Grenvillite
Grenville Whigs | |
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Leader(s) |
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National affiliation | Whigs |
The Grenville Whigs (or Grenvillites) were a name given to several British political factions of the 18th and the early 19th centuries, all of which were associated with the important Grenville family of Buckinghamshire.[2][3]
Background
The Grenville family interest, led by
However, in the early 1760s, a split occurred in the family as a result of Pitt's dismissal from the government in October 1761. Temple quit the government in protest, but his younger brother, George Grenville, remained in the government, which was now dominated by King George III's favourite, Lord Bute, who served as Leader of the House of Commons.
The followers of the younger Grenville became known as Grenvillites or Grenville Whigs.
George Grenville
George Grenville fully came into his own as a politician in 1763, when he was made
After Grenville himself was ousted from power in 1765 as a result of conflicts with the King, Grenville moved into opposition and for a time from 1766 to 1767 was the leader of one of three separate opposition factions (the other two were led by the Duke of Bedford and Lord Rockingham).
After Grenville's own death in 1770, the
Marquess of Buckingham
After Lord Temple's death in 1779, George Grenville's sons, George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 3rd Earl Temple (from 1784 the Marquess of Buckingham), and William Wyndham Grenville, became the principal figures in the Grenville family. Temple played a key role in bringing down the Fox-North coalition in December 1783 and in bringing his cousin William Pitt the Younger to power as Prime Minister, but he was snubbed for major office. Nevertheless, he and his supporters backed the new ministry, and William Grenville soon became one of Pitt's closest advisors and served for ten years (1791–1801) as Foreign Secretary during the difficult period of the French Revolutionary Wars.[citation needed]
Lord Grenville
The
Other than dependents of Lord Buckingham, the group was largely former
When Addington's government fell in 1804, Grenville hoped to form a coalition government that included supporters of himself, Pitt, and Fox, but he was stymied by the King's refusal to countenance a government that included Fox. Unwilling to go into government without his new ally, Grenville chose to remain in opposition when Pitt formed his second government in May of that year.
When Pitt died two years later, however, the King had little choice but to appoint a government including both the "New" and "Old" Opposition, and Grenville became Prime Minister in the Ministry of All the Talents. Although the coalition partners agreed about little besides the abolition of the slave trade, it was really the King's opposition to the ministry that destroyed it in early 1807.
Thereafter, Grenville acted as nominal Leader of the Opposition although
Dissipation
After Buckingham's death in 1813 and Grenville's withdrawal from politics in 1817, the Grenvillites remained a distinct political grouping in opposition, but they were by now little more than a pawn of the ambitions of Buckingham's son, the
Notes
- ISBN 9780895261717.
- ^ Kriegel 1980, p. 393.
- ^ Sack 1975, pp. 112–134.
References
- Kriegel, Abraham D. (April 1980), "Review of 'The Grenvillites, 1801–29: Party Politics and Factionalism in the Age of Pitt and Liverpool by James J. Sack'", The American Historical Review, 85 (2), JSTOR 1860597
- Sack, James J. (1975), "The Decline of the Grenvillite Faction under the First Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 1817–1829", The Journal of British Studies, 15 (1 (Autumn 1975)): 112–134, S2CID 146173155