England vs France is far more than a football match

When England play France tonight, more will be involved than just a game of football.

We all know why. Even those with an enviable indifference to history will have vague notions about Agincourt, Joan of Arc, Waterloo, Napoleon and General de Gaulle. When I first went to France decades ago I was surprised to be asked fairly regularly why we had fired on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir – an event which, despite my history degree, had largely passed me by.

From the Norman Conquest to the Tudors, England was in a formative and often abusive relationship with France. Our language was changed by the influx of French, but on the other hand the first works of French literature were written in England. After a brief period of relative calm, in 1689 England entered a Europe-wide struggle against the French super-power that lasted more than a century. Both countries were profoundly altered by the conflict, and as perceptive observers realised even in the 1700s, the outcome would shape the future of the world.