Chief minister is a term used retroactively by historians to describe servants of the English monarch who presided over the government of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, and after 1707,

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

, before 1721. Chief ministers were usually one of the great officers of state, but it was not unusual for there to be no chief minister. Under the Norman and Angevin kings, the justiciar was often chief minister. When kings left England to oversee other parts of the Angevin Empire, the justiciar functioned as his

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 French word ''roy'', meaning " ...

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

. In the 13th century, after the loss of the Angevin territories in France, the justiciar's power declined as monarchs resided permanently in England. For the next three centuries, the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...

was most often chief minister. The chancellor served as Keeper of the Great Seal, presided over the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

and

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, and led the

High Court of Chancery High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...

. After the

English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...

, the chancellor's power shifted to the

Lord High Treasurer The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State ...

. After 1721, the office of

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

became the head of British governments. This list of chief ministers is organised by royal dynasty. For a list of particular governments of the Kingdom of England, see List of English ministries.

Anglo-Saxons

Normans

Plantagenets

* 1274–1292:

Robert Burnell Robert Burnell (sometimes spelled Robert Burnel;Harding ''England in the Thirteenth Century'' p. 159 c. 1239 – 25 October 1292) was an English bishop who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1274 to 1292. A native of Shropshire, h ...

, Bishop of Bath and Wells * 1330–1340:

John de Stratford John de Stratford ( – 1348) was Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of Winchester, Treasurer and Chancellor of England. Early life Stratford was born into the landed Stratford family of Stratford-on-Avon around 1275. His father was Robert de ...

, Archbishop of Canterbury * 1367–1371: William of Wykeham,

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except ...

* 1389–1391: William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester

House of Lancaster

* 1413–1417:

Henry Beaufort Cardinal Henry Beaufort (c. 1375 – 11 April 1447), Bishop of Winchester, was an English prelate and statesman who held the offices of Bishop of Lincoln (1398) then Bishop of Winchester (1404) and was from 1426 a Cardinal of the Church of R ...

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...

, Bishop of Winchester * 1422–1435: John, Duke of Bedford, Regent, died 14 September 1435 * 1422–1437: Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Regent, died 23 February 1447 * 1424–1427: Henry Beaufort, Cardinal, Bishop of Winchester * 1432–1447: Henry Beaufort, Cardinal, Bishop of Winchester * 1447–1450: William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk * 3 April 1454 – February 1455:

Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (21 September 1411 – 30 December 1460), also named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Planta ...

* 19 November 1455 – 25 February 1456:

, Protector (Regent) for King Henry VI * 1470–1471: Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick; known as Warwick the Kingmaker; killed at the Battle of Barnet

House of York

* 1461–1467: Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick; known as Warwick the Kingmaker * 1475–1483:

Thomas Rotherham Thomas Rotherham (24 August 1423 – 29 May 1500), also known as Thomas (Scot) de Rotherham, was an English cleric and statesman. He served as bishop of several dioceses, most notably as Archbishop of York and, on two occasions as Lord C ...

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers ...

* 30 April – 26 June 1483: Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, was Lord Protector of the Realm during the nominal reign of 12-year-old

King Edward V Edward V (2 November 1470 – mid-1483)R. F. Walker, "Princes in the Tower", in S. H. Steinberg et al, ''A New Dictionary of British History'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 1963, p. 286. was ''de jure'' King of England and Lord of Ireland fro ...

(one of the " Princes in the Tower"), before claiming the throne for himself as King Richard III

House of Tudor

House of Stuart

Stuart Restoration

In 1660, the leadership of

the Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territorial evolution of the British Empire ...

recalled Charles II and the chief minister became responsible to some extent to Parliament as leader of a ministry, although much of the time King Charles was in effect his own chief minister. The

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...

of 1688–89 furthered this process and by the time of Queen Anne in 1702, monarchs had little choice as to who their ministers would be.

Charles II and James II

William III and Mary II

From 1693 and during the sole reign of William III, the government was increasingly dominated by the Whig Junto.

Anne

The Kingdoms of England and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.

Hanoverian Succession

In the immediate aftermath of the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the monarchy was unable to function as the new King was in his domains in Hanover and did not know of his accession. As a stopgap, Parliament elected

Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, (23 July 1666 – 28 April 1732) was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1705 to 1710. He was Lord Chief Justice from 1710 to 1718 and acted briefly as one of the regents befo ...

Regent, or "acting king" until the new monarch arrived to take his crown. Later, George,

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rule ...

reigned as regent for six months from July 1716 to January 1717 when the King went to Hanover. In the early part of the reign of George I, who could not speak English, the cabinet began meeting without the monarch present. Following the succession of George I and the resignation of the Duke of Shrewsbury in 1714, the office of Lord High Treasurer went into permanent commission, its function undertaken by a commission of Lords of the Treasury, chaired by the First Lord of the Treasury, rather than by an individual Lord High Treasurer. From 1714 to 1717 the ministry was led by

Viscount Townshend Marquess Townshend is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain held by the Townshend family of Raynham Hall in Norfolk. The title was created in 1787 for George Townshend, 4th Viscount Townshend. History The Townshend family descends from Roge ...

, who was nominally Northern Secretary; the Earl of Halifax, the Earl of Carlisle and Sir

Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lea ...

successively served alongside Townshend as nominal First Lord of the Treasury. From 1717 to 1721 Lords Stanhope (First Lord 1717–18) and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

(First Lord 1718–21) led the administration jointly, with Stanhope managing foreign affairs and Sunderland managing home affairs. Stanhope died in February 1721 and Sunderland resigned in April 1721; Townshend and Walpole returned to office. Thus the First Lord of the Treasury came to be the most powerful minister and the prototype of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and its dominions.

George I

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, state=collapsed Political history of the United Kingdom Government of England English ministries Political history of England 17th century in England 1668 establishments in England 1670s disestablishments in England Ministries of Charles II of England