George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax
DL FRS | |
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Lord President of the Council | |
In office 18 February – 4 December 1685 | |
Monarch | James II |
Preceded by | The Earl of Rochester |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Sunderland |
Personal details | |
Born | George Savile 11 November 1633 Thornhill, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
Died | 5 April 1695 | (aged 61)
Resting place | Westminster Abbey, London, England |
Spouses |
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Children |
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Parents |
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George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax,
Background and early life, 1633–1667
Savile was born in
In 1660, Savile was elected
The Duke of York sought a peerage for him in 1665, but was successfully opposed by Clarendon, on the ground of his "ill-reputation amongst men of piety and religion." The chancellor's real motives may have been Savile's connection with Buckingham and Coventry. The honours were, however, only deferred for a short time and were obtained after the fall of Clarendon on 31 December 1667, when Savile was created Baron Savile of Elland and Viscount Halifax.
In 1667 he was commissioned Captain to raise a troop in Yorkshire[3] for Prince Rupert's Regiment of Horse.[5]
Political career, 1668–1680
Test Act and the Catholic Question, 1673–1678
Halifax took an active part in Parliament's passage of the
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in November 1675.[6]
In 1678 he took an active part in the investigation of the "Popish Plot," to which he appears to have given excessive credence, but opposed the bill that was passed on 30 October 1678, to exclude Roman Catholics from the House of Lords.
Privy Councillor, 1679–1680
In 1679, after Danby's fall from grace, Halifax became a member of the newly constituted privy council. With Charles, who had at first "kicked at his appointment," he quickly became a favourite, his lively and "libertine" conversation being named by Bishop Gilbert Burnet as his chief attraction for the king. His dislike of the Duke of York and of the crypto-Catholic tendencies of the court did not induce him to support the rash attempt of Lord Shaftesbury to substitute the illegitimate Duke of Monmouth for James in the succession. He feared Shaftesbury's ascendancy in the national councils and foresaw nothing but civil war and confusion as a result of his scheme. He declared against the exclusion of James, was made an earl in 1679, and was one of the "Triumvirate" which now directed public affairs. He assisted in passing into law the Habeas Corpus Act. According to Sir William Temple he showed great severity in putting the laws against the Roman Catholics into force although in 1680 he voted against the execution of Lord Stafford.
The Trimmer, 1680–1682
Halifax's whole policy had been successfully directed towards uniting all parties with the object of frustrating Shaftesbury's plans. He opened communications with the
Halifax retired to Rufford again in January 1681, but was present at the Oxford Parliament, and in May returned suddenly to public life and held for a year the chief control of affairs. Shaftesbury's arrest on 2 July was attributed to his influence, but in general, during the period of Tory reaction, he seems to have urged a policy of conciliation and moderation to the king. He opposed James's return from Scotland and, about this time (September), made a characteristic but futile attempt to persuade the Duke to attend the services of the Church of England and thus to end all difficulties. He renewed relations with the Prince of Orange, who in July paid a visit to England to seek support against the French designs upon Luxembourg. The influence of Halifax procured for the Dutch a formal assurance from Charles of his support; but the king informed the French ambassador that he had no intention of fulfilling his engagements, and made another secret treaty with Louis. In 1682, Halifax opposed James's prosecution of the Earl of Argyll, arousing further hostility in the duke, while the same year he was challenged to a duel by Monmouth, who attributed to him his disgrace.
Withdrawal from politics, 1682–1689
Halifax's short tenure of power ended with the return of James in May. Outwardly he still retained the king's favour and was advanced to a marquessate in August and to the office of Lord Privy Seal in October. Being still a member of the administration, he must share responsibility for the attack now made upon the municipal franchises, especially as the new charters passed his office. In January 1684 he was one of the commissioners "who supervise all things concerning the city and have turned out those persons who are whiggishly inclined." He made honorable but vain endeavours to save Algernon Sidney and Lord Russell. "My Lord Halifax," declared Tillotson in his evidence before the later inquiry, "showed a very compassionate concern for my Lord Russell and all the readiness to serve them that could be wished." The Rye House Plot, in which it was sought to implicate them, was a disastrous blow to his policy, and in order to counteract its consequences he entered into somewhat perilous negotiations with Monmouth, and endeavoured to effect his reconciliation with the king. On 12 February 1684, he procured the release of his old antagonist, Lord Danby. Shortly afterwards his influence at the court revived. Charles was no longer in receipt of his French pension and was beginning to tire of James and Rochester. The latter, instead of becoming lord treasurer, was, according to the epigram of Halifax which has become proverbial, "kicked upstairs," to the office of Lord President of the Council. Halifax now worked to establish better relations between Charles and the Prince of Orange and opposed the abrogation of the recusancy laws. In a debate in the cabinet of November 1684, on the question of the grant of a fresh constitution to the New England colonies, he urged with great warmth "that there could be no doubt whatever but that the same laws which are in force in England should also be established in a country inhabited by Englishmen and that an absolute government is neither so happy nor so safe as that which is tempered by laws and which sets bounds to the authority of the prince," and declared that he could not "live under a king who should have it in his power to take, whenever he thought proper, the money he has in his pocket." The opinions thus expressed were opposed by all the other ministers and highly censured by Louis XIV, James and Judge George Jeffreys.
Opposition to James II, 1685–1688
At James's accession, Halifax was deprived of much of his power and relegated to the presidency of the council. He showed no compliance with James's preferences. He was opposed to the parliamentary grant to the king of a revenue for life; he promoted the treaty of alliance with the Dutch in August 1685; and he expostulated with the king on the subject of the illegal commissions in the army given to Roman Catholics. Finally, on his firm refusal to support the repeal of the Test and Habeas Corpus Acts, he was dismissed, and his name was struck out of the list of the privy council. He corresponded with the Prince of Orange, conferred with Dykveldt, the latter's envoy, but held aloof from plans which aimed at the prince's personal interference in English affairs. In 1687 he published the famous Letter to a Dissenter, in which he warns the Nonconformists against being beguiled by the "Indulgence" into joining the court party, sets in a clear light the fatal results of such a step, and reminds them that under their next sovereign their grievances would in all probability be satisfied by the law. The tract was influential and widely read. 20,000 copies were circulated through the kingdom, and a great party was convinced of the wisdom of remaining faithful to the national traditions and liberties. He took the popular side on the occasion of the trial of the Seven Bishops in June 1688, visited them in the Tower, and led the cheers with which the verdict of "not guilty" was received in court; but the same month he refrained from signing the Invitation to William, and publicly repudiated any share in the prince's plans. On the contrary he attended the court and refused any credence to the report that the king's newborn son, James, Prince of Wales, was supposititious.
The Revolution of 1688
After
Return to power, 1689–1695
At the opening of the new reign Halifax had considerable influence, was made Lord Privy Seal, while Danby his rival was obliged to content himself with the presidency of the council, and controlled the appointments to the new cabinet which were made on a "trimming" or comprehensive basis. His views on religious toleration were as wide as those of the new king. He championed the claims of the Nonconformists as against the High Church party, and he was bitterly disappointed at the miscarriage of the Comprehension Bill. He thoroughly approved also at first of William's foreign policy; but, having excited the hostility of both the Whig and Tory parties, he now became exposed to a series of attacks in parliament which finally drove him from power. He was severely censured for the disorder in Ireland, and an attempt was made to impeach him for his conduct with regard to the sentences on the Whig leaders. The inquiry resulted in his favour; but notwithstanding, and in spite of the king's continued support, he determined to retire. He had already resigned the speakership of the House of Lords, and he now (8 February 1690) quit his place in the cabinet. He still nominally retained his seat in the privy council, but in parliament he became a bitter critic of the administration; and the rivalry of Halifax (the Black Marquess) with Danby, now Marquess of Carmarthen (the White Marquess) threw the former at this time into determined opposition. He disapproved of William's total absorption in European politics, and his open partiality for his countrymen. In January 1691, Halifax had an interview with Henry Bulkeley, the Jacobite agent, and is said to have promised "to do everything that lay in his power to serve the king." This was probably merely a measure of precaution, for he had no serious Jacobite leanings. He entered bail for Lord Marlborough when he was accused of complicity in a Jacobite plot in May 1692, and in June, during the absence of the king from England, his name was struck off the privy council.
Halifax spoke in favour of the Triennial Bill (12 January 1693) which passed the legislature but was vetoed by William, suggested a proviso in a renewed Licensing of the Press Act, which restricted its operation to anonymous works, and approved the Place Bill (1694). He opposed, probably on account of the large sums he had engaged in the traffic of annuities, the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694.[citation needed] Early in 1695 he delivered a strong attack on the administration in the House of Lords. After a short illness, arising from a rupture caused by vomiting after eating an undercooked chicken, he died on 5 April that year, at the age of sixty-one.[8] He was buried in Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey.[9]
Family
Halifax was twice married.
In 1656, he married the Lady Dorothy Spencer, daughter of Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland, and his wife Dorothy Sidney ("Sacharissa"), leaving a family including Lady Anne Savile (1663 – c. January 1690) and William Savile, 2nd Marquess of Halifax (1665 – 31 August 1700). By his marriage with Dorothy Spencer, he was brother-in-law to Lord Sunderland; despite the family tie, the two men were bitter and lifelong political opponents.
Dorothy died in 1670 and he married again in 1672, Gertrude Pierrepont, daughter of William Pierrepont of Thoresby. They had one daughter, Countess of Chesterfield, who seems to have inherited a considerable portion of her father's intellectual abilities. Gertrude survived him.
His eldest son Henry Savile, Lord Elland, following four years of negotiations, was married to the daughter of the French Huguenot Esther de la Tour du Pin, marquise de Gouvernet. The dowry was £25,000 but Henry soon died.[10] It was his second son William succeeded to his peerage. On the death of the latter, in August 1700 without male issue, the peerage became extinct, and the baronetcy passed to the Saviles of Lupset, the whole male line of the Savile family ending in the person of Sir George Savile, 8th baronet, in 1784. Henry Savile, British envoy at Versailles, who died unmarried in 1687, was a younger brother of the first marquess. Halifax has been generally supposed to have been the father of the illegitimate Henry Carey, the poet.[11]
Legacy
"Trimmer"
Halifax's influence, both as orator and as writer, on the public opinion of his day was probably unrivalled. His intellectual powers, his high character, his urbanity, vivacity and satirical humour made a great impression on his contemporaries, and many of his witty sayings have been recorded. Maintaining throughout his career a detachment from party, he never acted permanently or continuously with either of the two great factions, and exasperated both in turn by deserting their cause at the moment when their hopes seemed on the point of realisation. To them he appeared weak, inconstant, untrustworthy. But the principle which chiefly influenced his political action, that of compromise, differed essentially from those of both parties, and his attitude with regard to the Whigs or Tories was thus by necessity continually changing. Thus the regency scheme, which Halifax had supported while Charles still reigned, was opposed by him with perfect consistency at the revolution. He readily accepted for himself the character of a "trimmer," desiring, he said, to keep the boat steady, while others attempted to weigh it down perilously on one side or the other; and he concluded his tract with these assertions: "that our climate is a Trimmer between that part of the world where men are roasted and the other where they are frozen; that our Church is a Trimmer between the frenzy of fanatic visions and the lethargic ignorance of Popish dreams; that our laws are Trimmers between the excesses of unbounded power and the extravagance of liberty not enough restrained; that true virtue hath ever been thought a Trimmer, and to have its dwelling in the middle between two extremes; that even God Almighty Himself is divided between His two great attributes, His Mercy and His Justice. In such company, our Trimmer is not ashamed of his name. . . ."
Intellectual
Halifax believed that reading, writing and arithmetic should be taught to all and at the expense of the state. His opinions again on the constitutional relations of the colonies to the mother country, already cited, were completely opposed to those of his own period. For that view of his character which while allowing him the merit of a brilliant political theorist denies him the qualities of a man of action and of a practical politician, there is no solid basis. The truth is that while his political ideas are founded upon great moral or philosophical generalisations, often vividly recalling and sometimes anticipating the broad conceptions of Edmund Burke, they are at the same time imbued with precisely those practical qualities which have ever been characteristic of English statesmenship, and were always capable of application to actual conditions. He had no taste for abstract political dogma, but seemed to venture no further than to think that "men should live in some competent state of freedom," and that the limited monarchical and aristocratic government was the best adapted for his country.
"Circumstances," he wrote in the Rough Draft of a New Model at Sea, "must come in and are to be made a part of the matter of which we are to judge; positive decisions are always dangerous, more especially in politics." Nor was he the mere literary student buried in books and in contemplative ease. He had none of the "indecisiveness which commonly renders literary men of no use in the world." The constant tendency of his mind towards antithesis and the balancing of opinions did not lead to paralysis in time of action – he did not shrink from responsibility, nor show on any occasion lack of courage. At various times of crisis he proved himself a great leader. He returned to public life to defeat the
Character
The private character of Lord Halifax was in harmony with his public career. He was by no means the "voluptuary" described by
Few were insensible to his personal charm and gaiety. He excelled especially in quick repartée, in "exquisite nonsense," and in spontaneous humour. When quite a young man, just entering upon political life,
The Viking Book of Aphorisms, edited by W. H. Auden and Louis Kronenberger, contains more entries by Halifax (60) than by any other English language author except Samuel Johnson.
Writings
Halifax's speeches have not been preserved, and his political writings on this account have all the greater value. The Character of a Trimmer (1684 or 1685) was his most ambitious production, written seemingly as advice to the king and as a manifesto of his own opinions. In it he discusses the political problems of the time and their solution on broad principles. He supports the
References
- ISBN 0-19-861399-7. Article by Mark N. Brown.
- ^ The Complete Peerage, Volume VI. St Catherine's Press. 1926. p. 242.
- ^ a b c Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 49. p. 100.
- ^ History of Parliament Online - Savile, Sir George, 4th Baronet
- ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 356.
- ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". The Royal Society. Retrieved 11 October 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Volume VII "The Age of Dryden", ch. XVI, § 18.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 49. p. 105.
- ^ Stanley, A.P., Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey (London; John Murray; 1882), p. 219.
- , retrieved 15 May 2023
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 328–329. .
External links
- Works by George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax at Internet Archive
- Works by George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Yorke, Philip Chesney (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). pp. 839–843. .