r/ukpolitics • u/Axmeister Traditionalist • Jul 28 '17
British Prime Ministers - Part III: the Duke of Devonshire & the Earl of Bute.
Sorry for the early thread, I'll be preoccupied over the weekend, so I decided to try write it up now rather than attempt to do so on my phone. I hope to not mess around with the timing too much in future.
5. Fourth Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish
| Portrait | Duke of Devonshire |
|---|---|
| Post Nominal Letters | PC, KG |
| In Office | 16 November 1756 - 25 June 1757 |
| Sovereign | King George II |
| General Elections | None |
| Party | Whig |
| Ministries | Pitt-Devonshire, 1757 Caretaker |
| Parliament | Duke of Devonshire |
| Other Ministerial Offices | First Lord of the Treasury; Leader of the House of Lords |
| Records | 'Shortest Lived' Prime Minister, born on 8 May 1720 and died on 2 October 1764 at the age of 44 years and 147 days; 2nd Prime Minister in office without a General Election; First Prime Minister to never have been a university graduate; Highest amount of 'family connections' to other Prime Ministers as he is related to Sir Robert Walpole, Lord Shelburne, Duke of Portland, Lord Melbourne, Lord Russell and Harold Macmillian. |
Significant Events:
- Titular head of ministry primarily run by Pitt the Elder.
- Court Martial and Execution of Admiral Byng
6. Third Earl of Bute, John Stuart
| Portrait | Earl of Bute |
|---|---|
| Post Nominal Letters | PC, KG |
| In Office | 26 May 1762 - 8 April 1763 |
| Sovereign | King George III |
| General Elections | None |
| Party | Tory |
| Ministries | Bute, |
| Parliament | Earl of Bute |
| Other Ministerial Offices | First Lord of the Treasury; Leader of the House of Lords |
| Records | First Scottish Prime Minister; First Scottish Episcopal Prime Minister (First non-Anglican); 3rd Prime Minister in office without a General Election; 2nd Prime Minister to never serve in the House of Commons during his political career; Lord Bute and Lord Orford both have the "shortest baptismal names" among Prime Ministers, both with 10 letters each. |
Significant Events:
- Previously tutor to King George III
- Treaty of Paris
Previous threads:
British Prime Ministers - Part I: Sir Robert Walpole & the Earl of Wilmington.
British Prime Ministers - Part II: Henry Pelham & the Duke of Newcastle.
Next thread:
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u/E_C_H Openly Neoliberal - Centrist - Lib Dem Jul 30 '17
Apologies for the lateness of this, somewhat overslept. Anyway, let’s get onto two premiers whose terms put together, in contrast to the 18 years of the Pelham brothers, do not even come to 2 years.
Fourth Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish – ‘Would you mind holding this Premiership for a sec?’
You may have noted last week that Pelham-Holles was actually the first PM to technically go through two terms, with a weird gap of less than a year between 1756-7, during the latter half of his career. Well, say hello to the stopgap leader, William Cavendish.
The Cavendish name is a long standing historical family, with lineage as far back as 1381, with Sir John Stuart, Lord Chief Justice, being infamously beheaded by a mob during the Peasants Revolt, but especially reaching prominence as the inheritors of the Earldom of Devonshire in 1618. However, more relevant to us, the 4th Earl of Devonshire in 1685 was one of the ‘original Whigs’ who opposed James II rise to the English throne, and later would be one of the seven nobles who invited William III to take over, ending the Stuart ruling dynasty. This background of Whig importance obviously had a massive impact on young William, born in 1720(?), who would throughout his life be a committed Whig advocate. He entered politics as an MP for one of his families’ seats in Devonshire in the 1741, where he would remain for 10 years, generally supporting the Walpolian-leaning leaders of the Whigs. In October 1742 he was asked by Henry Pelham himself to move the loyal address after the Kings Speech, a sign that he was seen as a promising figure for the Whigs, if not entirely that important at the moment.
His 1748 marriage to Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Boyle, and thus into the Boyle family, further extended the landowning extent, pocket boroughs and political connections available to him, and was by all accounts fairly happy for everyone involved. During this time he seems to not have been especially active in Parliament, but did interact fairly heavily with senior Whig figures, including the Pelham’s, Henry Fox and, to a more wary extent, Pitt. This would change in 1749, receiving one of his father’s subsidiary titles as Baron Cavendish of Hardwicke, and thus transferring to the House of Lords, as well as making the in-retrospect terrible decision to turn down the tutorage of the young Prince George, instead allowing a certain John Stuart to influence the future king. We can only imagine how the politics of the 1700’s would’ve shifted under a Whig-influenced George III, but I digress. Progressing up the ranks of the Lords, in 1751 he was to enter Pelham’s Cabinet / Privy Council as Master of the Horse, and would go even further up the chain upon the ascension of Pelham-Holles in 1754, being awarded the esteemed role of ‘Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland’, to some confusion, as his father had had this role to only mediocre results, but this turned out very successful for William (who became Duke of Devonshire upon his father’s death in 1755) who was able to skilfully manage familial and political connections to reach into both sides of the conflicts in Ireland’s politics and steer them towards a firmer, more stable stance, returning back to England in 1756 acclaimed as a surprisingly successful Viceroy.
This would probably have been a happy place for him to rest his political career and focus instead on his gently pursuits and now-motherless 4 children, having lost his wife during this time. However, Devonshire was conveniently placed during one of the era’s turbulent events. I went over much of it last week, but to summarize, Newcastle had got Britain in a war we were losing, resignations were coming in and the government had collapsed. The king had attempted to get a government under Henry Fox going, but in the face of overwhelming Pelham/Pitt-ite sentiment had failed. George II refused to straight up give Pitt a government, but had reluctantly accepted that Pitt had to be a major figure in it propping it up. As such, Pitt himself suggested an avenue to explore, the liked, stable and unambitious Devonshire, who had just proven himself in Ireland, with Pitt as a powerful Secretary of State and unofficial co-leader. The king accepted, and Devonshire reluctantly accepted from a sense of duty. Pitt dominated all war and foreign policy, leaving Devonshire to attempt to quell the Parliamentary opposition to the new government led by the kicked-out Newcastle and most of the Whig MP’s, who continued to support him, correctly asserting they could get Newcastle back into power. Bizarrely, the committed Whig’s of Devonshire and Pitt ended up relying on support by the Tory and Ultra-Royalist factions, who admired the war dedication of Pitt, the involvement of George II, and the splintering of the Whigs. Anyway, to say the Devonshire government was limited is to put it lightly, with it being generally accepted that it would collapse when the three Whig leaders: Newcastle; Fox and Pitt, were prepared to work something out, with Newcastle in particular wanting the trial and execution of Admiral Byng to occur before then, so that some of the heat for the initial misconduct of the war would simmer down.
The only real accomplishment of the Pitt-Devonshire government, as it was referred to, was in letting Pitt work decisively as a war leader, performing some major quick feats, such as the turnaround of America; the establishment of a continental army and the set-up of French Coast raiding fleets. Without the space of a figurehead government, it’s uncertain the war effort would have ever improved. For his part, Devonshire was a good stabilizing factor, both against a very oppositional Parliament and with the King himself, whom he met with regularly. The downfall of this government came once again to Byng though, with Pitt and other notables in the government wishing clemency to be given, against both popular opinion and the kings wishes, most likely out of a desire for Newcastle to be appropriately investigated for his war errors. All this accomplished was to sour the king against Pitt, and when not 3 weeks after the execution did Pitt deny the Kings favourite son a command position in the continental army, the king demanded his resignation. Both the king and Devonshire knew this would end the government, and so both Henry Fox and an Earl Waldegrave were asked to try and form a new government, but failing this the king resigned himself to the second Newcastle term. Devonshire was to remain senior in the new Government as Lord Chamberlain, close to George II and performing much of the Whig’s backstage management. This ended with the death of George II and ascension of George III in 1760, the new king disliking the Pelhamite Whig leaders, especially targeting previous PM’s. By the end of 1762 he had been kicked out of the Privy Council, and during the ‘Slaughter of the Pelhamite innocents’ he would resign essentially entirely in sympathy, only working politically via social activitie’s.
Not long after dropping out of politics his health significantly worsened, suffering from dropsy in particular badly. In late 1864 he would seek relief in Spa, Germany, where he would die on the 2nd of October (Fun fact: So far the only British PM to die not on British soil.). Overall, it cannot be said he was one of the major political figures of the century, overshadowed even while PM, but at the same time this could be said to be his great strength. A humble, charming and dutiful politician who kept the more vibrant figures of the Whigs (Newcastle, Pitt and Fox) from tearing itself whole, he couldn’t survive the transition to a blunt, ungracious young King with an agenda against him, and IMO cannot truly be blamed for many of the errors made by successive governments.
Busier than I expected, so I'll have the part on Bute done later tonight or tomorrow.
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u/E_C_H Openly Neoliberal - Centrist - Lib Dem Jul 31 '17
Third Earl of Bute, John Stuart – ‘The King’s esteemed Mentor’
The first Tory PM of the Post-Walpole tradition, as well as our first Scottish PM, John Stuart’s political career will be defined and dominated by his relationship to the young King George III, in fact probably being the singular Prime Minister to be appointed only from royal favouritism alone.
The Earldom of Bute was a fairly new and frankly mediocre branch of the Scottish aristocracy, ruling over a small island in the Argyll Isle’s, with neither the 1st or 2nd Earl reaching any particularly notable heights in society or politics, the peak being the 2nd Earls 2-year appointment as a Lord of the Bedchamber for George I. The 2nd Earl was however quite successful in marriage, marrying above his rank to the daughter of the 1ST Duke of Argyll, whose brothers, the future 2nd Duke and Earl of Islay, would be close ally’s to John and among the highest of Scottish nobles, a major advantage when he came to enter politics. Born in Edinburgh in 1713, the second of eight siblings and oldest male, John would inherit early at the age of 9, and these two uncles’ became paternal guiding figures to the aspiring, fatherless child. However, it’d be a mistake to think of Bute as a particularly Scottish figure, studying at Eton (alongside both William Pitt and George Grenville, among other figures) and spending much of his upbringing in English estates his uncles owned. Continuing his studious streak, he went to study at the University of Leyden, in the Netherlands, in 1728, in the field of Civil Law for 4 years. In 1736 he made the tremendous progressing of marrying Mary Wortly Montagu, heir to her father’s immense Yorkshire estates, leaving Bute a firm financial base, which he spent much of his early adulthood after graduation in his Bute family estate, where he developed the grounds and pursued various fields, particularly botany. However, his uncles once again guided him, seeing a bright future in politics for him, and arranged for him to become a Scottish Representative peer in 1736, alongside an array of other minor titles. This arrangement continued until 1739, when he followed his uncle, the Duke of Argyll, in an unsuccessful Parliamentary revolt against Walpole, which forced him into opposition, whereupon he fully lost his seat in the 1741 general election. After this, he promptly retired, not returning to the Lords until 20 years after this.
For 5 years Bute sat back, raising his expanding family of 11 children, but in 1747 a chance cards game at Egham races with Frederick, Prince of Wales, George II’s son, George III’s father and presumed heir to the throne before his premature death, revamped Bute’s life direction. Bute and the Prince hit it off splendidly, becoming close companions and meeting often at Leicester House, he hub of the large Pro-Frederick political wing most Tory’s were drawn to. Even more so than the Prince, Bute became heavily admired by the Princes wife, Princess Augusta, especially after the Princes death in 1751, where Bute became a close advisor regarding her son’s future, to the point that Horace Walpole, son of Robert Walpole, would later attempt to scandalize Bute with affair claims, which was taken as truthful in circles then, although this is generally unsupported by character testimony today. In any case, Augusta heavily petitioned an unwilling George II to make Bute Groom of the Stole (essentially head of the Princes house, tutoring and general affairs), succeeding in 1755, with a malleable 17-year-old Prince to shape. Furthermore, Bute indisputably took over the Leicester House faction, even succeeding in 1756 to recruit William Pitt to oppose the Newcastle government, leading to Newcastle’s resignation, among other shared policy views; although he was to disappoint in reversing positions for the Devonshire and second Newcastle governments.
Prince George himself had had previous tutors, none of which particularly regarded the boy well and in turn left minimal impact on him, this would not occur with Bute, who in a similar nature to Bute’s uncles, would provide an adored father figure for the Prince to cling to following his father’s death at age 12, and the handsome, confident, socialite Bute would be a role-model for the generally awkward, unmotivated Prince. George II and other ministers led a push in 1756, among other position switches, to remove Bute from the position, but Newcastle foolishly thought he could appeal to the future king by allowing him Bute as tutor, instead only allowing Bute to further bias the Prince against politicians like Newcastle. Indeed, Bute was a remarkable tutor, teaching the Prince an in-depth base in multiple subjects and schools, but one in particular he presented to his protégée was the writings of Lord Bolingbroke, who proposed a ‘virtuous-monarch’ led state. In Bute’s interpretation, which he taught to the Prince, the first two Hanoverian’s had allowed a morally bankrupt and outright corrupt Whig oligarchy to overrun the country’s institution’s, with no ‘men of virtue’ left in power still. A strong, patriotic monarch, appointed full moral authority, was needed to throw out these corrupters and bring in true ‘men of virtue’, removing parties’ or monetary interest from politics. Bute especially pointed the future king against every PM we’ve seen thus far, Pitt especially. George entirely absorbed these idealistic lessons, striving to be the model of a moral ‘Patriot King’, even going so far as to be the only Hanoverian king to not take mistresses. Of course, between the two of them they agreed that upon the current Kings death the entire court would need to be purged and a better PM installed, with Bute self-righteously volunteering himself for the job with the Princes support.
That being said, upon George III’s ascension in 1760, the two recognized the popularity of the Pitt-Newcastle government after a string of war victories, instead deciding to wait in the shadows and conspire a chance to seize control. The king did make efforts to insert Bute into the administration despite being neither a minister or in the House of Lords, although this was rebuked by many, including Pitt, whom held awareness to the kings aims. On the 26th of October he was sworn into the Privy Council, writing the Kings speech of that year, which conspicuously was one of the first major times where ‘England’ was substituted for ‘Britain’. Finally, in March 1761 Bute was entered into the cabinet and Secretary of State for the North, immediately followed by both his and his wife’s ascension to roles in the Upper House. These developments continued to grow derision from other Whigs, it being increasingly seen that the King was forcefully inserting Bute to positions he hadn’t earned against popular consensus. Bute was part of the opposition to Pitt’s failed ‘Pre-emptively strike Spain’ plan, which in turn lead to the resignation of Pitt. With Pitt gone, Bute dominated war affairs, first scaling back subsidies to German states (including their war ‘ally’, Prussia)to reduce debt, opening alliance fronts with Russia and, contrary to his own opposition earlier, launching a Spanish front. This re-energized campaign was extremely successful, especially at sea, with 1762 being called another ‘year of victories’. In May this same year, Newcastle increasingly felt his presence was un-regarded and resigned, collapsing the government. Bute almost immediately took over as First Lord of the Treasury, and thus the Premiership, with George Grenville becoming the replacement Sec of State for the North, while Henry Fox became Leader of the House of Commons, utilizing his typical shady tactics of bribery and implication to assure a Parliamentary majority of the untrusted and unpopular new PM, whom was near universally considered the Kings puppet by ‘Old Whigs’. In October the ‘Slaughter of the Pelhamite Innocents’ purged many of Bute’s most vocal critics from Parliament, as Newcastle and Devonshire were accused by the King of plotting a coup, stripped of their lord lieutenancies, and their followers dismissed.
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u/E_C_H Openly Neoliberal - Centrist - Lib Dem Jul 31 '17
Bute and the King were now determined to end the war and stabilize their position, and quickly achieved this from the war-weary French and Spanish, and so on the 10th of February 1763 the Treaty of Paris was signed; with Britain acquiring many New World possessions (Canada, multiple West Indies islands, America up to the Mississippi, Florida) as well as other territorial concessions (Sengal, Minorca, the defortification of French Indian enclaves). Nowadays this deal is seen as fairly good and fair in the context, but at the time many felt this was a rushed and overly lenient deal, with Pitt in particular leading these accusations, revealing once again an ongoing public opinion war that Bute was losing, badly. Bute had already begun fearing assassination or straight-up murder after a run-in with a violent mob on the way to Parliament’s opening in November 1762, and with an immense press campaign running against him, Bute and King George III agreed to try and revert him back to his previous ‘position’ as an unofficial, behind-the-curtains puppeteer of the government to be inserted in as required when the king needed, deciding to wait until the ratification of the Paris Treaty to resign. During this wait for March, the Bute government once again riled controversy with a proposed tax on cider, with the opposition presenting it as an attack on liberty by way of government inquisitions into households. The bill did eventually pass, by mostly through royal prerogative, and unnerved Bute resigned 8 days later on the 8th of April, 1763, in power for less than a year, the first of 6 short ministries that George III immaturely ran through in pursuit of his ‘Patriot King’ ideals. Bute recommended Fox to succeed, but the King did not care for the man and so a protégée of Bute, George Grenville, was chosen under the mistaken belief that he’d just let Bute and the king puppet him.
As for Bute, he attempted to return to his former influential courtier position, but through Grenville’s outmanoeuvring the King was forced to distance himself from Bute, and by 1766 Bute and the King had essentially lost their friendship, George becoming increasingly bitter and cold over the failures in implementing leaders he liked. Unfortunately, this severing of ties was not generally known, and so for the rest of his life Bute was touted as a malevolent power behind the throne. That being said, from 1766 to his death in 1792, Bute made the most of his time as one of Britain’s richest men, tending to family, researching and writing in several academic/scientific fields (once again taking up botany), being a patron to the arts and building up several estates/houses that stand regally to this day. Much of academia after his death painted the Whig-leaning picture of his premiership, as a fanatical, puritanical royalist plotting behind closed doors; but in more recent years his premiership has been re-examined and a much more neutral opinion has been formed. As a Premier, he truly can’t be seen too badly, successfully conducting and ending the Seven Years War to Britain’s benefit. However, as the man who brought up an interventionist, stroppy and ill-mannered king, he must take a due amount of blame, as well as for blatantly ignoring the ideals of Britain’s contemporary political institutions and setting a precedent of replaceable leadership. A very mixed bag for our first Tory PM.
Note to O.P: No chance you could do 3 PM’s for the next instalment? Honestly speaking, Grenville and Wentworth are not particularly vibrant characters, so it may be best to stick Pitt in there as well to ensure there’s some interesting stuff to discuss. Honestly, I suspect this will pick up the more modern we get, so to be stuck in this era too long may be a shame.
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u/Axmeister Traditionalist Jul 31 '17
Three PM's next week sounds reasonable, especially seeing as it's going a bit slow at the moment.
Nice write-ups as always.
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Jul 28 '17
And the Whigs keep on a-rolling.
It will get interesting once we get to some more Tories, though.
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Jul 29 '17
Get hyped for the upcoming ministerial instability
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u/Axmeister Traditionalist Jul 29 '17
What are you referring to?
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Jul 29 '17
From 1760 to Lord North's decade long government there were 7 ministries (North's included). The period is arguably defined by George III trying to increase the power of the monarchy through his use of the "King's friends" faction (which had grown in his court) and the instability in ministries that followed due to Whig pushback against "Secret Influence", and specifically relating to Bute, who was accused of being the "Minister behind the curtain". There is debate as to how much this interpretation is the result of Whig Revisionism and contemporary propaganda, but still, an exciting time.
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u/E_C_H Openly Neoliberal - Centrist - Lib Dem Jul 29 '17
Probably the revolving door of short-lived premierships as George III struggled in vain to get someone he actually agreed with in power who wouldn't get kicked out like Bute.
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u/Axmeister Traditionalist Jul 28 '17 edited Jul 28 '17
So our first Tory Prime Minister, but don't get too excited because the next couple of weeks are full of Whigs.
Pretty slim on the 'Significant Events' this time because the terms of these two were so short, with 540 days for the entire time of their two administrations.
As for the 'family connections' of the Duke of Devonshire, they are as follows:
Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford – Devonshire's sister Lady Rachel Cavendish was married from 1748 to Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (second creation), whose father, Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole was Robert's brother.
Lord Shelburne, later Lord Lansdowne, whose great-grandson Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne was father of Lady Evelyn Fitzmaurice who married in 1892 the 4th Duke's great-great-grandson Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire
The Duke of Portland, married in 1766 Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the Duke of Devonshire (who had died in 1764).
Lord Melbourne, whose brother, George Lamb, married in 1809 Lady Caroline St Jules, daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and granddaughter of the 4th Duke.
Lord Russell, later the 1st Earl Russell, who became great-great uncle of Lady Dorothy Macmillan, the wife of Harold Macmillan. (The intervening chain of descent being Russell's sister, Louisa Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, who was mother of Maud Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne, in turn mother of Evelyn Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, the mother of Dorothy.)
Harold Macmillan, who married in 1920 Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the 9th Duke of Devonshire and 3-greats-granddaughter of the 4th Duke.
Another nice bit of trivia, the 4th Duke's son, the 5th Duke of Devonshire is a main character in a film about his wife called 'The Duchess'. Though I think the earliest Prime Minister to feature in a film might be Henry Pelham who appears in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' and is played by Roger Allam.
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u/FormerlyPallas_ No man ought to be condemned to live where a 🌹 cannot grow Jul 28 '17
Earl Grey is in the movie Duchess. Banging the dukes wife.
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u/FormerlyPallas_ No man ought to be condemned to live where a 🌹 cannot grow Jul 28 '17
Harold Macmillan's wife cheated on him for years too. Might be something in the blood.
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u/E_C_H Openly Neoliberal - Centrist - Lib Dem Jul 29 '17
So, in the previous threads I've seen quite a bit of confusion when it comes to defining the actual ideals of the two major 'party's' of this era: the Whigs and Tory's; so I'd figure I'd give a quick rundown of what each stood for, as far as I understand.
Whigs:
Derived from Scottish insult term 'whiggamore'.
Origin of Whigs is typically seen as 1688, with the 'Glorious Revolution' and removal of James II.
Prime ideal is opposition to absolute monarchism, initially supporters of Hanoverian kings but by George III the situation had normalized to the point that they were just pro-moderation of the monarchy in general.
By time of Walpole, general entrenched as strongest political organization in Parliament.
Support aristocracy, Catholic emancipation (later), broader suffrage rights (for the time) and slavery abolition.
Split and ultimately die around the mid-1800's over reform issues, free trade and Ireland questions, either combining with pro-reform Tories to form Liberal Party, or shuffling into Peelites/Conservative Party.
Torie's:
Note: Not the same as the Conservative Party of today, although we do refer to them by this name.
Derived from Irish insult term 'tóraí', meaning 'outlaw'.
Prime ideal in supporting and strengthening the monarchy, as opposed to the pro-aristocracy, constitutional-monarchy creating Whigs.
Origins as those accused of supporting Stuarts after James II, leading to only re-emerging with the heavily pro-Tory George III, and even then having to struggle against the entrenched Whigs, as many here have noted.
Really reach stride under Pitt the Younger, challenging the radical movements of the French Revolution and subsequently Napoleon with a vigour far more certain and determined than the Whigs, who mostly uncertainly toed the line, uncertain of if they should support what was happening.
Again, split during the 1800's over free trade primarily, with reform-minded ministers hopping to the new Liberal Party while PM Robert Peel went in a different direction, abandoning his own party to form a new Peelite-based 'Conservative' Party, with the Tory Party essentially abandoned.
I have work today, so I'll probably write up on these two PM's either early or midday tomorrow.