Perfidious Albion

Perfidious Albion is an anglophobic pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations and diplomacy to refer to alleged acts of diplomatic sleights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances formed with other nation states) by monarchs or governments of Britain (or England) in their pursuit of self-interest and the requirements of Realpolitik.

signifies one who does not keep his faith or word (from the Latin word "perfidia"), while Albion is derived from an ancient Celtic name for Britain.

The use of the adjective "perfidious" to describe England has a long history; instances have been found as far back as the 13th century. A very similar phrase was used in a sermon by 17th-century French bishop and theologian Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet:

'L'Angleterre, ah, la perfide Angleterre,
que le rempart de ses mers rendoit inaccessible aux Romains,
la foi du Sauveur y est abordée.

Even in England, treacherous England,
the rampart of whose seas made her inaccessible to the Romans,
the faith of the Saviour has landed.

The coinage of the phrase in its current form, however, is conventionally attributed to Augustin Louis de Ximénès, a French playwright who wrote it in a poem entitled L'Ère des Français, published in 1793

Attaquons dans ses eaux la perfide Albion.

Let us attack perfidious Albion in her waters.

In this context, Great Britain's perfidy was political: in the early days of the French Revolution many in Great Britain had looked upon the Revolution with mild favour, but following the overthrow and execution of Louis XVI, Britain had allied herself with the other monarchies of Europe against the Revolution in France. This was seen by the revolutionaries in France as a "perfidious" betrayal.

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