Europe: Penn and Europe

Andrew Lane reflects on William Penn’s essay of 1693

by Andrew Lane 27th May 2016

A century before the Napoleonic wars, and two centuries before the first and second world wars, Quaker William Penn proposed a parliament through which the princes and states of Europe could resolve disputes nonviolently. Penn’s 1693 essay, ‘Towards the present and future peace of Europe’, was the first proposal for a confederation of European states written in the English language. It has been referred to in some recent articles and letters in the Friend, and is worthy of closer study.