The French Revolution overthrew and abolished the monarchy on 21 September 1792 and replaced it with the French Republic. In the War of the First Coalition British–French negotiations were held in Lille from July to November 1797. The French demanded dropping the title; James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury was prepared to omit it from the king's signature to the envisaged peace treaty but had not conceded further by the time the talks collapsed. In the Commons' discussion of the negotiations, Sir John Sinclair called the demand "frivolous" and "hardly worth contending for"; William Pitt the Younger called the title "a harmless feather, at most, in the crown of England"; French Laurence called it an "ancient dignity" the ceding of which would lose honour and bring disgrace. In 1800, the Act of Union joined the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland to a new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. George III chose this opportunity to drop his claim to the now defunct French throne, whereupon the fleurs de lis, part of the coat of arms of all claimant Kings of France since the time of Edward III, was also removed from the British royal arms. Britain recognised the French Republic by the Treaty of Amiens of 1802. Dropping the French claim resulted in a change of status for the Channel Islands: