Annual UCL Quebec Lecture: The Rise and Fall of French Canadian Loyalism

From the 1760 conquest of New France to the early twentieth century, a loyalist seam can be found in French Canadian thought and writing. Leading clerics and laymen expressed a sincere devotion to the Crown, to British rule, and to British institutions. They believed that the British Conquest had been providential in nature; that it had been ordained by God and that it had proven to be a fortunate event.