Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron was an 18th-century French writer. Among his works was the anti-British pamphlet Préservatif contre l’anglomanie (1757). He made the following statement:
“We are the only nation in the universe that the English do not despise. They rather do us the honor of hating us with all the heartiness possible. Their aversion against us is a sentiment with which they are inculcated from the cradle. Before they know that there is a God to worship, they know that there are Frenchmen to be detested.”
Happy St George’s Day !
Although we know little about Saint George, he arguably served as a soldier and was martyred on this day (i.e. 23 April) in 303 during a persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian because he presumably refused to recant his faith. In legends and in iconography he is usually depicted as a dragon slayer.
St George has been the patron saint of England since the 14th century. King Edward III founded the prestigious Order of the Garter in 1348, choosing St George as its patron. For this reason, the cult of St George became immensely popular.
Cannon, John. Ed. Dictionary of British History. Rev. ed. Oxford: OUP, 2009.
The German-Jewish journalist and writer Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935) once tried to point out the differences between the English, French and Germans by stating as follows:
“People in England want something to read, the French something to taste, and the Germans something to think about.”
Watson, Peter. The German Genius: Europe’s Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century. London: Simon & Schuster, 2010.