ABSTRACT
The Anglo-French entente of the early 1840s has received intermittent attention from historians during recent decades. The policies of Guizot, Aberdeen and Palmerston have all been studied; most of the incidents in Anglo-French diplomacy have been unravelled and explained. Surprisingly, however, one essential aspect of Anglo-French relations has been the subject of very little historical research. Greek affairs, in fact, require a careful examination. The good understanding between Aberdeen and Guizot rested to no small extent upon their policies concerning Greece and when their co-operation there ended the entente cordiale virtually collapsed. The British and French governments were inevitably involved in Greek affairs. Britain, France and Russia had created and had guaranteed the state of Greece in 1830 after the Greeks had sustained a nine-year war of independence against Turkish rule. As Greek minister in Paris from 1835 to 1843 he had established a friendship with Guizot which was later to stand him in good stead.
