Program notes on the Liberty! mini-series provided by PBS.

Episode 4 November 24, 10:00-11:00pm EST

Oh Fatal Ambition!

All of Europe is intensely interested in the outcome of the American Revolution. But no country is watching events more closely than France, long Britain's rival in Europe and the New World. Congress, hoping to take advantage of this rivalry, dispatches Benjamin Franklin to Versailles in late 1776 to request financial and military support. Though Franklin charms the French, Louis XVI is reluctant to back the young republic without proof it can win. Episode 4 also tracks the ill-fated campaign of British General John Burgoyne down Lake Champlain toward the Hudson River in an attempt to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga is the incentive France needs to supply arms and men to the revolution in America. A world war begins.