Hello and welcome history friends patrons all to the last episode of the Trent Affair.

And in the previous episode we learned how the British ultimatum was received in Washington on the 23rd of December.

Ambassador Lyons was under strict instructions to press for British

satisfaction, but he was to do so politely, not menacingly. Neither the American Secretary

of State William Seward nor Abraham Lincoln would have been comforted by the terms of

Britain's ultimatum, which demanded an apology and the release of the imprisoned

commissioners, above all. As the third week of December 1861 were on, the British awaited

news of what the United States would say, and the Americans were faced with a stark choice.

Would it be peace, or would it be war? No amount of dithering, or distracting, or debating on matters

of international law

would be sufficient to bluff Britain into accepting the unacceptable.

We will recall at the end of the last episode that Earl Russell wanted a plain yes or a plain no

to the ultimatum's terms.

In the event that the answer given was the latter a no, Britain was prepared as we have seen

to engage in the unthinkable, a third Anglo-American War. In this episode, we bring the relevant

strands together of this incredible story, a story which I've really enjoyed bringing to you all,

and I hope you've enjoyed hearing it too, and I hope getting a foretaste of national honour

gives you some kind of

hint into what I'm doing for my PhD. There'll certainly be more of this to come in the future.

If you'd like to listen to all five of these episodes, add free, then yeah, go over to Patreon,

but if you'd like to listen to all five of them stuck together without any intros or

outros, just as like this

...