WcP.Ambassador's blog

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26 January, 2017
"Britain and America will no longer invade foreign countries 'to make the world in their own image'" - Theresa May. Britain and America will never again invade foreign countries “in an attempt to make the world in their own image”, Theresa May has said in the biggest shift in UK foreign policy for more than 20 years.

Addressing US Republican politicians in Philadelphia, the Prime Minister pledged not to repeat the “failed policies of the past” in a clear reference to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan by Tony Blair and George W Bush.

And she hailed Mr Trump's election as "dawn breaking on a new era of American renewal".

She told Republicans: “I speak to you not just as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but as a fellow Conservative who believes in the same principles that underpin the agenda of your Party.

“The value of liberty. The dignity of work. The principles of nationhood, family, economic prudence, patriotism – and putting power in the hands of the people.

“Principles instilled in me from a young age. Principles that my parents taught me in the vicarage in Southern England in which I was raised.

“I know that it is these principles that you have put at the heart of your plan for government. “  read more »

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On 7 November 921, the Treaty of Bonn, which called itself a "pact of friendship" (amicitia), was signed between Charles III of France and Henry I of Germany in a minimalist ceremony aboard a ship in the middle of the Rhine not far from Bonn. The use of the river, which was the border between their two kingdoms, as a neutral territory had extensive Carolingian precedents and was also used in classical antiquity and in contemporary Anglo-Saxon England.

The treaty, which "more than most such amicitiae, was decidedly bilateral, reciprocal and equal", recognised the border of the two realms and the authority of their respective kings. It confirmed the legitimacy of Henry's election by the German princes and of Charles's rule over Lotharingia through the election by its princes. In the treaty, Henry is titled rex Francorum orientalium (King of the East Franks) and Charles rex Francorum occidentalium (King of the West Franks) in recognition of the division it made of the former Frankish Empire. Charles and his bishops and counts signed first, both because he had been king longer and because he was of Carolingian stock.

The treaty was ineffective. In January or early February 923, Henry made a pact of amicitia with the usurper Robert I against Charles, who subsequently sent a legate to Henry with the relic of the hand of Dionysius the Areopagite, sheathed in gold and studded in gems, "as a sign of faith and truth [and] a pledge of perpetual union and mutual love" in the words of Widukind of Corvey. Charles probably intended to recall Henry to the terms of the treaty of Bonn and draw him away from Robert. In June 923, Charles was captured at the Battle of Soissons and lost his kingdom. By 925, Henry had annexed Lotharingia.

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