Robert Walpole

Robert Walpole (August 26th 1676 - March 18th 1745), 1st Count d' Oxford is a liberal Statesman British, generally considered as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain (1721 - 1742). Although this term did not exist at the time, one can say, to consider his capacity within the government, that it ensured of it De facto the role.

Become Lord of the treasure in 1721, it then occupies the first place within the government of the kingdom. It is however only after the resignation of Lord Townshend in 1730 that its preeminence becomes indisputable. He resigns in 1742. Its government is longest of the English history.

Its youth

Robert Walpole was born with Houghton Hall, in the county of Norfolk in 1676. His/her father, Robert Walpole, are a politician who represents the district of Castle Rising with the House of Commons. His/her mother is Mary Walpole (born Mary Burwell), Robert is the fifth child of a family of seventeen brothers and sisters, of which eights die in low age. Robert Walpole holds the record of the number of brothers and sisters among English the Prime Ministers.

Walpole studies with the college of Eton of 1690 with 1695 and is registered with the King' S College of Cambridge in 1696. In 1698, it leaves the Université of Cambridge after the death of his older brother to help his father with the management of the inheritance of the family. Walpole has in the idea to become a man of the church, but it gives up this idea when, remaining the only son living of the family, he becomes also the heir to the inheritance of his father. In 1700, Walpole marries Catherine Shorter, with whom it will have two girls and three wire among which Horace Walpole. After the death of his wife, in 1737, Walpole marries its mistress Maria Skerrit who dies in her turn in layers.

Beginning in policy

The political career of Robert Walpole begins in January 1701, when it gains the elections with Castle Rising (district of his/her dead father three months earlier). It leaves Caste Rising in 1702 to be able to present itself to King' S Lynn, where it will be re-elected during forty years.

Like his father, Robert is a dedicated politician, he is member of the party Whig, which is then more powerful than the opposition party Tory. In 1705, Walpole is named member of the council of the Lord of the Admiralty (a council which dealt with the maritime businesses). Its administrative aptitudes having been noticed, it is promoted by Lord Godolphin, high ranking official of the treasury and principal private secretary. In 1708, it is named secretary with the war for one short period, and, in 1710, he becomes first treasurer of the marine. All these responsibilities make of Robert Walpole an advised adviser of the duke of Marlborough, the commander of the British forces during the War of succession of Spain. Robert Walpole quickly becomes one of the most important figures of the members of the cabinet.

In spite of its Walpole influence cannot prevent Lord Godolphin and the members of his party to attack a minister which has just pronounced an anti-whig sermon. This lawsuit is extremely unpopular in England, which leads to the fall of the duke of Marlborough and the defeat of Whigs to the general elections of 1710.

The new party in power under the government of Tory Robert Harley withdraws in Walpole its ministry for the war but allows him to remain treasurer of the navy until January 2nd, 1711. Harley even tries to convince it to join Tories, which Walpole refuses. Instead of that, he prefers to defend Lord Godolphin against the attacks of Tories and the press.

Aggravated by these political attacks, the tories test by all the means of ruining its political career, like that of the duke of Marlborough. In 1712, Walpole is even accused of corruption as a secretary of the war and, soon, declared guilty by a majority of Tories members. Expelled of the Parliament, he is imprisoned in the Tour of London for six months. Regarded in the public opinion as an innocent victim, he is re-elected in 1713 and will develop a hatred without terminals against Robert Harley and Lord Bolingbroke, the two instigators of his judgment.

Return to the capacity

Anne Stuart of England dies on August 1st 1714 of the drop and, not having any heir, his German cousin George I {{er}} succeeds to him on the throne. George Ier does not have confidence in Tories, which he suspects of wanting to be opposed to his authority. This mistrust makes it possible the Whig party to return to the capacity and to preserve it during fifty years.

Robert Walpole becomes private adviser of the king and is promoted “Paymaster off the forces”, in a ministry normally directed by Lord Halifax, but also dominated by Lord Townshend (brother-in-law of Walpole), like James Stanhope. Walpole becomes also president-director of the secret committee, office created to inquire into the intrigues of the Tory former ministers. Those which had contributed to the descent into Hell of Walpole, in 1712, find now in the place of the defendants. Lord Oxford is accused of high treason and Lord Bolingbroke is deposed of all his civic rights.

Lord Halifax dies in 1715. Walpole, recognized then like a hard-working statesman, recovers the station of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. It creates then famous “the sinking fund ”, kind of funds monetary of which the principal goal is to reduce the debt of the country. The Cabinet of which he is member is divided on the majority of the important matters, with, on a side, Walpole and Townshend, other Stanhope and Lord Sunderland. The main subject of controversy is the foreign politics, because Walpole and Townshend consider that king George Ier more leads the foreign affairs according to the interests of the electorate of the Hanover that those of the Great Britain. However, the faction of Stanhope and Sunderland in support of the king, which is worth in Townshend to lose its post of Secretary of State for North and to be named at the less prestigious station of Lord Lieutenant d' Irlande. But this change of station does not alleviate Stanhope and Sunderland, which obtain the reference of Townshend like Lord Lieutenant in April 1717. The following day, Walpole then withdraws government to join Townshend in the opposition. Sunderland and Stanhope (which is created count) are the principal heads of the new cabinet.

Shortly after the resignation of Walpole, a quarrel bursts between the king and the Prince de Galles. Walpole and others which were opposed to the government often gather in Leicester House, the residence of prince de Galles, to combine their political action. Walpole becomes also the close friend of the wife of prince de Galles, Caroline de Brandebourg-Ansbach. In 1720, it still improves its position by causing a reconciliation between the prince of Wales and the king.

Continuous Walpole, in addition, with being an influential figure with the House of Commons; it is particularly active in the fight against one of the most significant proposals of the government, the law on the Pairie, which intends to limit the possibility for the monarch of creating new peerages. Walpole causes the provisional abandonment of the bill in 1719, then its final rejection the following year. This defeat leads Lord Stanhope and Lord Sunderland to be reconciled with their adversaries; Walpole returns to the Cabinet as cash clerk of the forces, and Townshend becomes Lord President of the Council. But this return to the capacity brings the loss of the favor of the prince de Galles (the future king George II), which always tests the deepest contempt for the government of his/her father.

Rise with the power

Shortly after the return of Walpole to the Cabinet, England is carried by a speculative wave of enthusiasm which leads to the “bubble of the South Seas”. The government had drawn up a project allowing the Company South Seas to assume the national debt of Great Britain, in exchange of lucrative agreements; it was believed that the company would collect an enormous benefit thereafter. Much in the country, including Walpole itself, frantically invested in the company. At the end of 1720, however, the company starts to crumble, while the price of its actions plunges. Walpole is saved financial ruin by its banker, who advised to him to sell his shares; other investors, however, did not have this chance.

In 1721, a committee inquires into the scandal and notes facts of corruption within the Cabinet. Among the implied ministers, one counts John Aislabie (Chancellor of the Exchequer), James Craggs the Elder one ( general Postmaster ), James Craggs the Young person (Secretary of the South), Stanhope and Lord Sunderland. Both Craggs die in dishonor; the others are the subject of continuations for corruption. Aislabie is declared guilty and imprisoned, but the personal influence of Walpole saves Stanhope and Sunderland. This action, which allows these two men, as well as others, not to be punished, is worth in Walpol the nickname of “Screenmaster-General”.

The resignation of Sunderland and the death of Stanhope in 1721 make of Walpole the most important figure of the government. In April 1721, it is named First Lord of the treasure, Chancellor of the Exchequer and chief of the House of Commons. The entry of Walpole in the function of “Prime Minister” is often gone back to this nomination. Actually, Walpole shares the capacity with his/her brother-in-law, Lord Townshend, who is Secretary of State for North and directs the Foreign affairs. The two men must also face the Secretary of State for the South, Lord Carteret.

First-minister under George Ier

Advised by Walpole, the Parliament tries to solve the financial crisis. The fields of the directors of the company are confiscated and employed to relieve the pain of the victims, and the actions of the Company of the South Seas are divided between the Banque of England and East India Company. The crisis appreciably damaged the credibility of the king and the Whig party, but Walpole defends one and the other with a skilful eloquence with the House of Commons.

The first year of Walpole as a Prime Minister is also remembered by the discovery of a plot jacobite organized by Francis Atterbury, bishop of Rochester. The discovery of arrangement chokes the hopes of Jacobites, whose preceding attempts at revolt, particularly in 1715 and 1719, did not have awaited success. Tories leave there weakened, the more so as Lord Bolingbroke, a tory chief, continued for his sympathies jacobites, is in exile in France; it will be authorized to return to England only in 1723.

During the remainder of the reign of George Ier, the ascending one of Walpole grows: the political power of the monarch decreases little by little, while that of its ministers increases. In 1724, the political principal rival of Walpole and Townshend within the Cabinet, Lord Carteret, is isolated post of Secretary of the South and named at the station of Lord lieutenant d' Irlande. Now, Walpole and Townshend are clearly the Masters of the ministry. They follow a policy favorable to peace, particularly by opening talks with France and Prussia in 1725 for an alliance. Great Britain, released of the threats jacobites, war and financial crisis, develops and becomes prosperous, ensuring Robert Walpole the favor of George Ist In 1725, it is created knight of Bath and, in 1726, knight about the Jumper (what is worth to him the nickname of “Sir Blustering”). In addition, one grants to his oldest son (also called Robert) a baronnie.

Prime Minister under George II

The position of Robert Walpole is threatened in 1727, when George Ier dies and that George II succeeds to him. During a few days, Walpole seems to have to be isolated, but the king agrees to maintain it like advising of the Caroline queen. Although the king hates Townshend, it also maintains it. During the following years, Walpole continuous to share the capacity with Townshend, but it takes little by little the ascending one within the government. The two men are opposed about the foreign affairs, particularly policy concerning Prussia, but Walpole leaves finally victorious, and his/her colleague withdraws on May 15th, 1730. This date is often given like the beginning of the official entry of Walpole to the function of Prime Minister.

During the following years, Walpole is more powerful than ever. After being itself assured the support of the queen Caroline, and thus of the king George II, it makes use of royal patronage to grant honors and to obtain stations for his political friends. It chooses the members of its Cabinet, and the force to be acted jointly, if necessary, which no head of government had been able to carry out before. Because of this influence, Walpole perhaps considered indeed as the first “Prime Minister”.

Walpole polarized on its person a great number of the adversaries, most important being Lord Bolingbroke and William Pulteney (an able statesman whig who felt disgrâcié when Walpole did not include it in the Cabinet). Bolingbroke and Pulteney make appear a periodical entitled The Craftsman ( the Craftsman ), in which the policy of the Prime Minister is regularly denounced. Walpole is also the object of many satires and parodies; it is often compared to the criminal Jonathan Wild, like the fact, for example, John Gay in his Opéra of Gueux . Among his enemies, one counts also Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Johnson.

In spite of such an opposition, Walpole preserves the support of the people and the grace House of Commons a peaceful policy, which enables him not to weigh down the taxes. In 1733, he manages to prevent the entry of England in the War of succession of Poland. However, the same year, its influence is seriously threatened by a project of imposition which it presents. The incomes of the country severely decreased because of smuggling. As, Walpole proposes as the tariff on the wine and the tobacco is replaced by an excise duty. To counter the threat of smuggling, the tax should be versed not in the ports, but in warehouses. This new proposal, however, is extremely unpopular, and awakes the opposition of the traders. Walpole agrees to withdraw its project before the Parliament did not vote, but it draws aside the politicians who dared to be opposed to him. Walpole thus loses a considerable part of the elected officials whigs, who join the opposition.

After the general elections of 1734, the partisans of Walpole always constitute a majority with the House of Commons, but they are fewer than front. In addition, although it maintained its supremacy parliamentary, its popularity starts to weaken. In 1736, an increase of taxation on the Gin creates riots in London. With Edinburgh, new riots, much more serious, the “Porteous riots”, burst, after the king has pardoned a captain of the guard (John Porteous), which had ordered its troops to draw on a group from protesters. Although these events decreased the popularity of Walpole, they do not manage to shake its majority at the Parliament. The domination of Walpole on the House of Commons is accentuated by the facility with which it obtains the rejection of the project of Sir John Barnard to reduce the interest on the national debt. Walpole also manages to persuade the Parliament to vote the Law of license of 1737, on the regulation of the theaters of London. This law marks the scorn which it tests for literary Pope, Swift, Fielding and other figures which attack its government in their works.

Decline

The year 1737 is also remembered by the death of the queen Caroline, friend intimate of Walpole. This death, however, does not break the personal influence of Walpole on George II, who was faithful towards its Prime Minister during the previous years. However, the domination of Walpole to the head of the government does not cease decreasing. Its adversaries obtain a support of weight in the person of prince de Galles, who scrambles himself with his father, the king. Several young politicians, including William Pitt Old the and George Grenville, form a faction known under the name of “young patriots” and join the prince of Wales in the opposition.

Impossibility for Walpole of maintaining a policy of peace considerably will weaken its capacity. Under the Treated of Seville (1729), Great Britain agrees not to trade with the Spanish colonies in North America; Spain asserts the right to continue the British ships in infringement to ensure the application of the treaty. The conflicts, however, burst on the trade with the Western Indies. Walpole tries to prevent the war, but he is opposed to the king, to the House of Commons and part of his own Cabinet. In 1739, Walpole gives up all its efforts to avoid a conflict, and soon bursts the war, known as “of the ear of Jenkins” (because, according to the legend, of an English sailor, Robert Jenkins, which would have cut the ear of Spaniard who claimed to inspect his ship).

The release of the war does not manage to stop the fall of the influence of Walpole. For the general elections of 1741, its defenders vote an increase in the number of voices in the electoral colleges elected by a mass of voters, but fail (in the rotted Bourgs, the electoral colleges are subjected to the abstract, but strong influence owners). In general the government obtains better scores in England and with the Wales, but is not enough to counterbalance the districts lost at the time of the elections of 1734 nor the strong losses recorded in Cornouailles, where many electoral colleges obey the will of the prince de Galles (which is also duke of Cornouailles); these electoral colleges are turned over by hostile members of Parliament to the Prime Minister. In the same way, the influence of the duke of Argyll allowed the election of deputies opposed to Walpole in several areas of Scotland. The new majority of Walpole is difficult to determine because of the dubious fidelities many new elected officials, but the contemporaries and the historians estimated them with the rather low figure from fourteen to eighteen.

In the new Parliament, Whigs number estimate growing old the Prime Minister unable to conduct the military campaign. Moreover, its majority is also strong only in the past; its detractors are roughly as numerous as its partisans. In 1742, when the House of Commons pépare studied the validity of a by-election gained in Chippenham, Walpole and others agrees to consider that it will be about a vote of distrust. Beaten with the House of Commons, Walpole agrees to resign of the government. Among the reasons which explain its resignation, one can note that the king accepted to raise it with the House of Lords as a count d' Orford on February 6th, 1742. Five days later, it gives up officially the capacity.

Following years

Orford succeeds like Prime Minister Lord Wilmington, but the true chief of the government is Lord Carteret. A commission is created to inquire into the action of its government, but no substantial proof of ill will or corruption can be established. However, if it is not any more with the head of the Cabinet, Lord Orford continuous to exert a personal influence on George II and often appears the “minister behind the curtain” by his councils and his influence. In 1744, he manages to obtain the reference of Carteret and the nomination of Henry Pelham.

Robert Walpole dies in London in 1745 in his sixty-ninth year. He is buried in his birthplace of Houghton. Its title of count passes to his oldest son, Robert, then with the son of Robert, George. After the death of the third count, the title of count passed to young person wire of the first count, Horace Walpole (an author celebrates), which died without heirs in 1797.

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