ABSTRACT
Once upon a time, the political history of Britain during the French Revolutionary wars was simple and straightforward. Parliament, for much of the eighteenth century an assembly of independent MPs whose voting preferences were determined primarily by factional and family connections, reacted to the French Revolution by dividing into two groups. William Pitt the Younger, despite a liberal youth, had seemingly taken fright when confronted by the emergence of a militant French Revolution in Europe and democratic parliamentary reform at home. Having taken Britain to war against revolutionary France in 1793, supported by a corps of ministerial MPs who shared his fears, Pitt would superintend the emergence of a new Tory Party committed to the defence of the status quo ante helium in Britain and Europe. A gallant band of liberal Opposition Whigs led by Charles James Fox, in sharp contrast, defended the civil liberties of Britons against the repressive policies of a reactionary government, finally coming to power in 1830 as a pro to-Liberal Party.
