Western Europe State Papers Online

State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782:

Part III: Western Europe

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State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782:

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Product Category: Gale Primary Sources

Series: State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century

Folios: Approximately 270,000

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Explore the political and personal relationships of Britain with the powers and states of Western Europe

State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782 Part III includes the State Papers series relating to France, Dunkirk, Portugal, Spain, Malta, the Italian States and Rome, Genoa, Tuscany, Venice, Savoy and Sardinia, Sicily and Naples, as well as supplementary records of the Levant Company in Aleppo and the Aleppo consulate. It also includes the Royal Letters and Treaties series.

The majority of the papers are those written or received by the Secretaries of State for the Southern Department in the course of British diplomacy and intelligence gathering by British ambassadors and envoys abroad. As such, they document the relationship of the Hanoverian monarchs with the rulers, governments and commerce of Western Europe. Reports and correspondence from wars and alliances across Europe, including the Quadruple Alliance against Spain (1718-20) and the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763), are covered alongside other events with wide international repercussions. The discovery of the Cellamare plot in France in 1718, the Corsican crisis of 1768-9, and detailed reports on the Jacobite Pretenders are all included within the scope of the papers. Whilst Spain and France represent the biggest international players in this section of State Papers Eighteenth Century, the dynastic struggles for control of smaller but strategically important states such as Savoy and Sardinia, or the various contested islands and land holdings in the Americas and Asia, help researchers form a broad picture of politics and diplomacy on a global level as the European powers pursued colonial and imperial ambitions. Furthermore, the minutiae of the correspondence of British agents with Whitehall also casts light on aspects of social history such as public health, the status of merchants abroad, and the personal relationships between political figures or Royal families of Europe. Scholars will also find narratives of each country’s history running through the letters and reports as events, debates, discussions, conversations and gossip are relayed back to London, offering new and personal perspectives on the wider movements of European politics in the eighteenth century. Manuscript series in Part III include:

SP 76: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Dunkirk
SP 78: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, France
SP 79: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Genoa
SP 85: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Italian States and Rome
SP 86: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Malta
SP 89: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Portugal
SP 92: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Savoy and Sardinia
SP 93: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Sicily and Naples
SP 94: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Spain
SP 98: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Tuscany
SP 99: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Venice
SP 102: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Royal Letters
SP 108: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Treaties
SP 109: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Various
SP 110: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Supplementary (including records of the Levant Company based at Aleppo and records of the Aleppo consulate maintained by the Levant Company)