Building the peace of Utrecht: the secret negotiations between France and Great Britain and the signing of the preliminaries of London

Abstract

Finalising the war of the Spanish Succession was an arduous diplomatic task. After nearly a decade of conflict and several diplomatic failures, it was essential the opening in the summer of 1710 of a bilateral and secret route through which France and Great Britain, acting apart from their respective allies, reached a series of key preliminary agreements to achieve concluding the conflict. This article aims to clarify the negotiating process by examining the delicate structure around where the Franco-British secret contacts were conceived, and to provide a global vision of a challenging negotiation that decisively defined the agreements subsequently signed in Utrecht.