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Bedfordite
The Bedford Whigs (or Bedfordites) were an 18th-century British political faction, led by John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. Other than Bedford himself, notable members included John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich; Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower; Richard Rigby, who served as principal Commons manager for the group; Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth; Edward Thurlow; and George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough History The Bedfordites emerged as a specific faction in the wake of Bedford's dismissal as Secretary of State in 1751. Initially, Bedford opposed the ministry, dominated by the Old Corps Whigs led by Prime Minister Henry Pelham and his brother the Duke of Newcastle. Following Pelham's death in 1754, Bedford aligned himself with Henry Fox, and after Fox became Secretary of State in late 1755, some of Bedford's followers accepted jobs in the new administration. When the Devonshire- Pitt ministry was formed in November 1756, Bedford gave it his blessing ...
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Whigs (British Political Party)
The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs merged into the new Liberal Party with the Peelites and Radicals in the 1850s, and other Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 to form the Liberal Unionist Party, which merged into the Liberals' rival, the modern day Conservative Party, in 1912. The Whigs began as a political faction that opposed absolute monarchy and Catholic Emancipation, supporting constitutional monarchism with a parliamentary system. They played a central role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and were the standing enemies of the Roman Catholic Stuart kings and pretenders. The period known as the Whig Supremacy (1714–1760) was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714 and the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1715 by Tory rebels. The Whig ...
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John Russell, 4th Duke Of Bedford
John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, (30 September 17105 January 1771) was an 18th-century British statesman.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 82-84, volume VIII, page 500.Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 2, page 1871. Bedford was a leading Whig political figure around the time of the Seven Years' War, and negotiated the Treaty of Paris which ended the conflict in 1763. He was also an early promoter of cricket and a patron of the arts who commissioned many works from artists, most notably Canaletto. Early life He was the fourth son o ...
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Richard Rigby
Richard Rigby PC (February 1722 – 8 April 1788), was an English civil servant and politician who sat in the British House of Commons for 43 years from 1745 to 1788. He served as Chief Secretary for Ireland and Paymaster of the Forces. Rigby accumulated a fortune serving the Crown and politician wheeler-dealers in the dynamic 18th-century parliament. Background and education The Rigby family took Mistley Hall in Essex as the site of their manor, but was descended from the Rigby of Burgh family. Rigby's father and immediate ancestors made a fortune as merchant drapers in the City of London, as merchants and colonial officers in the West Indies, and as speculators in the South Sea Bubble. Richard Rigby's father also had the same name, and was significant in the history of Jamaica, serving as its secretary, the provost marshal, and a member of the Royal Assembly in the late 17th and early 18th century. He was also part-owner of a plantation in Antigua and a slave trader. His el ...
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Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess Of Stafford
Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, KG PC (4 August 172126 October 1803), known as Viscount Trentham from 1746 to 1754 and as The Earl Gower from 1754 to 1786, was a British politician from the Leveson-Gower family. Background Stafford was a son of John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower (1694–1754) and his wife Lady Evelyn Pierrepont. His maternal grandparents were Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull and his first wife Lady Mary Feilding. Mary was a daughter of William Feilding, 3rd Earl of Denbigh and his wife Mary King. His father was a prominent Tory politician who became the first major Tory to enter government since the succession of George I of Great Britain, joining the administration of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville in 1742. Gower was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. Political and industrial investment career Stafford was elected to parliament in 1744. With the death of his elder brother in 1746, he became kn ...
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Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main channel of communication between the Sovereign and the House of Lords. The office organises all ceremonial activity such as garden parties, state visits, royal weddings, and the State Opening of Parliament. They also handle the Royal Mews and Royal Travel, as well as the ceremony around the awarding of honours. For over 230 years, the Lord Chamberlain had the power to decide which plays would be granted a licence for performance. From 1737 to 1968, this meant that the Lord Chamberlain had the capacity to censor theatre at his pleasure. The Lord Chamberlain is always sworn of the Privy Council, is usually a peer and before 1782 the post was of Cabinet rank. The position was a political one until 1924. The office dates from the Middle Ages ...
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Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. Originally, its holder was responsible for the monarch's privy seal, personal (privy) seal (as opposed to the Great Seal of the Realm, which is in the care of the Lord Chancellor) until the use of such a seal became obsolete. Though one of the oldest offices in European governments, it has no particular function today because the use of a privy seal has been obsolete for centuries; it may be regarded as a traditional sinecure, but today, the holder of the office is invariably given a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, and is sometimes referred to as a Minister without portfolio (United Kingdom), Minister without Portfolio. Since the premiership of Clement Attlee, the position of Lord Privy Seal has fr ...
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Master Of The Horse
Master of the Horse is an official position in several European nations. It was more common when most countries in Europe were monarchies, and is of varying prominence today. (Ancient Rome) The original Master of the Horse ( la, Magister Equitum) in the Roman Republic was an office appointed and dismissed by the Roman Dictator, as it expired with the Dictator's own office, typically a term of six months in the early and mid-republic. The served as the Dictator's main lieutenant. The nomination of the was left to the choice of the Dictator, unless a specified, as was sometimes the case, the name of the person who was to be appointed. The Dictator could not be without a to assist him, and, consequently, if the first either died or was dismissed during the Dictator's term, another had to be nominated in his stead. The was granted a form of , but at the same level as a , and thus was subject to the of the Dictator and was not superior to that of a Roman consul, Consul. In the ...
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Lord President Of The Council
The lord president of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the Lord Privy Seal, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. The Lord President usually attends and is responsible for chairing the meetings of the Privy Council, presenting business for the approval of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign. In the modern era, the incumbent is by convention always a member of one of the Houses of Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament, and the office is normally a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet position. The office and its history The Privy Council meets once a month, wherever the sovereign may be residing at the time, to give formal approval to Order in Council, Orders in Council. Only a few privy counsellors need attend such meetings, and only when invited to do so at the government's request. ...
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Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland
Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, PC (28 September 1705 – 1 July 1774), of Holland House in Kensington and of Holland House in Kingsgate, Kent, was a leading British politician. He identified primarily with the Whig faction. He held the posts of Secretary at War, Southern Secretary and Paymaster of the Forces, from which latter post he enriched himself. Whilst widely tipped as a future Prime Minister, he never held that office. His third son was the Whig statesman Charles James Fox. Early life He was the second son of Sir Stephen Fox and his second wife the former Christiana Hope, and inherited a large share of his father's wealth. He squandered most of it soon after attaining his majority, and went to Continental Europe to escape from his creditors. There he made the acquaintance of a woman of fortune, who became his patroness and was so generous to him that, after several years' absence, he was in a position to return home. Marriage and children In 1744 he eloped with and ma ...
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Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess Of Rockingham
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, (13 May 1730 – 1 July 1782; styled The Hon. Charles Watson-Wentworth before 1733, Viscount Higham between 1733 and 1746, Earl of Malton between 1746 and 1750 and The Marquess of Rockingham in 1750) was a British Whig statesman, most notable for his two terms as Prime Minister of Great Britain. He became the patron of many Whigs, known as the Rockingham Whigs, and served as a leading Whig grandee. He served in only two high offices during his lifetime (Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Lords) but was nonetheless very influential during his one and a half years of service. Early life: 1730–1751 A descendant of the 1st Earl of Strafford, Lord Rockingham was brought up at the family home of Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham in Yorkshire. He was educated at Westminster School. During the Jacobite rising of 1745 Rockingham's father made him a colonel and organised volunteers to defend the country against the "Y ...
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George Grenville
George Grenville (14 October 1712 – 13 November 1770) was a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain. Grenville was born into an influential political family and first entered Parliament in 1741 as an MP for Buckingham. He emerged as one of Cobham's Cubs, a group of young members of Parliament associated with Lord Cobham. In 1754 Grenville became Treasurer of the Navy, a position he held twice until 1761. In October 1761 he chose to stay in government and accepted the new role of Leader of the Commons causing a rift with his brother-in-law and political ally William Pitt who had resigned. Grenville was subsequently made Northern Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty by the new Prime Minister Lord Bute. On 8 April 1763, Lord Bute resigned, and Grenville assumed his position as Prime Minister. His government tried to bring public spending under control and pursued an assertive foreign policy. His best-known policy is the Stamp Ac ...
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John Stuart, 3rd Earl Of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguably the last important royal favourite in British politics. He was the first prime minister from Scotland following the Acts of Union in 1707. He was also elected as the first president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland when it was founded in 1780. Biography Early life and rise to prominence He was born in Parliament Close, nearby to St Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh on 25 May 1713, the son of James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Bute, and his wife, Lady Anne Campbell. He attended Eton College from 1724 to 1730. He went on to study civil law at the Universities of Groningen (1730–1732) and Leiden (1732–1734) in the Netherlands, graduating from the latter with a degree in civil law. A close relative of the Clan Campbell ( ...
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