George Villiers, 4th Earl Of Clarendon
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George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (12 January 180027 June 1870) was an English diplomat and statesman from the
Villiers family Villiers ( ) is an Nobility, aristocratic family in the United Kingdom. Over time, various members of the Villiers family were made knights, baronets, and peers. Peerages held by the Villiers family include the dukedoms of Duke of Buckingham, Bucki ...
. He served a succession of Whig and Liberal administrations. This included as
Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the Anglo-Norman ''roy'' (Old Frenc ...
in famine-stricken Ireland and, on the first of three occasions as Foreign Secretary, as the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
's chief representative at the Congress of Paris which ended the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
.


Background and education

Villiers was born in London to Hon. George Villiers and Hon. Theresa Parker, daughter of
John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon (1735 – 27 April 1788) was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British peer and Member of Parliament. Origins Parker was the eldest son of John Parker (1703–1768) of Boringdon Hall, Plympton, and Saltram House, by ...
. He was the second born, but first surviving, of their 10 children. His father was the third son of
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (1709 – 11 December 1786) was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British politician and diplomat from the Villiers family. Clarendon was the second son of William Villie ...
(himself the second son of William Villiers, 2nd Earl of Jersey). After the death of his father in 1827, George became heir to the earldom, succeeding his uncle Thomas Villiers, 2nd Earl of Clarendon (1753–1824), who died unmarried; and his uncle John Villiers, 3rd Earl of Clarendon (1757–1838), who died without an heir. Villiers was educated at
Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter, located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. T ...
and
St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...
, which he entered at the early age of sixteen, on 29 June 1816. In 1820, as the eldest son of an earl's brother of royal descent, he was able to take his
MA degree A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
under the statutes of the university then in force.


Career

In the same year, Villiers was appointed attaché to the British embassy at
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
. There he remained three years, and gained practical knowledge of diplomacy which would be of use to him later in his life. The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' stated that he had "received from nature a singularly handsome person, a polished and engaging address, a ready command of languages, and a remarkable power of composition". Upon his return to England in 1823, he was appointed to a commissionership of customs, an office which he retained for about ten years. In 1831, he was dispatched to France in a fruitless attempt to negotiate a commercial treaty.


Minister in Spain

On 16 August 1833, he was appointed minister at the Court of Spain.
Ferdinand VII Ferdinand VII (; 14 October 1784 – 29 September 1833) was King of Spain during the early 19th century. He reigned briefly in 1808 and then again from 1813 to his death in 1833. Before 1813 he was known as ''el Deseado'' (the Desired), and af ...
died within a month of his arrival at
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
, and the infant Queen Isabella, then two years old, was placed on the throne based on the old Spanish custom of female inheritance – but her succession was challenged by
Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is an 1867 five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the 1787 play '' Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...
, the late King's brother, by virtue of the
Salic law The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish Civil law (legal system), civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis I, Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is deba ...
of the
House of Bourbon The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Kingdom of Navarre, Navarre in the 16th century. A br ...
which Ferdinand had renounced before the birth of his daughter. Isabella II and her mother the Queen Regent Christina became the representatives of constitutional monarchy, Don Carlos of Catholic absolutism. The conflict, which had divided the despotic and the constitutional powers of Europe since the French Revolution of 1830, broke out into civil war in Spain, and by the Quadruple Treaty, signed on 22 April 1834, France and England pledged themselves to the defence of the constitutional thrones of Spain and Portugal. For six years, on behalf of the British government, Villiers continued to aid the Liberal government of Spain. He was unjustly accused of having supported the revolution of La Granja, which drove Christina, the Queen Mother, out of the kingdom, and raised Espartero to the regency. He undoubtedly supported the chiefs of the Liberal party, such as Espartero, against the intrigues of the French court; but the object of the British government was to establish Isabella as Queen on a truly national and liberal basis and to protect her against the foreign influence which eventually undermined her regime. Slavery had been declared illegal in Spanish colonies from 1820, but still had not been eradicated. Villiers worked with the help of ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' correspondent David Turnbull to get slavery removed from Spanish colonies. In 1835 the Spanish reaffirmed their commitment to end slavery.


Succession to the Earldom, Offices of State in Britain

Villiers received the Grand Cross of the Bath in 1838 in acknowledgment of his services in Spain, and succeeded, on the death of his uncle, to the title of Earl of Clarendon; in the following year, having left Madrid, he married a young widow, Lady Katharine Foster-Barham (''née'' Grimston), eldest daughter of James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam. In January 1840 he entered Lord Melbourne's Whig administration as
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 abov ...
, and from the death of Lord Holland that autumn he also held the office of
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the prime minister ...
until the end of the ministry in 1841. Clarendon and Holland believed that friendly Anglo-French relations were important to promote peace and liberalism in Europe. He reluctantly supported Foreign Secretary
Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...
's expulsion of the pro-French Mohammed Ali of Egypt from Syria but did not resign as it might break up a cabinet he had so recently joined. During Sir
Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...
's Conservative administration (1841–1846) Lord Clarendon took a strong interest in the triumph of
free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...
and in the repeal of the
Corn Laws The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. The la ...
, a policy of which his younger brother Charles Pelham Villiers had been one of the earliest champions. Clarendon accepted the office of
President of the Board of Trade The president of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. A committee of the His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, it was first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th centur ...
in Lord John Russell's first administration in 1846.


Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

Clarendon was twice offered the Governor-Generalship of India, and once the Governor-Generalship of Canada, but he declined as it would have meant leaving British and European politics for some years. In 1847, Clarendon was persuaded to accept the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, which the Cabinet wanted to abolish and transform into an Irish secretaryship of state. He arrived during the second year of the Great Famine. His reports on the scale of the crisis were regularly discounted by a government that deferred to the permanent head of the
Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...
, Sir Charles Trevelyan. Despairing of effective famine relief, Clarendon suggested to Russell, that "there is not another legislature in Europe that would disregard such suffering as now exists in the west of Ireland, or coldly persist in a policy of extermination". Lord Russell replied: “The course of English benevolence is frozen by insult, calumny and rebellion". In London there was consternation over Irish agitation for repeal of the Act of Union, reports of violence directed against landlords and the attempted rising by the Young Irelanders. While he was to commute the sentences of the Young Ireland conspirators from hanging to life transportation, Clarendon did take stringent security measures, proclaiming
martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
in large parts of the country and persuading
Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
to suspend
Habeas Corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...
. At the same time, he continued to plead what he saw as Ireland's case. In the hope of garnering greater English sympathy, in 1849 he hosted
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
in Ireland. Her visit was deemed a "great popular success". But it appeared to make no impression on Irish policy. Trevelyan, a student of
Thomas Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English economist, cleric, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...
, insisted that Ireland be "left to the operation of natural causes" (and was fearful that borrowing to finance relief efforts in Ireland might panic the markets. He attempted a policy of conciliation with the
Roman Catholic Church in Ireland The Catholic Church in Ireland, or Irish Catholic Church, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in Full communion, communion with the Holy See. With 3.5 million members (in the Republic of Ireland), it is the largest Christianity in Ir ...
. In 1849, he sided with Catholic bishops in their objections to a non-denominational ("godless") scheme for higher education, and when an official inquiry failed to indict the
Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Grand Orange Lodge of ...
for the death of 20 Catholics in the Dolly's Brae affray, he dismissed the magistrate concerned, Lord Roden, and helped bring in the Party Processions Act (1850) to curtail the Protestant association. However, Orangemen accused Clarendon of double-dealing, having previously supplied them with arms. The claim was publicly upheld by
Isaac Butt Isaac Butt (6 September 1813 – 5 May 1879) was an Irish barrister, editor, politician, Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, economist and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist par ...
, Member of Parliament, a former Orangeman whom the famine had converted to the cause of Irish self-government. When he returned to England following the fall of the Russell ministry in February 1852, "he was distrusted by all sides in Ireland".


Foreign Secretary

Despite what he accounted as "failure" in Ireland, Clarendon continued to enjoy official favour. His services were expressly acknowledged in the Queen's Speech to both Houses of Parliament in September 1848 - this being the first time that any civil servant obtained that honour; and he was made a
Knight of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system, it is outranked in ...
(retaining also the Grand Cross of the Bath by special order) on 23 March 1849. In January 1853, Clarendon succeeded
Lord John Russell John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 186 ...
as Foreign Secretary in
Lord Aberdeen George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (28 January 178414 December 1860), styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a British statesman, diplomat and landowner, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite politician and specialist in fo ...
's coalition ministry of Whigs and
Peelite The Peelites were a breakaway political faction of the British Conservative Party from 1846 to 1859. Initially led by Robert Peel, the former Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader in 1846, the Peelites supported free trade whilst the bulk ...
s, which had been formed the previous December. The country was already "drifting" into the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
, an expression of Clarendon's which became notorious. Clarendon was not responsible for starting the war, but he supported it and maintained close relations with the French Emperor
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
, and the
Empress Eugenie The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother ( empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rul ...
, whom he had known in Spain from her childhood. The Tsar Nicholas I had not believed that France and Britain could cooperate successfully against Russia. When the Crimean War ended in 1856 Lord Clarendon was first British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Paris convened to negotiate a peace treaty, the first time since
Lord Castlereagh Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), usually known as Lord Castlereagh, derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh ( ) by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was an Irish-born British st ...
's attendance at the
Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
that a British Foreign Secretary had personally attended such a conference. Clarendon's first priority was to ensure that Piedmont-Sardinia was admitted to the conference as an Allied power, but that Prussia, which had remained neutral, should be excluded. Clarendon ensured that the Allies insisted on neutralising the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
and that the Russian attempt to retain South Bessarabia was defeated. The congress was eager to turn to other subjects, and perhaps its most important achievement was the celebrated Declaration of the Maritime Powers, which abolished privateering, defined the right of blockade, and limited the right of capture to enemy property in enemy ships. Clarendon has been accused of abandoning Britain's belligerent rights, which were based on the old maritime laws of Europe. But he acted with the agreement of the British Cabinet, which felt that it was not to Britain's benefit keep to customs which exposed Britain's vast merchant fleet to attack, even by the cruisers of a secondary maritime power, and which, if vigorously enforced against neutrals, would embroil Britain with every maritime state in the world. When Lord Palmerston formed a Liberal government in 1859,
Lord John Russell John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 186 ...
only agreed to serve if given the Foreign Office, leaving no suitably senior job for Clarendon. From 1861 to 1864, he chaired the Clarendon Commission investigating the state of nine leading schools in England. Clarendon re-entered the cabinet in May 1864 as
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the prime minister ...
. He served as Foreign Secretary a second time in Russell's second government (1865-66), and for a third time in the early years of Gladstone's government formed in 1868. He died surrounded by the boxes and papers of his office on 27 June 1870.


Marriage and issue

On 4 June 1839, Villiers married the widowed Lady Katherine Foster-Barham (a daughter of James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam) and they had eight children: *Lady Constance Villiers (1840–1922), married
Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (15 January 1841 – 14 June 1908), known as Hon. Frederick Stanley until 1886 and Lord Stanley of Preston between 1886–1893, was a Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician in the Un ...
*Lady Alice Villiers (1841–1897), married Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom * Lady Emily Theresa (1843–1927), married Odo Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill *Edward Hyde, Lord Hyde (30 January 1845 – 26 February 1846), died young * Edward Villiers, 5th Earl of Clarendon (1846–1914) *Hon. George Patrick Hyde (27 September 1847 – 10 January 1892), married Louisa Maria Maquay, daughter of George Disney Maquay, on 9 October 1884 *Lady Florence Margaret Villiers (21 September 1850 – 25 August 1851), died in infancy *Hon. Sir Francis Hyde Villiers (1852–1925), married Virginia Katharine Smith, daughter of Eric Carrington Smith and Mary Maberly, on 28 June 1876


Notes


Further reading

* * David Steele. "Villiers, George William Frederick, fourth earl of Clarendon" ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (2009) * Cecil, Algernon. ''British Foreign Secretaries 1807-1916'' (1927) pp 220–255
online
* Sir Herbert Eustace Maxwell: ''The Life and letters of George William Frederick 4. Earl of Clarendon''. London: Arnold, 1913
online
* George Villiers Clarendon: ''First report on the commercial relations between France and Great Britain, addressed to ... the lords of the committee of privy council for trade and plantations: with a supplementary report, by John Bowring''. London, 1834


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarendon, George Villiers, 4th Earl Of 1800 births 1870 deaths 4 Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Knights of the Garter Knights of St Patrick Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Liberal Party (UK) hereditary peers Diplomatic peers British Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs Lords Lieutenant of Ireland Lords Privy Seal Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon Politicians from London Presidents of the Board of Trade Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Spain