Thande
Donor
Good excuseMy apologies...I'm usually more precise than that, especially as I spent so many years studying the constitutional relations of Ireland and England. I'll just plead lack of sleep due to baby.
David
I don't think we should over-emphasise that; the classical Anglo-French rivalry we tend to think of nowadays ultimately stems from ideological separations between Bourbon absolutism and the constitutional monarchy erected in England/Britain by the Glorious Revolution. Now TTL will have no Glorious Revolution by definition. While England's monarchs will be less absolutist than France's thanks to the lessons of the Civil War, I don't see the potential for real ideological conflict there.Entirely possible to my mind, though I think any Anglo-French alliance won't last more than a generation or two. The two countries are just too much natural enemies to cooperate.
However, there is also the issue of colonial conflicts, which was ultimately the motor driving the Second Hundred Years' War (or rather Britain's participation therein, France would still have fought in Europe either way). Let's break these down:
America: England had already got New Sweden/Delaware from the Swedes and had taken New Amsterdam/New York from the Dutch in a surprise attack the year before. However in OTL New Amsterdam briefly went back to the Dutch due to following conflicts and it's possible that it might go back permanently in TTL. My point is that the English presence in the Americas could be reduced relative to OTL which would decrease the chance of clashes with New France in the Ohio Country and Nova Scotia. There is also the issue of the West Indies, but that was around just as much in the 17th century and England and France managed to avoid major conflicts then.
India: Bombay, Madras and Hughli were already British, but the acquisition of other key Indian possessions such as Calcutta and Vizagapatam lay in the future and might be avoided by TTL. My point is that in TTL you could have a situation where the English and French East India Companies are aligned together against another coloniser such as the Danes, the Portuguese or the Dutch, thus conflicts arising there are not necessary inevitable.
So while it's likely that England and France will still come to blows, I wouldn't say it's inevitable.