United Kingdom of France and Great Britain
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On June 16, 1940, with French military collapse imminent, Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered a solemn Union to France in which the proposed constitution would establish joint organs of defence, foreign, financial and economic policies. The government of France, under Philippe Petain, did not respond before accepting an armistice from Germany.
In September 1956 French Prime Minister Guy Mollet proposed a union between Britain and France with Elizabeth II as head of state and a common citizenship. As an alternative, Mollet proposed that France join the Commonwealth of Nations British Prime Minister Anthony Eden rejected both proposals and France went on to join the Treaty of Rome which established the European Economic Community. When the Mollet proposal was first made public in 2007 it received rather satirical treatment in the media of both countries, including the unhappy name of Frangleterre.
The Kings of England maintained a claim to the French throne from 1340 to 1801 and Fernand Braudel described England and France as a single unit.
[edit] External References
- British offer of Franco-British Union
- Britain fights on
- France and UK considered 1950s 'merger'
- An unlikely marriage
- Letter From Britain: Darker realities behind Britons' longing for Frangleterre
- Le rêve inachevé de la Franglettere
- Prelude to Downfall: The British Offer of Union to France, June 1940
