Editing Kingdom of Great Britain (section)

===Battling the French Revolution and Napoleon===
{{Further|French Revolutionary Wars|War of the First Coalition|War of the Second Coalition}}
[[File:The House of Commons 1793-94 by Karl Anton Hickel.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[William Pitt the Younger|Pitt]] addressing the [[House of Commons of Great Britain|Commons]] in [[Anton Hickel]]'s painting ''[[The House of Commons, 1793–94]]'']]
With the regicide of King Louis XVI in 1793, the [[French Revolution]] represented a contest of ideologies between conservative, royalist Britain and radical Republican France.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Roger J. B. |title=Britain against Napoleon: The Organization of Victory, 1793–1815 |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-141-97702-7 |pages=61–62 |publisher=Penguin UK |ol=30961773M |author-link=R. J. B. Knight}}</ref> The long bitter wars with France 1793–1815, saw anti-Catholicism emerge as the glue that held the three kingdoms together. From the upper classes to the lower classes, Protestants were brought together from England, Scotland and Ireland into a profound distrust and distaste for all things French. That enemy nation was depicted as the natural home of misery and oppression because of its inherent inability to shed the darkness of Catholic superstition and clerical manipulation.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Marjule Anne |last=Drury |title=Anti-Catholicism in Germany, Britain, and the United States: A Review and Critique of Recent Scholarship | journal =Church History |date=2001 |volume=70 |issue=1|pages=98–131 |doi=10.2307/3654412 |jstor=3654412 |s2cid=146522059 }}; {{Cite book |last=Colley |first=Linda |title=Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 |date=1992 |isbn=0-300-05737-7 |pages=35, 53–54 |publisher=Yale University Press |ol=1711290M |author-link=Linda Colley}}</ref>

====Napoleon====
It was not only Britain's position on the world stage that was threatened: Napoleon, who came to power in 1799, threatened invasion of Great Britain itself, and with it, a fate similar to the countries of continental Europe that his armies had overrun. The [[Napoleonic Wars]] were therefore ones in which the British invested all the moneys and energies it could raise. French ports were blockaded by the [[Royal Navy]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andress |first=David |title=The Savage Storm: Britain on the Brink in the Age of Napoleon |date=1960 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-1-405-51321-0 |ol=34606684M}}; {{Cite journal |last=Simms |first=Brendan |author-link=Brendan Simms |year=1998 |title=Britain and Napoleon |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=885–894 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X98008048 |jstor=2639908 |s2cid=162840420}}</ref>

====Ireland====
The French Revolution revived religious and political grievances in [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]]. In 1798, Irish nationalists, under Protestant leadership, plotted the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798]], believing that the French would help them to overthrow the British.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 November 2009 |title=British History – The 1798 Irish Rebellion |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/irish_reb_01.shtml |access-date=23 April 2010 |publisher=BBC}}; {{Cite book |last=Gahan |first=Daniel |title=Rebellion!: Ireland in 1798 |date=1998 |publisher=O'Brien Press |isbn=978-0-86278-541-3 |ol=403106M}}</ref> They hoped for significant French support, which never came. The uprising was very poorly organised, and quickly suppressed by much more powerful British forces. Including many bloody reprisals, the total death toll was in the range of 10,000 to 30,000.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=John Holland |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028005803 |title=William Pitt and the Great War |date=1911 |isbn=0-837-14533-3 |pages=339–364 |publisher=Greenwood Press |ol=5756027M |author-link=John Holland Rose}}</ref>

Prime Minister [[William Pitt the Younger]] firmly believed that the only solution to the problem was a union of Great Britain and Ireland. The union was established by the [[Act of Union 1800]]; compensation and [[patronage]] ensured the support of the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]]. Great Britain and Ireland were formally united on 1 January 1801. The Irish Parliament was closed down.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ehrman |first=John |title=The Younger Pitt: The Consuming Struggle |date=1996 |isbn=0-094-75540-X |pages=158–196 |publisher=Constable |ol=21936112M |author-link=John Ehrman}}</ref>