed after the French fashion” disguising their “native properties.” And Parson Woodforde complained in his diary of a meal eaten out in 1783 that most of the dishes were “spoiled by being so frenchified in dressing” (18 August 1783). The complaint against French food in all cases seems to be that it is—like the English perception of the French character—sophisticated, not what it seems, not to be trusted. In the same article Robert Campbell recalled “the days of good Queen Elizabeth, when mighty Roast Beef was the Englishman’s Food, our Cookery was plain and simple”; and as late as 1807 Robert Southey was writing of “the roast beef of Old England” being connected with “national honor” (89). English cooking and English character were evidently connected in the public consciousness.[i]

Lane suggests that this connection between English character and English cooking explains why the information about Willoughby's (Sense and Sensibility) having stopped at a Marlborough* inn on his way to see Marianne and having consumed a hasty meal is of importance! Austen informs us that his meal consists of cold beef and a pint of porter, which, as Lane explains, is a 'choice of good, plain, honest, manly, English fare.' Lane adds that Willoughby in this way is 'behaving honorably and with feeling at last.'[ii]

Mr Willoughby:

‘I understand you,’ he replied, with an expressive smile, and a voice perfectly calm. ‘yes, I am very drunk.—A pint of porter with my cold beef at Marlborough was enough to over-set me.’ (SS:241) [iii]

*John Churchill, the earl of Marlborough, a brilliant soldier and commander of the English and Dutch armies during the Marlborough's Wars (1702-13), which were fought in Europe and on the Mediterranean; they were the last and the bloodiest of the Wars between England and France under Louis XIV.[iv]

[i] Lane, ‘French Bread’, 139.

[ii] Lane, ‘French Bread’, 139.

[iii] Austen, Sense and Sensibility, 241.

[iv] Cody, ‘Marlborough’s Wars’.

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Ch5/4: Plain Food or Ragout

In Jane Austen and Food, Maggie Lane writes that the episode in Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth declares that she prefers plain food to ragout is a clear distinction between English food and French cooking. Lane explains that when Mr Hurst asks of Elizabeth what she prefers, he is not really referring to the dishes on the table at Netherfield; he is in reality inquiring where Lizzy stands in 'the debate between fashion and patriotism, sophistication and insularity.'[i] Lane adds that Mr Hurst's ragout seems to condemn him, and that Austen would have expected her readers to understand this public discussion.[ii]

Their brother, indeed, was the only one of the party whom she could regard with any complacency. His anxiety for Jane was evident, and his attentions to herself most pleasing, and they prevented her feeling herself so much an intruder as she believed she was considered by the others. She had very little notice from any but him. Miss Bingley was engrossed by Mr. Darcy, her sister scarcely less so; and as for Mr. Hurst, by whom Elizabeth sat, he was an indolent man, who lived only to eat, drink, and play at cards, who, when he found her to prefer a plain dish to a ragout, had nothing to say to her.

When dinner was over, she returned directly to Jane, and Miss Bingley began abusing her as soon as she was out of the room.[iii]

[i] Lane, Jane Austen and Food, 151.

[ii] Lane, ‘French Bread’, 138.

[iii] Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 25.

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