William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, (25 October 175912 January 1834) was a British

Pittite Tory The Tories were a loosely organised political faction and later a political party, in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. They first emerged during the 1679 Exclusion Crisis, when they opposed ...

politician who served as

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...

from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs for the duration of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. As prime minister, his most significant achievement was the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. However, his government failed to either make peace with

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

or to accomplish

Catholic emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restrict ...

and it was dismissed in the same year.

Background

Grenville was the son of the Whig Prime Minister

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 ...

. His mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of the Tory statesman Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet. He had two elder brothers: Thomas and George. He was thus uncle to the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. He was also related to the Pitt family by marriage since

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, (15 November 170811 May 1778) was a British statesman of the Whig group who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. Historians call him Chatham or William Pitt the Elder to distinguish ...

, had married his father's sister

Hester Hester is both a female given name and a surname. As a given name Hester is a variant of Esther. As a surname it is of Germanic origin and uncertain meaning, possible roots being the Middle High German ''heister'' beech tree indicating residence ne ...

. The younger Grenville was thus the first cousin of

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister of the Un ...

. Grenville was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

; Christ Church, Oxford; and Lincoln's Inn.

Political career

Grenville entered the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

in February 1782 as member for the borough of Buckingham. He soon became a close ally of the prime minister, his cousin

. In September, he became secretary to the

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the King ...

, who was his brother George. He left the House the following year and served in the government as Paymaster of the Forces from 1784 to 1789. In 1789, he served briefly as Speaker of the House of Commons before he entered the cabinet as

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

and resigned his other posts. He became Leader of the House of Lords when he was raised to the peerage the next year as Baron Grenville, of Wotton under Bernewood in the County of Buckingham. In 1791, he succeeded the Duke of Leeds as

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

. Grenville's decade as Foreign Secretary was dramatic with the Wars of the French Revolution. During the war, Grenville was the leader of the party that focused on the fighting on the continent as the key to victory and opposed the faction of Henry Dundas, which favoured war at sea and in the colonies. Grenville left office with Pitt in 1801 over the issue of

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

's refusal to assent to

. Grenville did part-time military service at home as Major in the

Buckinghamshire Yeomanry The Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry is an Operational Hygiene Squadron of the Royal Logistic Corps, originally formed as cavalry in 1794, and has also served in artillery and signals roles. The lineage is continued by 710 (Royal Buckinghamshire H ...

cavalry in 1794 and as lieutenant-colonel in the South Buckinghamshire volunteer regiment in 1806. In his years out of office, Grenville became close to the opposition Whig leader

Charles James Fox Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the arch-riv ...

, and when Pitt returned to office in 1804, Grenville sided with Fox and did not take part.

Prime minister

After Pitt's death in 1806, Grenville became the head of the " Ministry of All the Talents", a coalition between Grenville's supporters, the Foxite Whigs, and the supporters of former Prime Minister Lord Sidmouth, with Grenville as

First Lord of the Treasury The first lord of the Treasury is the head of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury exercising the ancient office of Lord High Treasurer in the United Kingdom, and is by convention also the prime minister. This office is not equivalent to t ...

and Fox as Foreign Secretary as joint leaders. Grenville's cousin William Windham served as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and his younger brother, Thomas Grenville, served briefly as First Lord of the Admiralty. The Ministry ultimately accomplished little and failed either to make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation, the later attempt resulting in the ministry's dismissal in March 1807. It had one significant achievement, however, in the abolition of the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in 1807.

Post-premiership

In the years after the fall of the ministry, Grenville continued in opposition by maintaining his alliance with Lord Grey and the Whigs, criticising the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...

and, with Grey, refusing to join Lord Liverpool's government in 1812. In the postwar years, Grenville gradually moved back closer to the Tories but never again returned to the cabinet. In 1815, he separated from his friend Charles Grey and supported the war policy of Lord Liverpool. In 1819, when the Marquess of Lansdowne brought forward his motion for an inquiry into the causes of the distress and discontent in the manufacturing districts, Grenville delivered a speech advocating repressive measures. His political career was ended by a stroke in 1823. Grenville also served as

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

from 1810 until his death in 1834.

Legacy

Historians find it hard to tell exactly which separate roles Pitt, Grenville and Dundas played in setting war policy toward France but agree that Grenville played a major role at all times until 1801. The consensus of scholars is that war with France presented an unexpected complex of problems. There was a conflict between secular ideologies, the conscription of huge armies, the new role of Russia as a continental power and especially the sheer length and cost of the multiple coalitions. Grenville energetically worked to build and hold together the Allied coalitions and paid suitable attention to smaller members such as Denmark and Sardinia. He negotiated the complex alliance with Russia and Austria. He hoped that with British financing, they would bear the brunt of the ground campaigns against the French. Grenville's influence was at the maximum during the formation of the Second Coalition. His projections of easy success were greatly exaggerated, and the result was another round of disappointment. His resignation in 1801 was caused primarily by the king's refusal to allow Catholics to sit in Parliament.Jupp, 2009.

Dropmore House

Dropmore House Dropmore Park is a private estate located along Dropmore Road, north of Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England, about in size. The park with its buildings, including Dropmore House, have Grade I listed building status. Dropmore House is one of the m ...

was built in the 1790s for Lord Grenville. The architects were Samuel Wyatt and Charles Tatham. Grenville knew the spot from rambles during his time at

and prized its distant views of his old school and of

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

. On his first day in occupation, he planted two cedar trees. At least another 2,500 trees were planted. By the time he died, his pinetum contained the biggest collection of

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...

species in Britain. Part of the post-millennium restoration is to use what survives as the basis for a collection of some 200 species.

Personal life

Lord Grenville married Anne, daughter of Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford, in 1792. The marriage was childless. He died in January 1834, aged 74, when the barony became extinct.Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 3868 Although rumours did exist that he was the father of an illegitimate daughter, Maria in 1780, 12 years prior to his marriage to

Anne Pitt Anne Grenville, Baroness Grenville (, September 1772 – June 1864) was an English noblewoman and author, and a member of the Pitt family, which at the time dominated British politics. Biography Anne Pitt was the daughter of Thomas Pitt, 1st Ba ...

Ministry of All the Talents

* Lord Grenville –

and Leader of the House of Lords *

–

and Leader of the House of Commons * The Lord Erskine –

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. T ...

* The Earl Fitzwilliam – Lord President of the Council * The Viscount Sidmouth – Lord Privy Seal * The Earl Spencer – Secretary of State for the Home Department * William Windham – Secretary of State for War and the Colonies * Viscount Howick – First Lord of the Admiralty *

Lord Henry Petty Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 July 178031 January 1863), known as Lord Henry Petty from 1784 to 1809, was a British statesman. In a ministerial career spanning nearly half a century, he notably served as Home Secretary ...

– Chancellor of the Exchequer * The Earl of Moira – Master-General of the Ordnance * The Lord Ellenborough –

Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ...

Changes * September 1806On Fox's death, Lord Howick succeeds him as Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. Thomas Grenville succeeds Howick at the Admiralty. Lord Fitzwilliam becomes Minister without Portfolio, and Lord Sidmouth succeeds him as Lord President. Lord Holland succeeds Sidmouth as Lord Privy Seal.

Honours

Arms

Hereditary Peerage

* He was given a

Hereditary Peer The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of September 2022, there are 807 hereditary peers: 29 dukes (including five royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 190 earls, 111 viscounts, and 443 barons (disregarding subsid ...

age in 1790 allowing him to sit in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster ...

. He sat with the Whig Party Benches. He took the title of 1st Baron Grenville. This title became extinct upon his death in 1834 as he had no surviving heir.

British Empire honours

; British Empire honours

Scholastic

; Chancellor, visitor, governor, and fellowships

Memberships and fellowships

Notes

External links

*
More about William Wyndam Grenville, Lord Grenville
on the Downing Street website.
GrEco Project
On Lord Grenville's Economics {{DEFAULTSORT:Grenville, William Grenville, 1st Baron 1759 births 1834 deaths 19th-century prime ministers of the United Kingdom Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Barons in the Peerage of Great Britain Peers of Great Britain created by George III British abolitionists British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1784–1790 British Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs Chancellors of the University of Oxford Children of prime ministers of the United Kingdom Members of Lincoln's Inn Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Members of the Privy Council of Ireland People educated at Eton College Paymasters of the Forces People from Aylesbury Vale Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom Secretaries of State for the Home Department Speakers of the House of Commons of Great Britain Whig (British political party) MPs

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

Fellows of the Royal Society Commissioners of the Treasury for Ireland Chief Secretaries for Ireland Whig prime ministers of the United Kingdom Leaders of the House of Lords Presidents of the Board of Control