The Earl of Clarendon | |
|---|---|
 The 4th Earl of Clarendon,c. 1860s | |
| Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 21 February 1853 – 26 February 1858 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Earl of Aberdeen The Viscount Palmerston |
| Preceded by | John Russell |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Malmesbury |
| In office 3 November 1865 – 6 July 1866 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | John Russell |
| Preceded by | John Russell |
| Succeeded by | Lord Stanley |
| In office 9 December 1868 – 27 June 1870 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Lord Stanley |
| Succeeded by | The Earl Granville |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 31 October 1840 – 23 June 1841 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | Viscount Melbourne |
| Preceded by | The Lord Holland |
| Succeeded by | George Grey |
| In office 7 April 1864 – 3 November 1865 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Viscount Palmerston John Russell |
| Preceded by | Edward Cardwell |
| Succeeded by | George Goschen |
| Lord Lieutenant of Ireland | |
| In office 22 May 1847 – 1 March 1852 | |
| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Prime Minister | John Russell |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Bessborough |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Eglinton |
| President of the Board of Trade | |
| In office 6 July 1846 – 22 July 1847 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | John Russell |
| Preceded by | The Marquess of Dalhousie |
| Succeeded by | Henry Labouchere |
| Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal | |
| In office 15 January 1840 – 30 August 1841 | |
| Prime Minister | The Viscount Melbourne |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Bessborough |
| Succeeded by | The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 January 1800 (1800-01-12) London, England |
| Died | 27 June 1870(1870-06-27) (aged 70) London, England |
| Party | Liberal |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 8 |
| Parent(s) | George Villiers Theresa Parker |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Signature |  |
George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (12 January 1800 – 27 June 1870) was an English diplomat and statesman from theVilliers family. He served a succession ofWhig andLiberal administrations. This included asViceroy infamine-stricken Ireland and, on the first of three occasions asForeign Secretary, as theUnited Kingdom's chief representative at theCongress of Paris which ended theCrimean War.
Villiers was born in London toHon. George VilliersMP and Hon. Theresa Parker, daughter ofJohn Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon. He was the second born, but first surviving, of their 10 children. His father was the third son ofThomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon (himself the second son ofWilliam Villiers, 2nd Earl of Jersey). After the death of his father in 1827, George became heir to the earldom, succeeding his uncleThomas Villiers, 2nd Earl of Clarendon (1753–1824), who died unmarried; and his uncleJohn Villiers, 3rd Earl of Clarendon (1757–1838), who died without an heir.[1]
Villiers was educated atChrist's Hospital andSt John's College, Cambridge, which he entered at the early age of sixteen, on 29 June 1816.[2] In 1820, as the eldest son of an earl's brother of royal descent, he was able to take hisMA degree under the statutes of the university then in force.[3]
In the same year, Villiers was appointed attaché to the British embassy atSaint Petersburg. There he remained three years, and gained practical knowledge of diplomacy which would be of use to him later in his life. TheEncyclopaedia Britannica stated that he had "received from nature a singularly handsome person, a polished and engaging address, a ready command of languages, and a remarkable power of composition".[3] Upon his return to England in 1823, he was appointed to a commissionership of customs, an office which he retained for about ten years. In 1831, he was dispatched to France in a fruitless attempt to negotiate a commercial treaty.
On 16 August 1833, he was appointed minister at the Court of Spain.Ferdinand VII died within a month of his arrival atMadrid, and the infant QueenIsabella, then two years old, was placed on the throne based on the old Spanish custom of female inheritance – but her succession was challenged byDon Carlos, the late King's brother, by virtue of theSalic law of theHouse of Bourbon which Ferdinand had renounced before the birth of his daughter. Isabella II and her mother the Queen RegentChristina became the representatives of constitutional monarchy, Don Carlos of Catholic absolutism. The conflict, which had divided the despotic and the constitutional powers of Europe since theFrench Revolution of 1830, broke out into civil war in Spain, and by theQuadruple Treaty, signed on 22 April 1834, France and England pledged themselves to the defence of the constitutional thrones of Spain and Portugal. For six years, on behalf of the British government, Villiers continued to aid theLiberal government of Spain. He was unjustly accused of having supported the revolution of La Granja, which drove Christina, the Queen Mother, out of the kingdom, and raisedEspartero to the regency. He undoubtedly supported the chiefs of the Liberal party, such as Espartero, against the intrigues of the French court; but the object of the British government was to establish Isabella as Queen on a truly national and liberal basis and to protect her against the foreign influence which eventually undermined her regime.[3]
Slavery had been declared illegal in Spanish colonies from 1820, but still had not been eradicated. Villiers worked with the help ofThe Times correspondentDavid Turnbull to get slavery removed from Spanish colonies. In 1835 the Spanish reaffirmed their commitment to end slavery.[4]
Villiers receivedthe Grand Cross of the Bath in 1838 in acknowledgment of his services in Spain, and succeeded, on the death of his uncle, to the title of Earl of Clarendon; in the following year, having left Madrid, he married a young widow, Lady Katharine Foster-Barham (née Grimston), eldest daughter ofJames Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam.[3]
In January 1840 he enteredLord Melbourne'sWhig administration asLord Privy Seal, and from the death ofLord Holland that autumn he also held the office ofChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster until the end of the ministry in 1841. Clarendon and Holland believed that friendly Anglo-French relations were important to promote peace and liberalism in Europe. He reluctantly supported Foreign SecretaryLord Palmerston's expulsion of the pro-FrenchMohammed Ali of Egypt from Syria but did not resign as it might break up a cabinet he had so recently joined.[3]
During SirRobert Peel's Conservative administration (1841–1846) Lord Clarendon took a strong interest in the triumph offree trade and in the repeal of theCorn Laws, a policy of which his younger brotherCharles Pelham Villiers had been one of the earliest champions. Clarendon accepted the office ofPresident of the Board of Trade inLord John Russell's first administration in 1846.
Clarendon was twice offered the Governor-Generalship of India, and once the Governor-Generalship of Canada, but he declined as it would have meant leaving British and European politics for some years.
In 1847, Clarendon was persuaded to accept theLord Lieutenancy of Ireland, which the Cabinet wanted to abolish and transform into an Irish secretaryship of state. He arrived during the second year of theGreat Famine. His reports on the scale of the crisis were regularly discounted by a government that deferred to the permanent head of theTreasury,Sir Charles Trevelyan.[5]
Despairing of effective famine relief, Clarendon suggested to Russell, that "there is not another legislature in Europe that would disregard such suffering as now exists in the west of Ireland, or coldly persist in a policy of extermination".[5] Lord Russell replied: “The course of English benevolence is frozen by insult, calumny and rebellion". In London there was consternation over Irish agitation forrepeal of the Act of Union, reports ofviolence directed against landlords and the attemptedrising by the Young Irelanders.[6]
While he was to commute the sentences of the Young Ireland conspirators from hanging to life transportation, Clarendon did take stringent security measures, proclaimingmartial law in large parts of the country and persuadingWestminster to suspendHabeas Corpus.[7] At the same time, he continued to plead what he saw as Ireland's case.
In the hope of garnering greater English sympathy, in 1849 he hostedQueen Victoria in Ireland. Her visit was deemed a "great popular success".[8] But it appeared to make no impression on Irish policy. Trevelyan, a student ofThomas Malthus, insisted that Ireland be "left to the operation of natural causes"[5] (and was fearful that borrowing to finance relief efforts in Ireland might panic the markets.[9]
He attempted a policy of conciliation with theRoman Catholic Church in Ireland. In 1849, he sided with Catholic bishops in their objections to a non-denominational ("godless") scheme for higher education, and when an official inquiry failed to indict theOrange Order for the death of 20 Catholics in theDolly's Brae affray, he dismissed the magistrate concerned,Lord Roden, and helped bring in theParty Processions Act (1850) to curtail the Protestant association.[7] However, Orangemen accused Clarendon of double-dealing, having previously supplied them with arms. The claim was publicly upheld byIsaac Butt,Member of Parliament, a former Orangeman whom the famine had converted to the cause of Irish self-government. When he returned to England following the fall of the Russell ministry in February 1852, "he was distrusted by all sides in Ireland".[7]
Despite what he accounted as "failure" in Ireland, Clarendon continued to enjoy official favour.[6] His services were expressly acknowledged in the Queen's Speech to both Houses of Parliament in September 1848 - this being the first time that any civil servant obtained that honour; and he was made aKnight of the Garter (retaining also the Grand Cross of the Bath by special order) on 23 March 1849.[3]
In January 1853, Clarendon succeededLord John Russell asForeign Secretary inLord Aberdeen's coalition ministry ofWhigs andPeelites, which had been formed the previous December. The country was already "drifting" into theCrimean War, an expression of Clarendon's which became notorious. Clarendon was not responsible for starting the war, but he supported it and maintained close relations with the French EmperorNapoleon III, and theEmpress Eugenie, whom he had known in Spain from her childhood. The TsarNicholas I had not believed that France and Britain could cooperate successfully against Russia.[3]
When the Crimean War ended in 1856 Lord Clarendon was first British plenipotentiary at theCongress of Paris convened to negotiate a peace treaty, the first time sinceLord Castlereagh's attendance at theCongress of Vienna that a British Foreign Secretary had personally attended such a conference. Clarendon's first priority was to ensure thatPiedmont-Sardinia was admitted to the conference as an Allied power, but that Prussia, which had remained neutral, should be excluded. Clarendon ensured that the Allies insisted on neutralising theBlack Sea and that the Russian attempt to retainSouth Bessarabia was defeated. The congress was eager to turn to other subjects, and perhaps its most important achievement was the celebratedDeclaration of the Maritime Powers, which abolished privateering, defined the right of blockade, and limited the right of capture to enemy property in enemy ships. Clarendon has been accused of abandoning Britain's belligerent rights, which were based on the old maritime laws of Europe. But he acted with the agreement of the British Cabinet, which felt that it was not to Britain's benefit keep to customs which exposed Britain's vast merchant fleet to attack, even by the cruisers of a secondary maritime power, and which, if vigorously enforced against neutrals, would embroil Britain with every maritime state in the world.[3]
When Lord Palmerston formed a Liberal government in 1859,Lord John Russell only agreed to serve if given the Foreign Office, leaving no suitably senior job for Clarendon. From 1861 to 1864, he chaired theClarendon Commission investigating the state of nine leading schools in England. Clarendon re-entered the cabinet in May 1864 asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He served as Foreign Secretary a second time in Russell's second government (1865-66), and for a third time in the early years ofGladstone's government formed in 1868. He died surrounded by the boxes and papers of his office on 27 June 1870.[3]
On 4 June 1839, Villiers married the widowed Lady Katherine Foster-Barham (a daughter ofJames Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam) and they had eight children:[1]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Clarendon, George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 434–435.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Lord Privy Seal 1840–1841 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1840–1841 | Succeeded by |
| President of the Board of Trade 1846–1847 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1847–1852 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Foreign Secretary 1853–1858 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1864–1865 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Foreign Secretary 1865–1866 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Foreign Secretary 1868–1870 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by | Earl of Clarendon 2nd creation 1838–1870 | Succeeded by |
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