William à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury GCB PC (11 July 1779 – 31 May 1860), known as Sir William à Court, 2nd Baronet, from 1817 to 1828, was an English diplomat and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

politician.

Background and education

Heytesbury was the eldest son of

Sir William à Court, 1st Baronet Sir William Pierce Ashe à Court, 1st Baronet (c. 1747 – 22 July 1817) was a British soldier and Member of Parliament (MP). À Court was the son of General William Ashe-à Court and Anne Vernon. He represented Heytesbury in the House of Com ...

, and Laetitia, daughter of Henry Wyndham. He was educated at Eton and entered the

Diplomatic Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

at an early age.

Political and diplomatic career

In 1812 Heytesbury was elected to 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. T ...

for Dorchester, a seat he held until 1814. He was also

Envoy Extraordinary Diplomatic rank is a system of professional and social rank used in the world of diplomacy and international relations. A diplomat's rank determines many ceremonial details, such as the order of precedence at official processions, table seatings ...

to the Barbary States from 1813 to 1814, to the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

in 1814 and to Spain from 1822 to 1824 and served as Ambassador to Portugal between 1824 and 1828. Lord Heytesbury by Brian Searby (Middleton Album)

The latter year Heytesbury was appointed Ambassador to Russia, where he had to deal with the Russo-Turkish War of 1828 to 1829 and the tensions created by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

's occupation of the

Danubian Principalities The Danubian Principalities ( ro, Principatele Dunărene, sr, Дунавске кнежевине, translit=Dunavske kneževine) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th c ...

. Florescu, Radu R. (2021), ''The Struggle Against Russia in the Romanian Principalities'', Histra Books, Las Vegas, pp. 170, 190, 191, 275 & 323, He remained in Russia until 1832. In 1835

Sir Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

nominated him for the office of

Governor-General of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...

, but the

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

government soon fell and he never took up the post. However, he later served under Peel as

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 ...

from 1844 to 1846, and presided over the beginning of the

Great Famine (Ireland) The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...

. Heytesbury succeeded his father as second Baronet in 1817, was admitted to 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 ...

the same year and made a GCB in 1819. In 1828 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Heytesbury, of Heytesbury in the County of Wiltshire.

Family

Lord Heytesbury married Maria Rebecca, daughter of the Hon. William Henry Bouverie, in 1808. They had four sons and two daughters. He died in May 1860, aged 80, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son

William William is a male given name of Germanic 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 conquest of Engl ...

References

* * * Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edn., (London, 2003) * Debrett's Peerage (London, 2002) *

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heytesbury, William a Court, 1st Baron 1779 births 1860 deaths People educated at Eton College Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Holmes à Court family Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Lords Lieutenant of Ireland Tory MPs (pre-1834) A Court, William UK MPs who were granted peerages Diplomatic peers Ambassadors of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to Spain Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Russia Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Portugal Ambassadors to the Kingdom of Naples Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Peers of the United Kingdom created by George IV