Perfidious Albion  "Perfidious Albion" is a pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations 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 the UK (or England prior to 1707) in their pursuit of self-interest. "Perfidious" signifies one who does not keep his faith or word (from the Latin word "perfidia"), while "Albion" is an ancient and now poetic name for Great 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: The coinage of the phrase in its current form, however, is conventionally attributed to Augustin Louis de Ximénès, a French-spanish playwright who wrote it in a poem entitled "L'Ère des Français", published in 1793 In this context, Great Britain's perfidy was political. In the early days of the French Revolution, when the revolution aimed at establishing a liberal constitutional monarchy along British lines, many in Great Britain had looked upon the Revolution with mild favour. However, following the turn of the revolution to republicanism with overthrow and execution of Louis XVI, Britain had allied itself with the other monarchies of Europe against the Revolution in France. This was seen by the revolutionaries in France as a "perfidious" betrayal. ""La perfide Albion"" became a stock expression in France in the 19th century, to the extent that the Goncourt brothers could refer to it as "a well-known old saying". It was utilised by French journalists whenever there were tensions between France and Britain, for example during the competition for colonies in Africa, culminating in the Fashoda incident. The catch-phrase was further popularized by its use in "La Famille Fenouillard", the first French comic strip, in which one of the characters fulminates against "Perfidious Albion, which burnt Joan of Arc on the rock of Saint Helena" (carried away by his Anglophobic fury, the character mixes up Joan of Arc with Napoleon, who was exiled to the British island of Saint Helena). In German-speaking areas, the term ""das perfide Albion"" became increasingly frequent, especially during the German Empire (1871–1918) against the backdrop of rising British-German tensions.