Poetry as an Act of International Diplomacy: English translations of Willem van Haren's Political Poetry during the War of the Austrian Succession

Abstract

In the eighteenth century the worlds of diplomacy and poetry were inextricably connected. This is demonstrated by the work of the Dutch statesman and poet Willem van Haren (1710-1768), whose political poems played an important role in the negotiations of international political relations during the War of the Austrian Succession. Several poems were translated into English by the Irish poet Samuel Boyse and published in The Gentleman’s Magazine. It is argued that the great interest in Van Haren's work in England can be clarified by the country's positioning in the European conflict, and by Anglo-Irish relations during the 1740s.