Endangered Neutrality: Tuscany, England and the Plowman Case (1696-1704)

Analysing a struggle for neutrality amid a rapidly changing European scene, this book illustrates how the small state of Tuscany cunningly managed to preserve its sovereignty and independence during a dangerous diplomatic dispute with England.

Endangered Neutrality follows the actions of William Plowman (1660-?), who sparked the dispute, and those of two of the main characters of the story, Iacopo Giraldi (1663-1738), Tuscan ambassador to England, and Lambert Blackwell (d.1727), English envo...