The Earl of Guilford | |
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.jpg) Portrait byNathaniel Dance-Holland,c. 1773–74 | |
| Prime Minister of Great Britain | |
| In office 28 January 1770 – 27 March 1782 | |
| Monarch | George III |
| Preceded by | The Duke of Grafton |
| Succeeded by | The Marquess of Rockingham |
| Home Secretary | |
| In office 2 April 1783 – 19 December 1783 | |
| Prime Minister | The Duke of Portland |
| Preceded by | Thomas Townshend |
| Succeeded by | The Earl Temple |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office 11 September 1767 – 27 March 1782 | |
| Prime Minister |
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| Preceded by | Charles Townshend |
| Succeeded by | Lord John Cavendish |
| Paymaster of the Forces | |
| In office 21 August 1766 – 9 December 1767 Serving with George Cooke | |
| Prime Minister | The Earl of Chatham |
| Preceded by | Charles Townshend |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Townshend |
| Member of Parliament forBanbury | |
| In office 20 May 1754 – 4 August 1790 | |
| Preceded by | John Willes |
| Succeeded by | George North, Lord North |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1732-04-13)13 April 1732 Piccadilly, London, England |
| Died | 5 August 1792(1792-08-05) (aged 60) Mayfair, London, England |
| Resting place | All Saints' Church,Wroxton, England |
| Political party | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 7, includingGeorge,Francis andFrederick |
| Parent |
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| Alma mater | Trinity College, Oxford |
| Signature |  |
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (13 April 1732 – 5 August 1792), better known by hiscourtesy titleLord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, wasPrime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led theKingdom of Great Britain through most of theAmerican Revolutionary War. He also held a number of other cabinet posts, includingHome Secretary andChancellor of the Exchequer.
North's reputation among historians has varied wildly, reaching its lowest point in the late 19th century, when he was depicted as a creature ofKing George III and an incompetent who lost theAmerican colonies. In the early 20th century a revised view emerged which emphasised his strengths in administering the Treasury, handling theHouse of Commons, and in defending theChurch of England. The historianHerbert Butterfield, however, argued that his indolence was a barrier to efficient crisis management; he neglected his role in supervising the entire war effort.[1][2]
Frederick North was born in London on 13 April 1732 at the family house atAlbemarle Street, just offPiccadilly.[3] He spent much of his youth atWroxton Abbey inOxfordshire. North's strong resemblance toKing George III suggested to contemporaries that George III's father,Frederick, Prince of Wales, might have been North's real father, making North the king's half-brother, a theory compatible with the prince's reputation but supported by little else other than the circumstantial evidence.[4]
King George IV remarked that "either his royal grandfather or North's mother must have played her husband false",[5] North's father,Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford, was from 1730 to 1751Lord of the Bedchamber to Frederick, Prince of Wales, who stood asgodfather to the infant, christened Frederick, possibly in honour of his real father.[6]
North was descended fromHenry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester, paternal uncle ofEdward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich and was related toSamuel Pepys and the3rd Earl of Bute. He at times had a slightly turbulent relationship with his father, Francis, yet they were very close. In his early years the family were not wealthy, though their situation improved in 1735 when his father inherited property from his cousin.[7]
Frederick's mother, Lady Lucy Montagu, a daughter ofGeorge Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, and his first wife, Ricarda Posthuma Saltonstall, died in 1734. His father remarried, but his stepmother, Elizabeth Kaye, widow of George Legge, Viscount Lewisham, eldest son ofWilliam Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth and his wife, Lady Anne Finch, third daughter ofHeneage Finch, 1st Earl of Aylesford, died in 1745, when Frederick was thirteen. One of his stepbrothers wasWilliam Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, who remained a close friend for life.[8]
He was educated atEton College between 1742 and 1748 and atTrinity College, Oxford, where in 1750 he was awarded anMA. After leaving theUniversity of Oxford he travelled in Europe on aGrand Tour with Lord Dartmouth. They stayed inLeipzig for nearly nine months, studying under the constitutional scholarJohann Jacob Mascov.[9] They continued through Austria and Italy, staying in Rome from December 1752 to Easter 1753, then through Switzerland to Paris, returning to England in early 1754.[10]
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On 15 April 1754 North, then 22, was elected unopposed as themember of Parliament forBanbury.[11] He served as an MP from 1754 to 1790 and joined the government as a juniorLord of the Treasury on 2 June 1759 during thePitt–Newcastle ministry (an alliance betweenthe Duke of Newcastle andWilliam Pitt the Elder). He soon developed a reputation as a good administrator and parliamentarian and was generally liked by his colleagues. Although he initially considered himself aWhig, he did not closely align with any of the Whig factions inParliament, and it became obvious to many contemporaries that his sympathies were largelyTory.[12][2]
He was appointedLieutenant-Colonel of the1st Somerset Militia on 23 June 1759 when it was embodied for fulltime service, and commanded it in the West Country forEarl Poulett, the colonel, who was alsoLord Lieutenant of Somerset. However, North resigned in November 1761 and concentrated on his political career.[13]
In November 1763, he was chosen to speak for the government concerning the radical MPJohn Wilkes. Wilkes had made a savage attack on both the Prime Minister and the King in his newspaperThe North Briton, which many thought libellous. North's motion for Wilkes to be expelled from theHouse of Commons passed by 273 votes to 111. Wilkes' expulsion took place in his absence, as he had already fled to France following a duel.[14]
When a government headed by the Whig magnateCharles Watson-Wentworth, Lord Rockingham, came to power in 1765, North left his post and served for a time as abackbench MP. He turned down an offer by Rockingham to rejoin the government, not wanting to be associated with the Whiggrandees that dominated the Ministry.[15]
He returned to office when Pitt returned to head a second government in 1766. North was appointed JointPaymaster of the Forces in Pitt's ministry and became aPrivy Counsellor. As Pitt was constantly ill, the government was effectively run byAugustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, with North as one of its most senior members.[16]
In December 1767 he succeededCharles Townshend asChancellor of the Exchequer. With the resignation of the secretary of stateHenry Seymour Conway in early 1768, North becameLeader of the Commons as well. He continued to serve when Pitt was succeeded by Grafton in October.[2]
When the Duke of Grafton resigned as Prime Minister, North formed a government on 28 January 1770. His ministers and supporters tended to be known as Tories, though they were not a formal grouping and many had previously been Whigs. He took over with Great Britain in a triumphant state following theSeven Years' War, which had seen theFirst British Empire expand to a peak by taking in vast new territories on several continents. Circumstances forced him to keep many members of the previous cabinet in their jobs, despite their lack of agreement with him.[17] In contrast to many of his predecessors, North enjoyed a good relationship with George III, partly based on their sharedpatriotism and desire for decency in theirprivate lives.[18]
North's ministry had an early success during theFalklands Crisis in 1770, in which Great Britain faced down a Spanish attempt to seize theFalkland Islands, nearly provoking a war.[17] Both France and Spain had been left unhappy by Great Britain's perceived dominance followingthe British victory in theSeven Years' War.[citation needed] Spanish forces seized the British settlement on the Falklands and expelled the small British garrison. When Britain opposed the seizure, Spain sought backing from her ally France.King Louis XV of France did not believe his country was ready for war, however, and in the face of a strong mobilisation of the British fleet, the French compelled the Spanish to back down. Louis also dismissed theDuc de Choiseul, the hawkish Chief Minister of France, who had advocated war and a large invasion of Great Britain by the French.
The British government's prestige and popularity were enormously boosted by the incident. It had successfully managed to drive a wedge between France and Spain and demonstrated the power of theRoyal Navy, although it was suggested by critics that this gave Lord North a degree of complacency and an incorrect belief that the European powers would not interfere in British colonial affairs. This was contrasted with the previous administration's failure to prevent Francefrom annexing theRepublic of Corsica, a British ally, during theCorsican Crisis two years earlier. Using his newly found popularity, North took a chance and appointedLord Sandwich to the cabinet asFirst Lord of the Admiralty.
Most of North's government was focused first on the growing problems with the American colonies. Later on, it was preoccupied with conducting theAmerican War of Independence that broke out in 1775 with theBattle of Lexington. Following theBoston Tea Party in 1773, Lord North proposed a number of legislative measures that were supposed to punish the Bostonians. These measures were known as theCoercive Acts in Great Britain, while dubbed theIntolerable Acts in the colonies. By shutting down the Boston government and cutting off trade, he hoped they would keep the peace and dispirit the rebellious colonists. Instead, the acts further inflamed Massachusetts and the other colonies, eventually resulting in open war during theBoston campaign of 1775–76.
North delegated the overall strategy of the war to his key subordinatesLord George Germain and the Earl of Sandwich. Despite a series of victories and thecapture of New York andPhiladelphia, the British were unable to secure a decisive victory. In 1778 the French allied themselves with the American rebels, and Spain joined the war in 1779 as an ally of France, followed by theDutch Republic in 1780. The British found themselves fighting aglobal war on four continents without a single ally. After 1778 the British switched the focus of their efforts to the defence of theWest Indies, as their sugar wealth made them much more valuable to Great Britain than theThirteen Colonies. In 1779 Great Britain was faced with the prospect of a major Franco-Spanish invasion, but theArmada of 1779 was ultimately a failure. Several peace initiatives fell through, and an attempt byRichard Cumberland to negotiate a separate peace with Spain ended in frustration.
The country's problems were augmented by theFirst League of Armed Neutrality, which was formed to counter the British blockade strategy, and threatened British naval supplies from theBaltic. With severe manpower shortages, North's government passed an act abandoning previous statutes placing restrictions on Catholics serving in the military. This provoked an upsurge of anti-Catholic feelings and the formation of theProtestant Association that led to theGordon Riots in London in June 1780.[19] For around a week, the city was in the control of the mob until the military was called out andmartial law imposed.[20] Public opinion, especially in middle-class and elite circles, repudiated anti-Catholicism and violence, and rallied behind the North government. Demands were made for a London police force.[21]
Britain's fortunes in the war in America had temporarily improved following the failure of aFranco-American attack on Newport and the prosecution of a Southern strategy that sawthe capture of Charleston, South Carolina and its garrison. During 1780 and 1781, the North government gained strength in the House of Commons.[22] In October 1781, a British army underLord Cornwallis surrendered at the conclusion of thesiege of Yorktown. When the news reached North, he took it "as he would have taken a ball in his breast", and exclaimed repeatedly "Oh God! It is all over!"[23]
North was the second British prime minister to be forced out of office by amotion of no confidence; the first was SirRobert Walpole in 1742. North resigned on 20 March 1782 on account of the British defeat atYorktown the year before. In an attempt to end the war, he proposed the Conciliation Plan, in which he promised that Great Britain would eliminate all disagreeable acts if the colonies ended the war. The colonies rejected the plan, as their goal had become full independence.
In April 1782 it was suggested in cabinet byLord Shelburne that North should be brought to public trial for his conduct of the American War, but the prospect was soon abandoned.[24] Ironically, the war began to turn in Great Britain's favour again in 1782 through naval victories, owing largely to policies adopted by Lord North and the Earl of Sandwich. The British naval victory at theBattle of the Saintes took place after the government's fall. Despite predictions thatGibraltar's fall was imminent,that fortress managed to hold out and was relieved. Great Britain was able to make a much more favourable peace in 1783 than had appeared likely at the time when North had been ousted. In spite of this, North was critical of the terms agreed by the Shelburne government which he felt undervalued the strength of the British negotiating position.
In April 1783 North returned to power asHome Secretary in an unlikely coalition with the radical Whig leaderCharles James Fox known as the Fox–North Coalition under the nominal leadership of theDuke of Portland. George III, who detested the radical and republican Fox, never forgave this supposed betrayal, and North never again served in government after the ministry fell in December 1783. One of the major achievements of the coalition was the signing of theTreaty of Paris, which formally ended theAmerican War of Independence.
The new prime minister,William Pitt the Younger, was not expected to last long, and North, a vocal critic, still entertained hopes of regaining high office. In this he was to be frustrated, as Pitt dominated the British political scene for the next twenty years, leaving both North and Fox in the political wilderness.
North was an active speaker until he began to go blind in 1786. He succeeded his father as the 2nd Earl of Guilford on 4 August 1790 and entered theHouse of Lords, by which time he had entirely lost his sight.[25] North died inMayfair, England (now part of London), and was buried at All Saints' Church,Wroxton (Oxfordshire), near his family home ofWroxton Abbey. His memorial was sculpted byJohn Flaxman RA.[26]
His sonGeorge North, Lord North, took over the constituency of Banbury, and in 1792 acceded to his father's title. Wroxton Abbey was until recently owned byFairleigh Dickinson University, ironically an American college, with the modernised abbey serving as a location for American students to study abroad in England.
North is today predominantly remembered as the prime minister "who lost America".[27]
BothLord North Street andGuilford Street in London are named after him.
On 20 May 1756 North marriedAnne Speke (before 1741 – 1797), daughter ofGeorge Speke MP, ofWhitelackington inSomerset. She was the sole heiress of theDevonshire estates of the Drake family ofAsh, which subsequently were sold piecemeal by North.[28] He and Anne had seven children:
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| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Paymaster of the Forces 1766–1767 Served alongside:George Cooke | Succeeded by |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer 1767–1782 | Succeeded by | |
| Leader of the House of Commons 1767–1782 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Great Britain 1770–1782 | Succeeded by |
| First Lord of the Treasury 1770–1782 | ||
| Preceded by | Home Secretary 1783 | Succeeded by |
| Leader of the House of Commons 1783 Served alongside:Charles James Fox | Succeeded by | |
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBanbury 1754–1790 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | President of the Foundling Hospital 1771–1792 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Somerset 1774–1792 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1778–1792 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1772–1792 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by | Earl of Guilford 1790–1792 | Succeeded by |
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