Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (11 May 1815 – 31 March 1891), styledLord Leveson until 1846, was aBritishLiberal statesman[1] and diplomat from theLeveson-Gower family. He is best remembered for his service asSecretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
His foreign policy kept Britain free from European wars and improved relations with the United States after the strain during theAmerican Civil War.[citation needed]
Leveson-Gower was born in London, the eldest son ofGranville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville andLady Harriet Cavendish, daughter ofLady Georgiana Spencer andWilliam Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire. His father was a younger son ofGranville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford and his third wife; an elder son with his second wife (a daughter of the1st Duke of Bridgwater) became the2nd Marquess of Stafford, and his marriage with the daughter and heiress of the 18th Earl of Sutherland (Countess of Sutherland in her own right) led to the merging of the Gower and Stafford titles in that of theDukes of Sutherland (created 1833), who represent the elder branch of the family. He was educated atEton andChrist Church, Oxford.[2]
Leveson-Gower went to Paris for a short time under his father, and in 1836 was elected to Parliament asWhig MP forMorpeth. For a short time (1840-1) he wasUnder-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs inLord Melbourne's ministry. From 1841 until his father's death in 1846, when he succeeded to the title, he sat forLichfield.[2]
In theHouse of Lords he distinguished himself as a Free Trader, and whenLord John Russell formed a government in 1846 he made himMaster of the Buckhounds. He becameVice-President of the Board of Trade in 1848, and took a prominent part in promoting theGreat Exhibition of 1851. Having already been admitted to the Cabinet, for about two months at the end of 1851 and the start of 1852 he succeededPalmerston asForeign Secretary until Russell's defeat in 1852.[2]
WhenLord Aberdeen formed his coalition government at the end of 1852, Granville became firstLord President of the Council, and thenChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1854). Under Lord Palmerston (1855) he was again President of the Council.[2] His interest in education (a subject associated with this office) led to his election (1856) as chancellor of theUniversity of London, a post he held for thirty-five years; and he was a prominent champion of the movement for the admission of women, and also of the teaching of modern languages.[2]
From 1855 Lord Granville led the Liberals in the Upper House, both in office and, after Palmerston's resignation in 1858, in opposition. In 1856 he was head of the British mission to TsarAlexander II of Russia's coronation in Moscow. In June 1859Queen Victoria asked him to form a ministry, but he was unable to do so, and Palmerston again became Prime Minister, with Russell as Foreign Secretary and Granville once again as President of the Council.[2]
He retained his office when, on Palmerston's death in 1865, Lord Russell (now a peer) became Prime Minister and took over the leadership in the House of Lords. Granville, now an established Liberal leader, was madeLord Warden of the Cinque Ports.[2]
He received an honorary degree fromCambridge University in 1864.[3]
He served in the part-timeStaffordshire Yeomanry, being commissioned as amajor on 12 December 1848 and being promoted tolieutenant-colonel on 3 July 1854. He continued in the regiment until the early 1860s.[4] As Lord Warden, he was appointedhonorary colonel of the1st Cinque Ports Artillery Volunteers on 23 April 1866.[5]
Lord Granville owned coal and ironstone mines[6] atStoke-on-Trent and was the principal shareholder of theShelton Iron & Steel Co[7] In 1873 the company operated 8 blast furnaces and 97 puddling furnaces. He also held shares in theLilleshall Company.[8][9]
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During the American Civil War, Granville was non-interventionist along with the majority of Palmerston's cabinet. His memorandum against intervention in September 1862 drew Prime Minister Palmerston's attention. The document proved to be a strong reason for Palmerston's refusal to intervene and for Britain's relations with the North to remain basically stable for the rest of the conflict despite tensions.[10] From 1866 to 1868, he was in opposition, but in December 1868 he becameColonial Secretary inGladstone's first ministry. His tact was invaluable to the government in carrying the Irish Church and Land Bills through the House of Lords. On 27 June 1870, onLord Clarendon's death, he became foreign secretary.[2] With war clouds gathering in Europe, Granville worked to authorise preliminary talks to settle American disputes and in appointing the British High Commission to sail to the United States and negotiate the most comprehensivetreaty of the nineteenth century in Anglo-American relations with an American commission in Washington.[citation needed]
Lord Granville's name is mainly associated with his career as foreign secretary (1870–1874 and 1880–1885). It brought better relations with the United States, and it was innovative in supporting Gladstone's wish to settle British-American fisheries and Civil War disputes over the Confederate cruisers built in Britain, like theAlabama, through international arbitration in 1872. For example, the long-standingSan Juan Island Water Boundary Dispute inPuget Sound, which had been left ambiguous in theOregon Treaty of 1846 to salve relations and get a treaty sorting out the primary differences, was arbitrated by theGerman Emperor also in 1872. In putting British-American relations up to the world as a model for how to resolve disputes peacefully, Granville helped create a breakthrough in international relations.[11]
TheFranco-Prussian War of 1870 broke out within a few days of Lord Granville's quoting in the House of Lords (11 July 1870) the opinion of thepermanent under-secretary (Edmund Hammond) that "he had never known so great a lull in foreign affairs." Russia took advantage of the situation to denounce theBlack Sea clauses of theTreaty of Paris, and Lord Granville's protest was ineffectual. In 1871 an intermediate zone between Asiatic Russia andAfghanistan was agreed on between him andShuvalov; but in 1873 Russia took possession of theKhanate of Khiva, within the neutral zone, and Lord Granville had to accept the aggression[2] (See also:The Great Game).
When the Conservatives came into power in 1874, his part for the next six years was to criticiseDisraeli's "spirited" foreign policy, and to defend his own more pliant methods. He returned to the foreign office in 1880, only to find an anti-British spirit developing in German policy which the temporising methods of the Liberal leaders were generally powerless to deal with.[2]
Lord Granville failed to realise in time the importance of theAngra Pequena question in 1883–1884, and he was forced, somewhat ignominiously, to yield toBismarck over it. Finally, when Gladstone took upHome Rule for Ireland, Lord Granville, whose mind was similarly receptive to new ideas, adhered to his chief (1886), and gave way toLord Rosebery when the latter was preferred to the foreign office; the Liberals had now realised that they had lost ground in the country by Lord Granville's occupancy of the post.[12] He went into Colonial Office service for six months, and in July 1886 retired from public life.[2]
Lord Granville married Lady Acton (Marie Louise Pelline de Dalberg), daughter of the Duke of Dalberg,Emmerich Joseph de Dalberg (a famous diplomat), widow ofSir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, Bt and mother of the historianLord Acton, in 1840. She died in 1860.
He was engaged in 1864 to an envoy and former spy from theConfederate States of America,Rose O'Neal Greenhow; but shortly thereafter, in returning to the Confederacy, she drowned offWilmington, North Carolina, when her rowboat overturned as she was escaping a US blockade ship.
He married, as his second wife, Castilia Rosalind Campbell (or Castalia), daughter ofWalter Frederick Campbell,[13] on 26 September 1865; their children were:
Granville died in London on 31 March 1891 and was succeeded in his peerages by his elder son, who became the 3rd Earl. He was buried in the family vault in the churchyard of St Michael and St Wulfad,Stone, Staffordshire.
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Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh (1911). "Granville, Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 362.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forMorpeth 1837–1840 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLichfield 1841–1846 With:Lord Alfred Paget | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1840–1841 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Master of the Buckhounds 1846 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Paymaster General 1848–1852 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Vice-President of the Board of Trade 1848–1852 | |
| Preceded by | Foreign Secretary 1851–1852 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord President of the Council 1852–1854 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1854–1855 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord President of the Council 1855–1858 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the House of Lords 1855–1858 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the House of Lords 1859–1865 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord President of the Council 1859–1866 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for the Colonies 1868–1870 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Foreign Secretary 1870–1874 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Foreign Secretary 1880–1885 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for the Colonies 1886 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the University of London 1856–1891 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Whigs in theHouse of Lords 1855–1859 | Party merged withPeelites,Radicals andIndependent Irish Party to form British Liberal party |
| New political party | Leader of the Liberals in theHouse of Lords 1859–1865 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Liberals in theHouse of Lords 1868–1891 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the British Liberal Party 1875–1880 withMarquess of Hartington | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1865–1891 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Earl Granville 2nd creation 1846–1891 | Succeeded by |
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