And in the following seven years, 101 towers were constructed. Although British politicians were quick to 1) Despite the fact that the victory at Trafalgar had removed any credible naval opposition from the seas (and long after the real danger posed by the camp at Boulogne had disappeared – Napoleon had gone off to Austerlitz), work finally started in 1805. On the collapse of the 'ceasefire' of Amiens, 1803-1804, Napoleon I began amassing a huge invasion army (to be ferried over the Channel on a flotilla of flat-bottomed boats) in region around Boulogne in northern France. It had been the response 45 years earlier when faced with the French president's charismatic and altogether more threatening uncle. But such a gun emplacement policy was not new. Indeed, during the more hostile moments, Palmerston himself was responsible championing a policy of fortified defences for Britain, notably the south coast of England and the Channel Islands. And yet the period is characterised by the expression, used by Palmerston in 1844, “entente cordial” or warm understanding. From the arrival of Louis-Napoleon as President in 1848 up until the debacle in 1870, Franco-British relations saw a roller-coaster ride, from close partnership (during the Crimean war) to downright hostility.
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