In Defence of the House of France: A new look at the Abbé de Saint-Pierre and his project for perpetual peace

Abstract

It has been said that the Abbé de Saint-Pierre drafted his project as a remedy for the ills then afflicting a Europe debilitated by over a hundred years of almost uninterrupted wars; but perhaps it ought also to be said that Saint-Pierre devised his project to safeguard the interests of the House of France in the context of the War of the Spanish Succession. With the legacy of Charles II in the hands of the Bourbon dynasty, someone had to make a stand against the system of equilibrium widely asserted and disseminated in Europe by the House of France, especially when this discourse was no longer in favour with those who had formerly done most to advance it. This task the Abbé de Saint-Pierre took upon himself. He was opposed to the system of equilibrium because he feared it would result in the loss of territories by the House of France –or, as ended up happening, in the breaking up of the Hispanic Monarchy presided over by Philip V– and he designed a European Union with a view to ensuring peace, as well as protecting the inheritance received. The thesis that Saint-Pierre was not seeking either to affirm French predominance or to counter the threats posed by an imperialist Austria (or any other state) needs to be rethought.