Whig
Whig or Whigs may refer to:
Parties and factions
In the British Isles
* A pejorative nickname for the Kirk Party
The Kirk Party were a radical Presbyterian faction of the Scotland, Scottish Covenanters during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. ...
group who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government
The head of government is either the highest or second-highest official in the executive
Executive may refer to:
Role, title, or function
* Executive (government), b ...
in the middle of the 18th century. Historians call him Pitt of Chatham, or William Pitt the Elder, to distinguish him from his son, William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a prominent Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the st ...
, who also was a prime minister. Pitt was also known as the Great Commoner, because of his long-standing refusal to accept a title until 1766.
Pitt was a member of the British cabinet and its informal leader from 1756 to 1761 (with a brief interlude in 1757), during the Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) is widely considered to be the first global conflict in history, and was a struggle for world supremacy between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France. In Europe, the conflict ar ...
(including the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) is widely considered to be the first global conflict in history, and was a struggle for world supremacy between Great Britain
...
in the American colonies#REDIRECT American colonies
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William's father was Robert Pitt (1680–1727), the eldest son of Governor Pitt, who served as a Tory Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament from 1705 to 1727. His mother was Harriet Villiers, the daughter of Edward Villiers-FitzGerald and the Kingdom of Ireland, Irish Beneficiary, heiress Katherine FitzGerald, Viscountess Grandison, Katherine FitzGerald. Both William's paternal uncles Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry, Thomas and John Pitt (colonel), John were MPs, while his aunt Lucy Stanhope, Countess of Stanhope, Lucy married the leading Whig (British political party), Whig politician and soldier General James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, James Stanhope. From 1717 to 1721 Stanhope served as effective First Minister in the First Stanhope–Sunderland Ministry, Stanhope–Sunderland Ministry and was a useful political contact for the Pitt family until the collapse of the South Sea Bubble, a disaster which engulfed the government.
On Pitt's return home it was necessary for him, as the younger son, to choose a profession. He had at one point been considered likely to join the Church of England, Church, but instead opted for a military career. Having chosen the British Army, army, he obtained, through the assistance of his friends, a Cornet (military rank), cornet's commission in the dragoons with the King's Own Regiment of Horse (later 1st King's Dragoon Guards). George II of Great Britain, George II never forgot the jibes of "the terrible cornet of horse". It was reported that the Purchase of commissions in the British Army, £1,000 cost of the commission had been supplied by Robert Walpole, the prime minister, out of HM Treasury, Treasury funds in an attempt to secure the support of Pitt's brother Thomas in Parliament. Alternatively the fee may have been waived by the commanding officer of the regiment, Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, Lord Cobham, who was related to the Pitt brothers by marriage.
Pitt was to grow close to Cobham, whom he regarded as almost a wiktionary:surrogate, surrogate father. He was stationed for much of his service in Northampton, in peacetime duties. Pitt was particularly frustrated that, owing to Walpole's isolationist policies, Britain had not entered the War of the Polish Succession which broke out in 1733, and he had thus not been given a chance to test himself in battle. Pitt was granted extended leave in 1733, and toured France and Switzerland. He briefly visited Paris but spent most of his time in the French provinces, spending the winter in Lunéville in the Duchy of Lorraine.
Pitt's military career was destined to be relatively short. His elder brother Thomas was returned at the 1734 British general election, general election of 1734 for two separate seats, Okehampton (UK Parliament constituency), Okehampton and Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency), Old Sarum, and chose to sit for Okehampton, passing the vacant seat to William who accordingly, in February 1735, entered Parliament of Great Britain, parliament as member for Old Sarum. He became one of a large number of serving army officers in the House of Commons.
Walpole and Newcastle were now giving the war in Europe a much higher priority than the colonial conflict with Spain in the Americas. Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia and Holy Roman Empire, Austria went to war in 1740, with many other European states soon joining in. There was a fear that France would launch an invasion of Electorate of Hanover, Hanover, which was linked to Britain through the crown of George II of Great Britain, George II. To avert this Walpole and Newcastle decided to pay a large subsidy to both Austria and Hanover, in order for them to raise troops and defend themselves.
Pitt now launched an attack on such subsidies, playing to widespread anti-Hanoverian feelings in Britain. This boosted his popularity with the public, but earned him the lifelong hatred of the King, who was emotionally committed to Hanover, where he had spent the first thirty years of his life. In response to Pitt's attacks, the British government decided not to pay a direct subsidy to Hanover, but instead to pass the money indirectly through Austriaa move which was considered more politically acceptable. A sizeable Pragmatic Army, Anglo-German army was formed which George II himself led to victory at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743, reducing the immediate threat to Hanover.
Despite his disappointment there was no immediate open breach. Pitt continued at his post; and at the general election which took place during the year he even accepted a nomination for the Duke's pocket borough of Aldborough (UK Parliament constituency), Aldborough. He had sat for Seaford (UK Parliament constituency), Seaford since 1747. The government won a landslide victory, landslide, further strengthening its majority in parliament.
When parliament met, however, he made no secret of his feelings. Ignoring Robinson, Pitt made frequent and vehement attacks on Newcastle himself, though still continued to serve as Paymaster under him. From 1754 Britain was increasingly drawn into conflict with France during this period, despite Newcastle's wish to maintain the peace. The countries clashed in North America, where each had laid claim to the Ohio Country. A British expedition under General Braddock Braddock Expedition, had been despatched and defeated in summer 1755 which caused a ratcheting up of tensions.
Eager to prevent the war spreading to Europe, Newcastle now tried to conclude a series of treaties that would secure Britain allies through the payment of subsidies, which he hoped would discourage France from attacking Britain. Similar subsidies had been an issue of past disagreement, and they were widely attacked by Patriot Whigs and Tories. As the government came under increasing attack, Newcastle replaced Robinson with Fox who it was acknowledged carried more political weight and again slighted Pitt.
Finally in November 1755, Pitt was dismissed from office as paymaster, having spoken during a debate at great length against the new system of continental subsidies proposed by the government of which he was still a member. Fox retained his own place, and though the two men continued to be of the same party, and afterwards served again in the same government, there was henceforward a rivalry between them, which makes the celebrated opposition of their sons, 
In December 1756, Pitt, who now sat for Okehampton (UK Parliament constituency), Okehampton, became Secretary of State for the Southern Department, and Leader of the House of Commons under the premiership of the William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Duke of Devonshire. Upon entering this coalition, Pitt said to Devonshire: "My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and no one else can".
He had made it a condition of his joining any administration that Newcastle should be excluded from it, which proved fatal to the lengthened existence of his government. With the king unfriendly, and Newcastle, whose influence was still dominant in the Commons, estranged, it was impossible to carry on a government by the aid of public opinion alone, however emphatically that might have declared itself on his side. The historian Basil Williams (historian), Basil Williams has claimed that this is the first time in British history when a "man was called to supreme power by the voice of the people" rather than by the king's appointment or as the choice of Parliament.
Pitt drew up his plans for the campaigning season of 1757 in which he hoped to reverse Britain's string of defeats during the war's opening years.
In April 1757 Pitt was dismissed from office on account of his opposition to the continental policy and the circumstances surrounding the court-martial and execution of Admiral John Byng. He was succeeded by the Duke of Devonshire who formed the 1757 Caretaker Ministry. But the power that was insufficient to keep him in office was strong enough to make any arrangement that excluded him impracticable. The public voice spoke in a way that was not to be mistaken. Probably no English minister ever received in so short a time so many proofs of the confidence and admiration of the public, the capital and all the chief towns voting him addresses and the freedom of their corporations (e.g., London presented him with the first ever ''honorary'' Freedom of the City#Freedom of the City of London, Freedom of the City of London, City awarded in history). Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, Horace Walpole recorded the freedoms of various cities awarded to Pitt:
A Pitt–Newcastle ministry, coalition with Newcastle was formed in June 1757, and held power until October 1761. It brought together several various factions and was built around the partnership between Pitt and Newcastle, which a few months earlier had seemed impossible. The two men used Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Chesterfield as an intermediary and had managed to agree a division of powers that was acceptable to both. For the past few months Britain had been virtually leaderless, although Devonshire had remained formally Prime Minister, but now Pitt and Newcastle were ready to offer stronger direction to the country's strategy.
By summer 1757 the British war effort over the previous three years had broadly been a failure. Britain's attempts to take the offensive in North America had ended in disaster, Menorca had been lost, and the Duke of Cumberland's Army of Observation was retreating across Hanover following the Battle of Hastenback. In October Cumberland was forced to conclude the Convention of Klosterzeven, which would take Hanover out of the war. The Invasion of Hanover (1757), French Invasion of Hanover posed a threat to Britain's ally Prussia, who they would now be able to attack from the west as well as facing attack from Austria, Russian Empire, Russia, Electorate of Saxony, Saxony and Sweden.
Although it was late in the campaigning season when he had come to power, Pitt set about trying to initiate a more assertive strategy. He conspired with a number of figures to persuade the Hanoverians to revoke the Klosterzevern Convention and re-enter the war on Britain's side, which they did in late 1757. He also put into practice a scheme of Naval Descents that would make amphibious warfare, amphibious landings on the French coast. The first of these, the Raid on Rochefort, took place in September but was not a success. The centrepiece of the campaign in North America, an Louisbourg Expedition (1757), expedition to capture Louisbourg, was aborted due to the presence of a large French fleet and a gale that scattered the British fleet.
In France a new leader, the Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, Duc de Choiseul, had recently come to power and 1759 offered a duel between their rival strategies. Pitt intended to continue with his plan of tying down French forces in Germany while continuing the assault on France's colonies. Choiseul hoped to repel the attacks in the colonies while seeking total victory in Europe.
Pitt's war around the world was largely successful. While a British Invasion of Martinique (1759), invasion of Martinique failed, they Invasion of Guadeloupe (1759), captured Guadeloupe shortly afterwards. In India, a French Siege of Madras, attempt to capture Madras was repulsed. In North America, British troops closed in on France's Canadian heartland. A British force under James Wolfe moved up the Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence with the aim of capturing Quebec. After initially Battle of Beauport, failing to penetrate the French defences at the Montmorency Falls, Wolfe later led his men Battle of the Plains of Abraham, to a victory to the west of the city allowing the British forces to capture Quebec.
Choiseul had pinned much of his hopes on Planned French Invasion of Britain (1759), a French invasion of Britain, which he hoped would knock Britain out of the war and make it surrender the colonies it had taken from France. Pitt had stripped the home islands of troops to send on his expeditions, leaving Britain guarded by poorly trained militia and giving an opportunity for the French if they could land in enough force. The French did build a large invasion force. However the French naval defeats at Battle of Lagos, Lagos and Battle of Quiberon Bay, Quiberon Bay forced Choiseul to abandon the invasion plans. France's other great hope, that their armies could make a breakthrough in Germany and invade Hanover, was thwarted at the Battle of Minden. Britain ended the year victorious in every theatre of operations in which it was engaged, with Pitt receiving the credit for this.
Pitt's particular genius was to finance an army on the continent to drain French men and resources so that Britain might concentrate on what he held to be the vital spheres: Canada and the West Indies; whilst Clive successfully defeated Siraj ud-Daulah, (the last independent Nawab of Bengal) at Plassey (1757), securing India. The Continental campaign was carried on by Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, Cumberland, defeated at Battle of Hastenbeck, Hastenbeck and forced to surrender at Convention of Klosterzeven (1757) and thereafter by Ferdinand of Brunswick, later victor at Battle of Minden, Minden; Britain's Continental campaign had two major strands, firstly subsidising allies, particularly Frederick the Great, and second, financing an army to divert French resources from the colonial war and to also defend Hanover (which was the territory of the Kings of England at this time)
Pitt, real imperialism, Imperialist in modern English history, was the directing mind in the expansion of his country, and with him the beginning of empire is rightly associated. The 
George II died on 25 October 1760, and was succeeded by his grandson, George III of the United Kingdom, George III. The new king was inclined to view politics in personal terms and taught to believe that "Pitt had the blackest of hearts". The new king had counsellors of his own, led by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Lord Bute. Bute soon joined the cabinet as a secretary of state, Northern Secretary and Pitt and he were quickly in dispute over a number of issues.
In 1761 Pitt had received information from his agents about a secret Pacte de Famille, Bourbon Family Compact by which the House of Bourbon, Bourbons of France and Spain bound themselves in an offensive alliance against Britain. Spain was concerned that Britain's victories over France had left them too powerful, and were a threat in the long term to Spain's Spanish Empire, own empire. Equally they may have believed that the British had become overstretched by fighting a global war and decided to try to seize British possessions such as Jamaica. A secret convention pledged that if Britain and France were still at war by 1 May 1762, Spain would enter the war on the French side.
Pitt urged that such a clear threat should be met by a pre-emptive strike against Spain's navy and her colonies—with emphasis on speed to prevent Spain bringing the annual Manila galleon safely to harbour. Bute and Newcastle refused to support such a move, as did the entire cabinet except Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple, Temple, believing it would make Britain look the aggressor against Spain potentially provoking other neutral nations to declare war on Britain. Pitt believed he had no choice but to leave a cabinet in which his advice on a vital question had been rejected and presented his resignation. Many of his cabinet colleagues secretly welcomed his departure as they believed his dominance and popularity were a threat to the Constitution. Pitt's brother-in-law George Grenville was given a major role in government, angering Pitt who felt Grenville should have resigned with him. Pitt regarded Grenville's action as a betrayal and there was hostility between them for several years.
After Pitt's resignation in October 1761, the King urged Pitt to accept a mark of royal favour. Accordingly, he obtained a pension of £3000 a year and his wife, Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham, Lady Hester Grenville was created Earl of Chatham, Baroness Chatham in her own right—although Pitt refused to accept a title himself. Pitt assured the King that he would not go into direct opposition against the government. His conduct after his retirement was distinguished by a moderation and disinterestedness which, as Edmund Burke remarked, "set a seal upon his character". The war with Spain, in which he had urged the cabinet to take the initiative, proved inevitable; but he scorned to use the occasion for "altercation and recrimination", and spoke in support of the government measures for carrying on the war.
Twenty years after he had received a similar windfall from the Marlborough legacy, Sir William Pynsent, 2nd Baronet, Sir William Pynsent, Bt., a Somerset baronet to whom he was personally quite unknown, left him his entire estate, worth about three thousand a year, in testimony of approval of his political career.
To the preliminaries of the Treaty of Paris (1763), peace concluded in February 1763 he offered an indignant resistance, considering the terms quite inadequate to the successes that had been gained by the country. When the treaty was discussed in parliament in December of the previous year, though suffering from a severe attack of gout, he was carried down to the House, and in a speech of three hours' duration, interrupted more than once by paroxysms of pain, he strongly protested against its various conditions. These conditions included the return of the sugar islands (but Britain retained Dominica); trading stations in West Africa (won by Boscawen); Pondicherry (city), Pondicherry (France's Indian colony); and fishing rights in Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland. Pitt's opposition arose through two heads: France had been given the means to become once more formidable at sea, whilst Frederick the Great, Frederick of Prussia had been betrayed.
Pitt believed that the task had been left half-finished and called for a final year of war which would crush French power for good. Pitt had long-held plans for further conquests which had been uncompleted. Newcastle, by contrast, sought peace but only if the war in Germany could be brought to an honourable and satisfactory conclusion (rather than Britain suddenly bailing out of it as Bute proposed). However the combined opposition of Newcastle and Pitt was not enough to prevent the Treaty passing comfortably in both Houses of Parliament.
However, there were strong reasons for concluding the peace: the National Debt had increased from £74.5m. in 1755 to £133.25m. in 1763, the year of the Treaty of Paris (1763), peace. The requirement to pay down this debt, and the lack of French threat in Canada, were major movers in the subsequent American War of Independence.
The physical cause which rendered this effort so painful probably accounts for the infrequency of his appearances in parliament, as well as for much that is otherwise inexplicable in his subsequent conduct. In 1763 he spoke against the unpopular Cider Bill of 1763, tax on cider, imposed by his brother-in-law, George Grenville, and his opposition, though unsuccessful in the House, helped to keep alive his popularity with the country, which cordially hated the excise and all connected with it. When next year the question of general warrants was raised in connexion with the case of John Wilkes, Pitt vigorously maintained their illegality, thus defending at once the privileges of Parliament and the freedom of the press.
During 1765 he seems to have been totally :wikt:incapacitation, incapacitated for public business. In the following year he supported with great power the proposal of the Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Rockingham administration for the repeal of the Thirteen Colonies, American Stamp Act 1765, Stamp Act, arguing that it was unconstitutional to impose taxes upon the colonies. He thus endorsed the contention of the colonists on the ground of principle, while the majority of those who acted with him contented themselves with resisting the disastrous taxation scheme on the ground of expediency.
The Repeal (1766) of the Stamp Act 1765, Stamp Act, indeed, was only passed ''pari passu'' with Declaratory Act, another censuring the American Deliberative assembly, assemblies, and declaring the authority of the British parliament over the colonies "in all cases whatsoever". Thus the House of Commons repudiated in the most formal manner the principle Pitt laid down. His language in approval of the resistance of the colonists was unusually bold, and perhaps no one but himself could have employed it with impunity at a time when the freedom of debate was only imperfectly conceded.
Pitt had not been long out of office when he was solicited to return to it, and the solicitations were more than once renewed. Unsuccessful overtures were made to him in 1763, and twice in 1765, in May and June—the negotiator in May being the king's uncle, the Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, Duke of Cumberland, who went down in person to Hayes, Bromley, Hayes, Pitt's seat in Kent. It is known that he had the opportunity of joining the Marquess of Rockingham's short-lived administration at any time on his own terms, and his conduct in declining an arrangement with that minister has been more generally condemned than any other step in his public life.
Soon after his resignation a renewed attack of gout freed Chatham from the mental disease under which he had so long suffered. He had been nearly two years and a half in seclusion when, in July 1769, he again appeared in public at a royal levee. It was not, however, until 1770 that he resumed his seat in the House of Lords.
In view of the hostile demonstrations of France the various parties had come generally to see the necessity of such a measure but Chatham could not brook the thought of a step which implied submission to the "natural enemy" whom it had been the main object of his life to humble, and he declaimed for a considerable time, though with diminished vigour, against the motion. After the Duke of Richmond had replied, he rose again excitedly as if to speak, pressed his hand upon his breast, and fell down in a fit. His last words before he collapsed were: "My Lords, any state is better than despair; if we must fall, let us fall like men." James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, James Harris MP, however, recorded that Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent, Lord Nugent had told him that Chatham's last words in the Lords were: "If the Americans defend independence, they shall find me in their way" and that his very last words (spoken to John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, his soldier son John) were: "Leave your dying father, and go to the defence of your country".
He was moved to his home at Hayes, where his middle son William Pitt the Younger, William read to him Homer's passage about the death of Hector. Chatham died on 11 May 1778, aged 69. Although he was initially buried at Hayes, with graceful unanimity all parties combined to show their sense of the national loss and the Commons presented an address to the king praying that the deceased statesman might be buried with the honours of a public funeral. A sum was voted for a public monument which was erected over a new grave in Westminster Abbey. In the Guildhall, London, Guildhall Edmund Burke's inscription summed up what he had meant to the city: he was "the minister by whom commerce was united with and made to flourish by war". Soon after the funeral a bill was passed bestowing a pension of £4,000 a year on his successors in the earldom. He had a family of three sons and two daughters, of whom the second son, William Pitt the Younger, William, was destined to add fresh lustre to a name that many regarded as one of the greatest in the history of England.
Horace Walpole, not an uncritical admirer, wrote of Pitt: