Tories (British Political Party)
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The Tories were a loosely organised
political faction A political faction is a group of individuals that share a common political purpose but differs in some respect to the rest of the entity. A faction within a group or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, "parties within a party," ...
and later a
political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
, in the Parliaments 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 b ...
,
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 the ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
,
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 is ...
and the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. They first emerged during the 1679
Exclusion Crisis The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1679 until 1681 in the reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Three Exclusion bills sought to exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Sc ...
, when they opposed Whig efforts to exclude
James, Duke of York James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
from the succession on the grounds of his
Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Despite their fervent opposition to state-sponsored Catholicism, Tories opposed exclusion in the belief inheritance based on birth was the foundation of a stable society. After the succession of
George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George I of Antioch (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgor ...
in 1714, the Tories were excluded from government for nearly 50 years and ceased to exist as an organised political entity in the early 1760s, although it was used as a term of self-description by some political writers. A few decades later, a new Tory party would rise to establish a hold on government between 1783 and 1830, with
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 (of Great Britain and Ire ...
followed by Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool. The Whigs won control of Parliament in the 1831 election, which was fought largely on the issue of electoral reform. The
Representation of the People Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...
removed the
rotten boroughs A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electora ...
, many of which were controlled by Tories and they were reduced to 175 MPs in the 1832 elections. Under the leadership of
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 ...
, who issued a policy document known as the
Tamworth Manifesto The Tamworth Manifesto was a political manifesto issued by Sir Robert Peel in 1834 in Tamworth, which is widely credited by historians as having laid down the principles upon which the modern British Conservative Party is based. In November 1834, ...
, the Tories began to transform into the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
. However, his repeal of the
Corn Laws The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. They were ...
in 1846 caused the party to break apart; the faction led by
Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
and
Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 â€“ 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...
became the modern Conservative Party, whose members are still commonly referred to as Tories.


Name

As a political term, ''Tory'' was an insult (derived from the
Middle Irish Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engli ...
word , modern
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
, meaning "
outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
", "robber", from the Irish word , meaning "pursuit" since outlaws were "pursued men") that entered English politics during the
Exclusion Bill The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1679 until 1681 in the reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Three Exclusion bills sought to exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Sco ...
crisis of 1678–1681. ''Whig'' (from ''whiggamore'', a "cattle driver") was initially a Scottish insult for the
Covenanter Covenanters ( gd, Cùmhnantaich) were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from ''Covenan ...
faction in Scotland who opposed the Engagers (a faction who supported
Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...
during the
Second English Civil War The Second English Civil War took place between February to August 1648 in Kingdom of England, England and Wales. It forms part of the series of conflicts known collectively as the 1639-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which include the 1641†...
) and supported the
Whiggamore Raid The Whiggamore Raid (or "March of the Whiggamores") was a march on Edinburgh by supporters of the Kirk faction of the Covenanters to take power from the Engagers whose army had recently been defeated by the English New Model Army at the Battle ...
that took place in September 1648. While the Whigs were those who supported the exclusion of James, the Duke of York from the succession to thrones of
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 the ...
and
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 b ...
and
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
(the ''Petitioners''), the ''Tories'' were those who opposed the
Exclusion Bill The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1679 until 1681 in the reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Three Exclusion bills sought to exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Sco ...
(the
Abhorrers Abhorrers, the name given in 1679 to the persons who expressed their abhorrence at the action of those who had signed petitions urging King Charles II of England to assemble Parliament. Feeling against Catholics, and especially against James, Du ...
). In 1757,
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment philo ...
wrote:


History


English Civil War

The first Tory party could trace its principles and politics to the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
which divided England between the
Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
or
Cavalier The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...
supporters of King
Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...
and the supporters of the
Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
upon which the King had declared war. This action resulted from this parliament not allowing him to levy taxes without yielding to its terms. In the beginning of the Long Parliament (1641), the King's supporters were fend the Parliament pursued a course of reform of previous abuses. The increasing radicalism of the Parliamentary majority, however, estranged many reformers even in the Parliament itself and drove them to make common cause with the King. The King's party thus comprised a mixture of supporters of royal
autocracy Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...
and of those Parliamentarians who felt that the Long Parliament had gone too far in attempting to gain executive power for itself and, more especially, in undermining the episcopalian government of the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
, which was felt to be a primary support of royal government. By the end of the 1640s, the radical Parliamentary programme had become clear: reduction of the King to a powerless figurehead and replacement of Anglican episcopacy with a form of
Presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
. This prospective form of settlement was prevented by a
coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
which shifted power from Parliament itself to the Parliamentary
New Model Army The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Th ...
, controlled by
Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
. The Army had King
Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...
executed and for the next 11 years the British kingdoms operated under
military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
.
The Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...
of King Charles II produced a reaction in which the King regained a large part of the power held by his father. However, Charles' ministers and supporters in England accepted a substantial role for Parliament in the government of the kingdoms. No subsequent British monarch would attempt to rule without Parliament, and after 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, political disputes would be resolved through elections and parliamentary manoeuvring, rather than by an appeal to force. Charles II also restored
episcopacy A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
. His first
Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...
began as a strongly royalist body, and passed a series of acts re-establishing the Church by law and strongly punishing dissent by both Roman Catholics and non-Anglican Protestants. These acts did not reflect the King's personal views and demonstrated the existence of a Royalist ideology beyond mere subservience to the Court. A series of disasters in the late 1660s and 1670s discredited Charles II's governments, and powerful political interests (including some who had been identified with the Parliamentary side in the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
) began to agitate for a greater role of Parliament in government, coupled with more tolerance for
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
dissenters. These interests would soon coalesce as the Whigs. As direct attacks on the King were politically impossible and could lead to execution for treason, opponents of the power of the Court framed their challenges as exposés of subversive and sinister Catholic plots. Although the matter of these plots was fictitious, they reflected two uncomfortable political realities: first, that Charles II had (somewhat insincerely) undertaken measures to convert the kingdom to Catholicism (in a 1670
treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations An international organization or international o ...
with
Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...
); second, that his younger brother and
heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...
,
James, Duke of York James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
, had in fact converted to Catholicism, an act that many Protestant Englishmen in the 1670s saw as only one step below high treason. The Whigs tried to link 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 Kingdo ...
, the
Duke of Ormonde The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland. History of Ormonde titles The earldo ...
, with the foremost Irish Tory,
Redmond O'Hanlon Redmond O'Hanlon, FRGS, FRSL (born 5 June 1947) is an English writer and scholar. Life O'Hanlon was born in 1947 in Dorset, England. He was educated at Marlborough College and then Oxford University. After taking his M.Phil. in nineteenth-c ...
, in a supposed plot to murder
Titus Oates Titus Oates (15 September 1649 – 12/13 July 1705) was an English priest who fabricated the " Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II. Early life Titus Oates was born at Oakham in Rutland. His father Samuel (1610â ...
. The Whig
Bishop of Meath The Bishop of Meath is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains as a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric. History Unt ...
, Henry Jones, offered O'Hanlon a pardon and a bribe if he would testify to Parliament that Ormonde was plotting a French invasion. In December 1680, the government seized these letters and the plan collapsed. In January 1681, the Whigs first began calling the supposed Irish plotters Tories, and on 15 February 1681 is recorded the first complaint from an English Royalist about the epithet Tory by the anti-Exclusion newspaper ''Heraclitus Ridens'': " ey call me scurvy names, Jesuit, Papish, Tory; and flap me over the mouth with their being the only True Protestants". Within a few months, anti-Exclusionists were calling themselves Tories and a northern Dissenter called
Oliver Heywood Oliver Heywood (9 September 1825 – 1892) was an English banker and philanthropist. Born in Irlam O'Th' Height, Lancashire, the son of Benjamin Heywood, and educated at Eton College, Heywood joined the family business, Heywood's Bank in ...
recorded in October: "Ms. H. of Chesterfield told me a gentleman was at their house and had a red Ribband in his hat, she askt him what it meant, he said it signifyed that he was a Tory, whats that sd she, he ans. an Irish Rebel, — oh dreadful that any in England dare espouse that interest. I hear further since that this is the distinction they make instead of Cavalier and Roundhead, now they are called Torys and Wiggs".


Glorious Revolution

In a more general sense, the Tories represented the more conservative royalist supporters of Charles II, who endorsed a strong monarchy as a counterbalance to the power of Parliament, and who saw in the Whig opponents of the Court a quasi-Republican tendency (similar to that seen in the
Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
) to strip the monarchy of its essential
prerogative In law, a prerogative is an exclusive right bestowed by a government or state and invested in an individual or group, the content of which is separate from the body of rights enjoyed under the general law. It was a common facet of feudal law. The ...
powers and leave the Crown as a puppet entirely dependent upon Parliament. That the Exclusion Bill was the central question upon which parties diverged, did not hinge upon an assessment of the personal character of the Duke of York (though his conversion to Catholicism was the key factor that made the Bill possible), but rather upon the power of Parliament to elect a monarch of its own choosing, contrary to the established laws of succession. That the Parliament, with the consent of the King, had such power was not at issue; rather, it was the wisdom of a policy of creating a King whose sole title to the Crown was the will of Parliament and who was essentially a Parliamentary appointee. On this original question, the Tories were in the short run entirely successful as the Parliaments that brought in the Exclusion Bill were dissolved, Charles II was enabled to manage the administration autocratically and upon his death the Duke of York succeeded without difficulty. The
rebellion Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
of
Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...
, the candidate of the radical Whigs to succeed Charles II, was easily crushed and Monmouth himself executed. However, in the long run Tory principles were to be severely compromised. Besides the support of a strong monarchy, the Tories also stood for the Church of England, as established in Acts of Parliament following the
restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...
of Charles II, both as a body governed by bishops, using the
Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
whilst subscribing to a specific
doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system ...
and also as an exclusive body established by law, from which both Roman Catholics and Nonconformists were excluded. During his reign, James II fought for a broadly tolerant religious settlement under which his co-religionists could prosper—a position anathema to conservative Anglicans. James' attempts to use the government-controlled
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...
to promote policies that undermined the church's own unique status in the state led some Tories to support 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. The result was a King established solely by parliamentary title and subject to legal controls established by Parliament, the principles that the Tories had originally abhorred. The Tories' sole consolation was that the monarchs chosen were close to the main line of succession as William III was James II's nephew and William's wife
Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
was James's elder daughter. The
Act of Toleration 1689 The Toleration Act 1688 (1 Will & Mary c 18), also referred to as the Act of Toleration, was an Act of the Parliament of England. Passed in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, it received royal assent on 24 May 1689. The Act allowed for ...
also gave rights to Protestant dissenters that were hitherto unknown, while the elimination of a large number of bishops who refused to swear allegiance to the new monarchs allowed the government to pack the episcopate with bishops with decidedly Whiggish leanings. In both these respects the Tory platform had failed, but the institutions of monarchy and of a state Church survived.


Balanced ministries and opposition

Despite the failure of their founding principles, the Tories remained a powerful political party during the reigns of the next two monarchs, particularly that of Queen Anne. During this time, the Tories fiercely competed with the Whigs for power, and there were frequent Parliamentary elections in which the two parties measured their strength. William III saw that the Tories were generally more friendly to royal authority than the Whigs, and he employed both groups in his government. His early ministry was largely Tory, but the government gradually came to be dominated by the so-called Junto Whigs. This tight-knit political grouping was opposed by the Country Whigs led by Robert Harley, who gradually merged with the Tory opposition in the later 1690s. Although William's successor Anne had considerable Tory sympathies and excluded the Junto Whigs from power, after a brief and unsuccessful experiment with an exclusively Tory government she generally continued William's policy of balancing the parties, supported by her moderate Tory ministers, the
Duke of Marlborough General (United Kingdom), General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 â€“ 16 June 1722 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an Engl ...
and
Lord Godolphin Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, (15 June 1645 – 15 September 1712) was a leading British politician of the late 17th and the early 18th centuries. He was a Privy Councillor and Secretary of State for the Northern Department b ...
. The stresses of the
War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...
which begun in 1701 led most of the Tories to withdraw into opposition by 1708, so that Marlborough and Godolphin were heading an administration dominated by the Junto Whigs. Anne herself grew increasingly uncomfortable with this dependence on the Whigs, especially as her personal relationship with the Duchess of Marlborough deteriorated. This situation also became increasingly uncomfortable to many of the non-Junto Whigs, led by the
Duke of Somerset Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...
and the
Duke of Shrewsbury Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
, who began to intrigue with Robert Harley's Tories. In early 1710, the prosecution by the Whig government of the ultra-Tory preacher
Henry Sacheverell Henry Sacheverell (; 8 February 1674 – 5 June 1724) was an English high church Anglican clergyman who achieved nationwide fame in 1709 after preaching an incendiary 5 November sermon. He was subsequently impeached by the House of Commons and ...
for sermons delivered the previous year, led to the
Sacheverell riots The Sacheverell riots were a series of outbreaks of public disorder, which spread across England during the spring, summer and autumn of 1710 in which supporters of the Tories attacked the homes and meeting-houses of Dissenters, particularly tho ...
and brought the ministry into popular discredit. In the spring of 1710, Anne dismissed Godolphin and the Junto ministers, replacing them with Tories. The new Tory ministry was dominated by
Harley Harley may refer to: People * Harley (given name) * Harley (surname) Places * Harley, Ontario, a township in Canada * Harley, Brant County, Ontario, Canada * Harley, Shropshire, England * Harley, South Yorkshire, England * Harley Street, in L ...
, Chancellor of the Exchequer (later Lord Treasurer) and
Viscount Bolingbroke Viscount Bolingbroke is a current title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1712 for Henry St John. He was simultaneously made Baron St John, of Lydiard Tregoze in the County of Wilts. Since 1751, the titles are merged with the titles of ...
, Secretary of State. They were backed by a strong majority in the Parliament elected in 1710, rallying under the banner of " Church in Danger". This Tory government negotiated the
Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne o ...
in 1713, which pulled Great Britain out of the War of the Spanish Succession (to the dismay of Britain's allies, including Anne's eventual successor, George, Elector of Hanover); the peace was enacted despite a Whig majority in the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
, which Anne defeated by creating new Tory peers. Following a long disagreement between the ministers, Anne dismissed Harley in 1714. The arch-Tory Bolingbroke became in effect Anne's chief minister and Tory power seemed to be at its zenith. However, Anne was extremely ill and died within a few days. Bolingbroke had not been able to formulate any coherent plans for dealing with the succession, for if he thought of proclaiming the son of James II (the Pretender) king, he made no moves to do so. The Elector George succeeded to the throne entirely peacefully, supported by the
Hanoverian Tory Hanoverian Tories were Tory supporters of the Hanoverian Succession of 1714. At the time many Tories favoured the exiled Jacobite James Francis Edward Stuart to take the British and Irish thrones, while their arch rivals the Whigs supported the ...
grouping.


Proscription and the Whig supremacy

In accordance with Succession to the Crown Act 1707, the Queen's government was replaced by a Council of Regency until the new King should arrive from Hanover. Bolingbroke offered his services to the King but was coldly rejected; George I brought in a government composed entirely of Whigs, and the new Parliament, elected from January to May 1715, had a large Whig majority. In December 1714
Lord Carnarvon Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The current holder is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. The town and county in Wales to which the title refers are historically spelled ''Caernarfon,'' havi ...
wrote that "hardly one Tory is left in any place, though never so mean a one". The historian
Eveline Cruickshanks Eveline Cruickshanks (1 December 1926 – 14 November 2021) was an historian of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British political history, specialising in Jacobitism and Tory (British political party), Toryism. She was of English, Scottish ...
stated that " at took place in 1715 was not a change to an all-Whig ministry, it was a whole social revolution".Cruickshanks, p. 4. For the first time, Tory gentlemen could no longer employ their sons, as they traditionally had done, in public offices such as the Army, Navy, civil service and the Church. Tory officers in the Army had their commissions taken away, Tory lawyers could not now become judges or K.C.s. The predominantly Tory lower Anglican clergy could no longer become bishops and Tory merchants were refused government contracts or directorships in any major company. This proscription lasted for forty-five years. George Lyttelton wrote in his ''Letter to the Tories'' (1747):
We are kept out of all public employments of power and profit, and live like aliens and pilgrims in the land of our nativity; ..no quality, no fortune, no eloquence, no learning, no wisdom, no probity is of any use to any man of our unfortunate denomination, ecclesiastic or layman, lawyer or soldier, peer or commoner, for obtaining the most deserved advancement in his profession, or any favour of the Crown; whilst, to our additional and insupportable vexation, the bare merit of hating us, and everything we love and hold sacred, daily advances dunces in the law and church, cowards in our fleets and armies, republicans in the King's house, and idiots everywhere!Cruickshanks, p. 5.
The Whig government, backed by royal favour and controlling the levers of power, was able to maintain a series of majorities through the infrequent elections of the next several decades (only 7 in the 46 years of the first two Georges, as opposed to 11 in the 26 years from the Revolution to the death of Queen Anne). For much of the period, the Tories commanded a broad base of support in rural England, but the relatively undemocratic nature of the franchise and the maldistribution of the borough seats ensured that this popular appeal was never translated into a Tory majority in Parliament. The Tories would have won every general election between 1715 and 1747 had the number of seats obtained corresponded to the number of votes cast. The Tories were, therefore, an effectively null factor in practical politics, a permanent minority in Parliament and entirely excluded from government. The latter exclusion, and the rigid party politics played by the Whigs, played a significant role in the cohesion of the Tories; the Whigs offered few opportunities for Tories who switched sides, and as a party the Tories found no possibilities for compromise with the Whigs. The proscription of the Tories alienated them from the Hanoverian regime and converted many of them to Jacobitism.Cruickshanks, p. 6. Bolingbroke later wrote: "If milder measures had been pursued, certain it is that the Tories had never universally embraced Jacobitism. The violence of the Whigs forced them into the arms of the Pretender".Sedgwick, p. 62. In October 1714, the French ambassador Charles-François d'Iberville noted that the number of Jacobites in the Tory party was increasing and in early 1715 he wrote that the Tories seemed to be "heading for civil war which they regard as their only resort". The former Tory chief minister, Lord Oxford, was impeached and sent to the Tower, with Bolingbroke and the Tory peer the
Duke of Ormonde The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland. History of Ormonde titles The earldo ...
fleeing to France to join the Pretender. A series of riots against the coronation of George I and the new Hanoverian-Whig regime (in which the mob voiced their support for Jacobitism and local Tory parliamentary candidates) led to the Whig government strengthening their power by passing the Riot Act, suspending ''habeas corpus'' and increasing the army (including by importing 6,000 Dutch troops). Louis XIV had promised them arms but no troops, as France was exhausted by war, despite Bolingbroke's claim that just one-tenth of the number of troops William of Orange brought with him in 1688 would have sufficed. However, this promise of arms disappeared when Louis died in September 1715. The conspirators intended to abandon the rising they had planned for the West Country, but the Scots forced their hand by unilaterally raising the Pretender's standard. One of Ormonde's agents betrayed the plans for an English rising and subsequently the government arrested many Tory MPs, ex MPs and peers. The subsequent Jacobite rebellion of 1715–16 resulted in failure. However,
Charles XII of Sweden Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII ( sv, Karl XII) or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of t ...
was willing to aid the English Tories by sending troops to put the Pretender on the throne, in conjunction with an English rising. Lord Oxford, who had already in 1716 offered the Pretender his services, directed the Swedish Plot from the Tower. In January 1717, the government discovered this plot and won a vote of credit for defence measures against the projected invasion in the Commons against Tory opposition. Charles' death in 1718 ended hopes from that quarter and Ormonde's planned Spanish invasion was destroyed by a storm at sea. During the
Whig Split {{short description, Event in British politics from 1717-20 The Whig Split occurred between 1717 and 1720, when the British Whig Party divided into two factions: one in government, led by James Stanhope; the other in opposition, dominated by Rob ...
of 1717, the Tories refused to back either side and adopted the same stance to Lord Sunderland's overtures in 1720. Nonetheless their combined efforts helped the opposition win some victories, such as the defeat of the
Peerage Bill {{short description, Proposed British law of 1719 The Peerage Bill was a 1719 measure proposed by the British Whig government led by James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope and Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland which would have largely halted the ...
in 1719. In 1722, Sunderland advised the King to admit leading Tories into government, thereby dividing them and ending their hopes for revenge by looking for support from abroad. He also advised the King in Cabinet that elections to Parliament should be free from government bribery, an idea 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 Leader ...
opposed due to the possibility of the election of a Tory Parliament. The King was also opposed: "King George stared the Earl of Sunderland in the face at the name of a Tory Parliament, for it seems nothing is so hideous and frightful to him as a Tory".Sedgwick, p. 64. The public outcry over the
South Sea Bubble South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
led the Tories to believe that it would not be worthwhile raising funds for the
general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
, as they considered a Jacobite rising would be successful considering the state of public opinion. Sunderland joined the Tories in the
Atterbury Plot The Atterbury Plot was a conspiracy led by Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, aimed at the restoration of the House of Stuart to the throne of Great Britain. It came some years after the unsuccessful Jacobite risi ...
, in which the Pretender was to be put on the throne. A rising was planned for each county, assisted by Irish and Spanish troops. However, Sunderland's death in April 1722 led to the government discovering the plot and it subsequently collapsed. When the Commons voted on the bill of pains and penalties against Atterbury, nearly ninety per cent of Tory MPs voted against it. Although the Whig Prime Minister
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 Leader ...
decided not to prosecute those Tories that he knew were involved in the plot, the Tories were demoralised and largely absented themselves from Parliament for a time. Upon the accession of
George II George II or 2 may refer to: People * George II of Antioch (seventh century AD) * George II of Armenia (late ninth century) * George II of Abkhazia (916–960) * Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051) * George II of Georgia (1072–1089) ...
in 1727 and the ensuing
general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
, the Tories were reduced to 128 MPs, their lowest total up to this point.Sedgwick, p. 67. The Tories were divided over whether to cooperate with the opposition Whigs against Walpole, with those in favour consisting of the Hanoverian faction led by Sir William Wyndham and with those opposed making up the Jacobite faction headed by William Shippen. Most Tories opposed voting with the opposition Whigs, only reversing this stance when the Pretender sent a letter to the Tories in 1730, ordering them to "unite in the measures against the Government and even with those who oppose it for different views than theirs". For the next decade, the Tories cooperated with the opposition Whigs against Walpole.Sedgwick, p. 68. Public admission of Jacobitism was treason, so the Tories challenged the Hanoverian-Whig regime without specifically addressing it by developing a rhetoric borrowed from the Whigs of the Exclusion Crisis; they denounced government corruption and the high taxation needed to spend on foreign entanglements, opposed the growth of the Army and denounced "tyranny" and "arbitrary power". In a speech on the Army estimates, Walpole claimed that "No man of common prudence will profess himself openly a Jacobite; by so doing he not only may injure his private fortune, but he must render himself less able to do any effectual service to the cause he has embraced...Your right Jacobite, Sir, disguises his true sentiments, he roars out for revolution principles; he pretends to be a great friend to liberty". He further claimed that a large Army was needed to defeat any possible Jacobite invasion. In 1737,
Frederick, Prince of Wales Frederick, Prince of Wales, (Frederick Louis, ; 31 January 170731 March 1751), was the eldest son and heir apparent of King George II of Great Britain. He grew estranged from his parents, King George and Queen Caroline. Frederick was the fath ...
applied to Parliament for an increased allowance. This split the Tories, with 45 abstaining, leading to the motion being defeated by 30 votes. Bolingbroke, who wanted to dissociate the Tories from Jacobitism, denounced this as "the absurd behaviour of the Tories, which no experience can cure". In 1738 Frederick's attempts to reconcile with the Tories broke down on Wyndham's insistence that he join the Tories in favouring a reduced Army. With the outbreak of war against Spain in 1739, there was renewed plotting amongst Tories for a Jacobite rising. Wyndham's death in 1740 led to the breakdown of the coalition between the Tories and opposition Whigs. An opposition Whig motion for Walpole's dismissal was defeated by 290 to 106, with many Tories abstaining. At the general election of 1741, there were 136 Tories elected. The Tories resumed their cooperation with the opposition Whigs after receiving another letter from the Pretender in September 1741, ordering them to "pursue vigorous and unanimous measures in the next session of Parliament. ..They will probably have many occasions of greatly distressing the present Government and ministry and perhaps find some who will concur with them in that, though not out of goodwill to my cause. ..In such cases I hope my friends will make no scruples in joining heartily with them for whatever their particular motives may be anything that tends to the disadvantage of the present Government and to the bringing it into confusion cannot be but of advantage to my cause".Sedgwick, p. 71. As a result, 127 Tories joined the opposition Whigs in successfully voting against Walpole's nominated chairman of the elections committee in December 1741. The Tories continued to vote against Walpole with the opposition Whigs in subsequent divisions until Walpole was forced to resign in February 1742. The Pretender wrote to the Tories afterwards, declaring: "I cannot delay any longer expressing to you my satisfaction at the late behaviour of my friends in Parliament, and I take it as a great mark of their singular regard for what I wrote to you some months ago". In 1743, war broke out between Britain and France, as part of the larger
War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...
. Later that year Francis Sempill, the Pretender's representative at the French court, carried a message from English Tories to the French
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 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 ...
(
Jean-Jacques Amelot de Chaillou Jean-Jacques Amelot de Chaillou (, 30 April 1689 – 7 May 1749, Paris) was a French politician. He was marquis of Combrande, baron de Châtillon-sur-Indre, seigneur de Chaillou. Biography From a family of magistrates, he was in turn made avocat ...
) requesting French help for a Stuart restoration (including 10,000 French soldiers). It was signed by the Duke of Beaufort (one of the four richest people in Britain),
Lord Barrymore Earl of Barrymore was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created for David Barry, 6th Viscount Buttevant, in 1627/28. Lord Barrymore held the subsidiary titles of Baron Barry (created c. 1261) and Viscount Buttevant (created 1541) in th ...
, Lord Orrery, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Sir John Hynde Cotton and Sir Robert Abdy. Amelot replied that the French government would need considerable proof of English support for Jacobitism before it could act. James Butler,
Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
's Master of Horse, toured England ostensibly for purchasing bloodstock but in reality to gauge the health of Jacobitism in England, visiting leading Tories. Before he left for England. the French king briefed him personally to assure Tory leaders that all of their demands would be met. In November 1743 Amelot told Sempill officially that Louis XV was resolved to restore the House of Stuart and that he was planning a French invasion headed by the Pretender's son,
Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...
. The "Declaration of King James" (written by Tory leaders) was signed by the Pretender on 23 December. This was to be published in the event of a successful French landing. However, the Whig government was informed by a spy of the intended French invasion and King George told Parliament on 15 February 1744 that a French invasion was planned, assisted by "disaffected persons from this country". The House of Commons passed a loyal address by 287 to 123. The Tories' insistence for the House to divide on this occasion seemed to the government a design by the Tories "to show the French what numbers in the House they might depend on".Sedgwick, p. 73. The Tories also opposed increasing the armed forces, it being noted "that none of the leaders amongst the Tories, either on this occasion or that of the King's first message, showed the least sign of zeal or affection to the Government". On 24 February, a storm scattered the French invasion fleet and suspected Jacobites were arrested, leading to the French government cancelling their planned invasion. Charles Stuart, who was still in France and determined to start a Jacobite rising, looked to Scotland. However, the English Tories would only support a rising in Scotland if accompanied by a French invasion near London to aid the English Tories in their own rising. The English Tories repeatedly told the Jacobite court that only regular soldiers invading at the same time as their rising could achieve a Stuart restoration. In December 1744, the Broadbottom Administration was formed, which included a handful of Tories in minor offices. Some other Tories were offered places, but that serving for Jacobite counties "could not hazard a new election and therefore decline the acceptance of them".Cruickshanks, p. 72. One of the Tories who accepted office, Sir John Cotton, did not swear the oath of loyalty to King George and informed the French King that he still favoured a Jacobite French invasion; he added that the Tories in office would try to ensure that more British soldiers were sent to Flanders from England in order to help a French invasion. After Lord Gower took office in this government, the Tories no longer looked to him as their leader as Lyttleton wrote that "when it was discovered that Gower was really a friend to the Hanover succession, the Tories discarded him for being their leader, and adopted a determined Jacobite the Duke of Beaufort in his stead". In June 1745, the Tory leaders in the Commons, Wynn and Cotton (together with Beaufort), informed the Jacobite court that "if the Prince
harles Gottlieb Christoph Harless (originally Harles) (21 June 1738 – 2 November 1815) was a German classical scholar and bibliographer. Biography He was born at Culmbach in Bavaria. He studied at the universities of Halle, Erlangen and Jena. In ...
lands in present circumstances with ten battalions or even smaller body of troops there will be no opposition".Cruickshanks, p. 77. Tory leaders sent Robert MacCarty to France with a request for 10,000 troops and 30,000 arms to be landed in England, where they would join them upon arrival. Charles travelled to Scotland in July without consulting the Tories or the French and without a sizeable body of troops. After his landing, Sempill wrote: "The City of London, Sir John Hynde Cotton, Lord Barrymore, the Duke of Beaufort, and all the English cry loudly and vehemently for a body of troops to be landed near London, as the most effectual means to support the Prince". They could not rise for the Prince without "a body of troops to support them", but they "would join the Prince if His Highness could force his way to them". Throughout the
Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Franci ...
, Charles could not establish contact with the English Tories. Captain Nagle, who had visited a peer in London, reported in December that they were all being monitored by the government, but that they would declare for Charles if he made his way to London or if the French invaded. However, Charles retreated from England and the French never landed, so the English Tories did not feel safe in coming out for the Pretender. After the collapse of the rising, Charles' captured secretary,
John Murray of Broughton Sir John Murray of Broughton, 7th Baronet of Stanhope (c. 1715 – 6 December 1777), also known as Murray of Broughton, was a Scottish baronet, who served as Jacobite Secretary of State during the 1745 Rising. As such, he was responsible for ...
, informed the government of the Tories' conspiracy with the Pretender. The government decided not to prosecute them.Sedgwick, p. 75. The trial of the Scottish rebel lords in London was boycotted by most Tory peers. After the
Duke of Cumberland Duke of Cumberland is a peerage title that was conferred upon junior members of the British Royal Family, named after the historic county of Cumberland. History The Earldom of Cumberland, created in 1525, became extinct in 1643. The dukedom ...
's brutal suppression of the Scots, English Tories adopted the plaid as their symbol. Eveline Cruickshanks in her study of the 1715-1754 Tory party for ''
The History of Parliament The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...
'', claimed that "the available evidence leaves no doubt that up to 1745 the Tories were a predominantly Jacobite party, engaged in attempts to restore the Stuarts by a rising with foreign assistance". Sir
Lewis Namier Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier (; 27 June 1888 – 19 August 1960) was a British historian of Polish-Jewish background. His best-known works were ''The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III'' (1929), ''England in the Age of the Ameri ...
noticed that for the reigns of George I and George II, Tory family papers are non-existent. As papers from before 1715 and after 1760 survive, Cruickshanks contends that these families were hiding their Jacobite leanings by destroying incriminating papers. A nineteenth-century historian who had examined many collections such as these, claimed that it was "the custom in Jacobite days to destroy all letters with any hint of political or religious feeling in them". However, some historians (such as
Linda Colley Dame Linda Jane Colley, (born 13 September 1949 in Chester, England) is an expert on British, imperial and global history from 1700. She is Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University and a long-term fellow in history at ...
) have questioned the Tories' commitment to Jacobitism. In 2016, Frank O'Gorman noted that given the nature of the evidence, it is unlikely that the question will ever be answered, but added that "judged by the acid test of how they behaved in the '15 and '45 most Tories showed themselves to be Hanoverian and not Jacobite". In 1747, Prince Frederick invited the Tories "to unite and coalesce with him" and declared his intention that when he became King, he would "abolish...all distinction of the party" and put an end to the proscription of the Tories. A meeting of leading Tories (including Beaufort, Wynn and Cotton) accepted the Prince's offer and replied assuring him of their support for his "wise and salutary purposes". However, they refused to pledge themselves to a coalition with Whigs. The 1747 general election resulted in only 115 Tory MPs being elected, their lowest figure up until this point. After Jacobite riots in Oxford in 1748, the government wanted to give the King the power to nominate the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, which was considered a hotbed of Jacobitism and Toryism.
Thomas Carte Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...
wrote to the Pretender that "the attempt against the university of Oxford brought them all up at once to town, which nothing else would, and in their zeal on that account, they entered into a sort of coalition with Prince Frederick's party to stand by the university of Oxford, to join in opposing all unconstitutional points, but to be under no obligation to visit Prince Frederick's court, nor unite in other points".Sedgwick, p. 76. After Wynn's death in 1749, a Jacobite agent reported to the Pretender that the Tory party was "without a head", dispirited and frightened. In 1751 Frederick died, followed in 1752 by Cotton. This effectively ended opposition in Parliament for the rest of the session.
Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...
, in his memoirs for 1764, wrote of the decline of the Tory party:
Hitherto it might be said that the two parties of Whig and Tory still subsisted; though Jacobitism, the concealed mother of the latter, was extinct...The subsequent contests were rather a struggle for power than the settled animosity of two parties, though the body of Opposition still called itself Whig, an appellation rather dropped than disclaimed by the Court; and though the real Tories still adhered to their own distinctions while they secretly favoured, sometimes opposed, the Court, and fluctuated accordingly as they esteemed particular chiefs not of their connection or had the more agreeable opportunity of distressing those who supported the cause of freedom. As their whole conduct was comprised in silent votes, and never was considerable enough to turn a single scale in the political changes, I shall seldom mention them anymore.


Friends of Mr Pitt

Dickinson reports the following:
All historians are agreed that the Tory party declined sharply in the late 1740s and 1750s and that it ceased to be an organized party by 1760. The research of Sir Lewis Namier and his disciples ..has convinced all historians that there were no organized political parties in Parliament between the late 1750s and the early 1780s. Even the Whigs ceased to be an identifiable party, and Parliament was dominated by competing political connections, which all proclaimed Whiggish political views, or by independent backbenchers unattached to any particular group.
Upon the accession 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 ...
, the old political distinctions dissolved. The Whig factions became in effect distinct parties (such as the
Grenvillites The Grenville Whigs (or Grenvillites) were a name given to several British political factions of the 18th and the early 19th centuries, all of which were associated with the important Grenville family of Buckinghamshire. Background The Grenv ...
and the Bedfordites), all of whom claimed the Whig mantle, while the material distinction in politics was between the "King's Friends" who supported the newly activist role of George III in government, and those who opposed the king. The proscription on the employment of Tories in government offices ended, which resulted in the Tories dividing into several factions and ceasing to function as a coherent political party. Sentimental Toryism remained, as in the writings of
Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709  â€“ 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
, but in politics "Tory" was little more than an unfriendly epithet for politicians closely identified with George III. The label "Tory" was in this sense applied to the Prime Ministers
Lord Bute John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguabl ...
(1762–1763) and
Lord North Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (13 April 17325 August 1792), better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was 12th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most o ...
(1770–1782), but these politicians considered themselves Whigs. In his study of the debates in Parliament for 1768–1774, PDG Thomas discovered that not a single politician labelled themselves a Tory. JCD Clark similarly argues: "The history of the Tory party in parliament between the early 1760s and the late 1820s may be simply written: it did not exist". Applied by their opponents to parliamentary supporters of the younger William Pitt (1783–1801, 1804–1806), the term ''Tories'' came to represent the political current opposed to the ''Old Whigs'' and the radicalism unleashed by the American and French Revolutions. This was reinforced by the breakup of the Whig party in 1794 when the conservative group led by the Duke of Portland joined Pitt's ministry, leaving an opposition rump led by
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 ...
. The historian JCD Clark has written of the 1790s: "It cannot be too clearly stressed that no public figure at that date accepted the title 'Tory', and that they had the best reasons for denying its appropriateness". Pitt rejected the Tory label, preferring to refer to himself as an independent Whig, for he believed in the current constitutional arrangement as being well balanced, without particular favour towards the royal prerogative, unlike the Tories of the first half of the 18th century. The group surrounding Pitt the Younger came to be the dominant force in British politics from 1783 until 1830 and, after Pitt's death (1806), the ministers in the
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
ministry (1807–1809) called themselves the "Friends of Mr Pitt" rather than Tories. Portland's successor,
Spencer Perceval Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and barrister who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. Perceval is the only British prime minister to ...
(Prime Minister, 1809–1812), never adopted the label of Tory and, after his assassination in 1812, the members of the government of
Lord Liverpool Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. He held many important cabinet offices such as Foreign Secret ...
(1812–1827) firmly rejected it in a ministerial memorandum to the Prince Regent:
It is almost unnecessary to observe that the British Government had for more than a century been and could only be a Whig Government; and that the present administration is, as every administration in this country must necessarily be, a Whig administration. For a Whig Government means now, as it has all along meant, nothing else than a Government established by laws equally binding upon the King and the subject.I. R. Christie, ''Wars and Revolutions. Britain 1760-1815'' (London: Edward Arnold, 1982), p. 283.
Generally, the Tories were associated with lesser gentry, the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
and the Episcopal Church in Scotland while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, larger land holders or land magnates and the
Nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...
Protestant churches. Both were still committed to the political system in place at that time. The new Tory party was distinct both in composition and ideological orientation from the old. It consisted largely of former Whigs, alienated from the party that now bore that name. While it maintained a sentimental and conservative respect for the symbolic institutions of the British monarchy, in practice Tory ministries allowed the King no more freedom than Whig ones. The incompetence of George III's personal interventions in policy had been sufficiently shown in the American War (1775–1783), henceforward his active role was limited to negations of government policies such as the
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 restricti ...
. In foreign policy, the differences were even more marked as the old Tory party had been pacific and isolationist whereas the new one was bellicose and imperialistic.


Conservative Party

The Tories became associated with repression of popular discontent after 1815, but the Tories later underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of
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 ...
, who was an industrialist rather than a landowner. Peel in his 1834
Tamworth Manifesto The Tamworth Manifesto was a political manifesto issued by Sir Robert Peel in 1834 in Tamworth, which is widely credited by historians as having laid down the principles upon which the modern British Conservative Party is based. In November 1834, ...
outlined a new conservative philosophy of reforming ills while conserving the good. The subsequent Peel administrations have been labelled Conservative rather than Tory, but the older term remains in use. When the Conservative Party split in 1846 on the issue of free trade, the protectionist wing of the party rejected the Conservative label. They preferred to be known as Protectionists or even to revive the older Tory as an official name. By 1859 the Peelites (Peel's Conservative supporters) joined the Whigs and Radicals to form the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
. The remaining Tories, under the leadership of the
Earl of Derby Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the end ...
(a former Whig) and
Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 â€“ 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a centr ...
(once a Radical candidate for Parliament), adopted the Conservative label as the official name of their party.


Electoral performance

* Note that the results for 1661–1708 are England only.


References


Citations


Works cited

* * *


Further reading

* Black, Jeremy (1984). ''Britain in the Age of Walpole''. * Bulmer-Thomas, Ivor (1967). ''The Growth of the British Party System: 1640-1923''. Vol. 1. John Baker. * Colley, Linda (1985). ''In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party 1714-60''. (Cambridge University Press. * Feiling, Keith (1938). ''The Second Tory Party, 1714-1832''. London: Macmillan. * Feiling, Keith (1950). ''A History of the Tory Party, 1640-1714''. Clarendon Press. * O'Gorman, Frank (1989). ''Voters, Patrons, and Parties: The Unreformed Electoral System of Hanoverian England 1734-1832''. (Oxford: Clarendon Press.


External links

* * {{authority control 1678 establishments in England 1678 in politics 1834 disestablishments in England Centre-right parties in the United Kingdom Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom Jacobitism Politics of the Kingdom of Great Britain Political parties established in 1678 Political parties disestablished in 1834 Right-wing parties in the United Kingdom *