Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe (4 November 1786 – 14 August 1880), was a British diplomat who became best known as the longtime
British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. A cousin of
George Canning, he served as
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary to the United States between 1820 and 1824 and held his first appointment as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1825 and 1828.
He intermittently represented several constituencies in
parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
between 1828 and 1842. In 1841 he was re-appointed as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, serving in the position from January 1842 to 1858. In 1852 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe. Canning's hopes of high political office were repeatedly dashed.
Background and education
Canning was the youngest of the five children of Stratford Canning (1744–1787), an Irish-born merchant based in London, by his wife Mehitabel, daughter of Robert Patrick. He was born at his father's house of business in St. Clement's Lane, in the heart of London. In 1787, when he was 6 months old, Canning's father died so his mother and siblings went to live in a cottage at
Wanstead, where he would holiday for the rest of his life. Mehitabel Canning continued her husband's business until her eldest son could take her place. His eldest brother Henry Canning became British Consul in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
in 1823, a posting he retained for the rest of his life. Henry Canning died at Hamburg in 1841. Another brother,
William Canning (1778–1860), was a
Canon of Windsor from 1828 to 1860, while another brother, Charles Fox Canning (1784–1815), was at the time of his death a lieutenant colonel to the Guards,
aide-de-camp to the
Duke of Wellington at the
battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...
. He was also a first cousin of prime minister
George Canning and
Lord Garvagh. He was educated at
Eton and
King's College, Cambridge.
His mother was a widow with little money, but powerful relatives especially George Canning. Stratford Canning began his education at a
Dame's school at the age of four. At the age of 6 he left to attend Mr. Newcome's school in Hackney. Thanks to help from George Canning, he attended Eton for ten years, then King's College, Cambridge, in 1806–1807.
Diplomatic career, 1807–1831
In 1807, Canning was given a minor role in the Foreign Office by his cousin (as deputy to Col. Norton Powlett,
Clerk of the Signet), and was sent with
Anthony Merry on a mission to
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
later that year. His first trip to
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
came in 1808, when he accompanied the mission of
Robert Adair that restored peace between Britain and the Turks. When Adair left Constantinople in 1810, Canning became
Minister Plenipotentiary, and it was Canning who helped mediate the
Treaty of Bucharest between the Ottomans and Russia on 28 May 1812.
Canning returned to London later that year, and helped to found the ''
Quarterly Review''. In June 1814 he was appointed
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary to Switzerland, where he, along with the other allied representatives, helped negotiate Swiss neutrality and a
new Swiss federal constitution. In October he went to
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, where he acted as an aid to
Lord Castlereagh, the British representative 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 ...
. After the negotiation of Swiss neutrality in 1815, Canning's role there became dull to him, but he stayed until 1819, when he was recalled and sent to
Washington as
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary to the United States. Although he hoped for major accomplishments in Washington that would allow him to move up to a larger position, he was largely unsuccessful. The initiative of his cousin George, this time as Foreign Secretary, for a joint Anglo-American guarantee of Latin American independence, led to the promulgation of the
Monroe Doctrine. In 1820 Canning was made a member of the
Privy Council.
Canning returned to London in 1823, and the next year was sent on a mission to
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, where he negotiated a treaty on the border between Russian and British North America, but failed to come to any agreement regarding the Greek Revolt. Later in February 1825 he concluded a treaty with Russia on the north-west American frontier (the
treaty of Saint Petersburg).
In 1825, Canning was returned to Constantinople, this time as
Ambassador. He fled the city following the
Battle of Navarino in 1827, but after a brief return to London he, along with the French and Russian ambassadors who had also fled, set up camp at
Poros. In 1828 he and the other ambassadors participated in the
Conference of Poros, which recommended to their respective governments the establishment of a separate Greek state, including the islands of
Crete,
Samos, and
Euboea. Although he had been encouraged in this generous position towards the Greeks by his superior,
Lord Aberdeen, this move was disavowed by the government, and Canning resigned.
Diplomatic career, 1831–1841
Following his return, Canning attempted to enter British politics, entering the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...
in 1831, but was not a particularly notable figure in the Commons. When the
Whigs entered office and the Canningite
Lord Palmerston became British foreign secretary, Canning returned again to
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
in 1831, but returned in 1832, disapproving of Palmerston's lack of consultation with him and the choice of Prince Otto of Bavaria as King of Greece. That year, he was appointed
Ambassador to Russia, but never took the office, as Tsar
Nicholas I refused to receive him.
Canning was, however, sent on a new diplomatic mission, to Madrid, where he was to deal with the rival claimants to the Portuguese throne, but was largely unsuccessful. He turned again, attempting again to pursue a course in domestic politics, associating himself with
Lord Stanley's
band of renegade Whigs, but when Stanley's followers entered government with
Sir Robert Peel in 1841, Canning again was not offered a post. Going to Lord Aberdeen, the new Foreign Secretary, with whom his relations remained ambiguous, Canning was this time offered the Constantinople embassy.
Ambassador to Constantinople, 1842–1858
Canning's term in Constantinople lasted from 1842 to 1852. When Canning's old ally Stanley, now Earl of Derby, formed a government in 1852, Canning hoped to receive the foreign office, or at least the Paris embassy. Instead, he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, in the County of Somerset. He returned home in 1852, but when
Aberdeen's coalition government was formed, Stratford de Redcliffe was returned to Constantinople.
In Constantinople for the last time, Stratford came in the midst of a crisis caused by the dispute between
Napoleon III and
Nicholas I over the protection of the holy places. This crisis ultimately led to the
Crimean War. Stratford is accused of encouraging the Turks to reject the compromise agreement during the Menshikov mission. It appears that he was consistently urging the Turks to reject compromises arguing that any Russian treaty, or facsimile thereof, would be to subject the Ottoman Empire to protectorate status under Tsar Nicholas I. He left Constantinople for the last time in 1857, and resigned early the next year.
Retirement
For the next twenty-two years Lord Stratford de Redcliffe lived in retirement, pursuing scholarly activities and deeply bored by his absence from public life. He attended the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
regularly and spoke frequently on foreign policy matters as a cross-bencher. In 1869 he was made a
Knight of the Garter. During the Eastern Crisis of the 1870s, Stratford wrote frequent letters in ''
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 ...
'' on the subject.
In September 1876,
William Ewart Gladstone dedicated his
pamphlet "Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East" to him.
Family

Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was twice married. His first wife, Harriet daughter to Thomas and Harriet Raikes, died in her 27th year at
Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
in February 1817, probably in childbirth. His second wife, Eliza Charlotte Alexander (1805–1882), bore him (at least) five children of whom four survived to adulthood. These were:
* Hon. Louisa Charlotte Canning (1828–1908)
* Hon. George Stratford Canning (1832–1878)
* Hon. Catherine Jane Canning (1835–1884)
* Hon. Mary Elizabeth Canning (1837–1905)
All his children died unmarried. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe himself died at the age of 93 in 1880, his peerage becoming extinct. He is buried underneath a large very grey monument on the western side of the grave yard at Frant in Sussex, England.
Reputation
As ambassador to the Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Sultan, Stratford Canning played a major role in high level diplomacy, since Britain was the chief supporter, advocate and protector of the Ottoman Empire. Winston Churchill said he had "a wider knowledge of Turkey than any other Englishmen of his day,"
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, said he was "the voice of England in the East." The Turks called him "the Great Ambassador."
Portraits
In 1879, by then an invalid aged over ninety, Stratford de Redcliffe was painted by
Hubert Herkomer for
King's College, Cambridge. Herkomer painted him in a black coat, wearing his Orders, and later recalled that he had found Stratford de Redcliffe "still vigorous in mind, dwelling chiefly on subjects of a poetic and philosophical nature." On one occasion, the sun had caught a cloth shoe on a gouty foot, and Stratford de Redcliffe had commented that it was "kind of old Phoebus to shine on an old boot."
[ Hubert Herkomer, ''The Herkomers'' (1910), pp. 118–119.]
Arms
See also
*
International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)
*
History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom
*
Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856
References
Further reading
* Byrne, Leo Gerald. ''The great ambassador: a study of the diplomatic career of the Right Honourable Stratford Canning, KG, GCB, viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, and the epoch during which he served as the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Sultan'' (Ohio State UP, 1964
online
* Florescu, Radu R. "Stratford Canning, Palmerston, and the Wallachian Revolution of 1848." ''Journal of Modern History'' 35.3 (1963): 228-24
online
* Hamlin, Cyrus. "The Political Duel Between Nicholas, the Czar of Russia, and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the Great English Ambassador." ''Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society Vol. 9. 1893
online* Hendreson, Nicholas. "Lord Stratford de Redcliffe and the Crimean War" ''History Today'' (1952) 2#11 pp 729-737 online
* Lane-Poole, Stanley. ''The Life of the Right Honourable Stratford Canning: Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe'' (2 Vol. Longmans, Green, 1888
online
* Richmond, Steven. ''The Voice of England in the East: Stratford Canning and Diplomacy with the Ottoman Empire'' (Bloomsbury, 2014).
* Temperley, Harold. "Stratford de Redcliffe and the Origins of the Crimean War." ''English Historical Review'' 48.192 (1933): 601-62
online
* Temperley, Harold. "The last phase of Stratford de Redcliffe, 1855-8." ''English Historical Review'' 47.186 (1932): 216-25
online
* Warr, Michael. ''A Biography of Stratford Canning: Mainly his Career in Turkey'' (1989) 150pp.
External links
*
in Constantinople
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratford de Redcliffe, Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount
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