William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (25 October 175912 January 1834) was a British
Pittite Tory politician who was
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister Advice (constitutional law), advises the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal prerogative ...
from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the
Whigs for the duration of the
Napoleonic Wars
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Napoleonic Wars
, partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
, image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg
, caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
. As prime minister, his most significant achievement was the
abolition of the slave trade in 1807. However, his government failed to either make peace with
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
or to accomplish
Catholic emancipation and it was dismissed in the same year.
Background
Grenville was the son of the Whig Prime Minister
George Grenville
George Grenville (14 October 1712 – 13 November 1770) was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain, during the early reign of the young George III. He served for only two years (1763-1765), and attempted to solv ...
. His mother,
Elizabeth, was the daughter of the Tory statesman
Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet. He had two elder brothers:
Thomas
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 ...
and
George. He was thus uncle to the
1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos.
He was also related to the Pitt family by marriage since
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (15 November 170811 May 1778) was a British people, British British Whig Party, Whig politician, statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. Historians call him "Chatham" or "Pit ...
, had married his father's sister
Hester. The younger Grenville was thus the first cousin of
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...
.
Grenville was educated at
Eton College
Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
;
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...
; and
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...
.
[
Grenville was the maternal great-grandson of ]Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset
Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, Order of the Garter, KG, Privy Council (United Kingdom), PC, (13 August 16622 December 1748), known by the epithet "The Proud Duke", was an English aristocrat and courtier. He rebuilt Petworth House in Su ...
and therefore a descendant of Lady Katherine Grey, a great-granddaughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII of England, Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death in 1503. She was the daughter of King E ...
.
Political career
Grenville entered 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 February 1782 as member for the borough of Buckingham. He soon became a close ally of the prime minister, his cousin William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...
. In September, he became secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the K ...
, who was his brother George. He left the House the following year and served in the government as Paymaster of the Forces
The Paymaster of the Forces was a position in the British government. The office was established in 1661, one year after the Restoration (1660), Restoration of the Monarchy to Charles II of England, and was responsible for part of the financin ...
from 1784 to 1789. In September 1784 his cousin, William Pitt the Younger, informed Grenville that the King had asked him pointedly when he would he return from his Continental tour? Pitt replied in six weeks, and therefore six weeks later George III asked Pitt, once more to become First Minister. This time he agreed. When in office Pitt drew Grenville closer giving him a position and experience at debating for the administration in the Commons. After a number of years learning his craft, and being used by Pitt in diplomatic missions abroad, Pitt planned for Grenville to replace Lord Spencer as Home Secretary but the King's illness halted any movement. Now Pitt was concerned about his tenure as Minister, but the unexpected death of the House of Commons Speaker, Charles Wolfran Cornwall, meant that Grenville could be elected as Cornwall's replacement. In the Speaker's chair Grenville would be a support to Pitt, who was attempting to stall legal proceedings for a Regency as long as he could. This was in the hope that the King would recover. Grenville therefore served briefly as Speaker of the House of Commons before he entered the cabinet as Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...
, in place of Lord Spencer and resigned his other posts. He became Leader of the House of Lords
The leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The post is also the leader of the governing party in the House of Lords who acts ...
when he was raised to the peerage the next year as Baron Grenville, of Wotton under Bernewood in the County of Buckingham.
In 1791, Grenville was again moved by Pitt into another office. This time he succeeded Francis Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds as Foreign Secretary. Grenville was manoeuvred into position by Pitt when Leeds resigned over Pitt's change in policy regarding Russia. Although not happy with the change, as Grenville preferred to remain in the less demanding Home Office, he submitted to Pitt's wishes and dutifully obeyed his cousin and exchanged the Home office seals for the Foreign Department. Grenville's decade as Foreign Secretary was dramatic with the Wars of the French Revolution. During the war, Grenville was the leader of the party that focused on the fighting on Continental Europe
Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...
as the key to victory and opposed the faction of Henry Dundas, which favoured war at sea and in the colonies. Grenville's focus led him to dispatch agents such as William Wickham to the Continent to collect information and engage with Royalists to counter the Revolution.
Whilst acting as Foreign Secretary Grenville grew close to George III. The Secretary supported a vigorous war against the French and was not in favour of making peace on terms which he considered beneath Britain's honour. Siding with the King, who wanted war to continue unless the Bourbons were restored in France, Grenville became an obstacle to Pitt's desire to make peace with France in 1797. As Foreign Secretary negotiations with foreign powers went through Grenville, including peace negotiations. Pitt was not happy with this arrangement when he saw that Grenville's despatches to the British diplomat in France, James Harris Earl Malmesbury were unnecessarily harsh and uncompromising. Pitt therefore sent secret despatches of his own to Malmesbury hoping that in this way the negotiations for peace would be successful. George Canning, who was devoted to Pitt, had been made an under-secretary in the Foreign Department with the task to intercept despatches to Malmesbury for Pitt and send Pitt's messages, secretly to the diplomat. This disagreement in views continued whenever peace with France was discussed.
Grenville left office with Pitt in 1801 over the issue of George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
's refusal to assent to Catholic emancipation.
Grenville did part-time military service at home as Major in the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry cavalry in 1794 and as lieutenant-colonel in the South Buckinghamshire volunteer regiment in 1806.
In his years out of office, Grenville became close to the opposition Whig leader Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a British British Whig Party, Whig politician and statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centurie ...
, and when Pitt returned to office in 1804, Grenville sided with Fox and did not take part.
Prime minister
After Pitt's death in 1806, Grenville became the head of the " Ministry of All the Talents", a coalition between Grenville's supporters, the Foxite
Foxite was a late 18th-century British political label for Whig followers of Charles James Fox.
Fox was the generally acknowledged leader of a faction of the Whigs from 1784 to his death in 1806. The group had developed from successive earlier ...
Whigs, and the supporters of former Prime Minister Lord Sidmouth, with Grenville as First Lord of the Treasury
The First Lord of the Treasury is the head of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury exercising the ancient office of Lord High Treasurer in the United Kingdom. Traditional convention holds that the office of First Lord is held by the Prime Mi ...
and Fox as Foreign Secretary as joint leaders. Grenville's cousin William Windham served as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and his younger brother, Thomas Grenville, served briefly as First Lord of the Admiralty.
The Ministry ultimately accomplished little and failed either to make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation, the later attempt resulting in the ministry's dismissal in March 1807. It had one significant achievement, however, in the abolition of the slave trade Slave trade may refer to:
* History of slavery - overview of slavery
It may also refer to slave trades in specific countries, areas:
* Al-Andalus slave trade
* Atlantic slave trade
** Brazilian slave trade
** Bristol slave trade
** Danish sl ...
in 1807.
Post-premiership
In the years after the fall of the ministry, Grenville continued in opposition by maintaining his alliance with Lord Grey and the Whigs, criticising the Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
and, with Grey, refusing to join 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. Before becoming Prime Minister he had been Foreign Secretary, ...
's government in 1812.
In the postwar years, Grenville gradually moved back closer to the Tories but never again returned to the cabinet. In 1815, he separated from his friend Charles Grey and supported the war policy of Lord Liverpool
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. Before becoming Prime Minister he had been Foreign Secretary, ...
. In 1819, when the Marquess of Lansdowne brought forward his motion for an inquiry into the causes of the distress and discontent in the manufacturing districts, Grenville delivered a speech advocating repressive measures. His political career was ended by a stroke in 1823.
Grenville also served as Chancellor
Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...
of the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
from 1810 until his death in 1834.[
]
Legacy
Historians find it hard to tell exactly which separate roles Pitt, Grenville and Dundas played in setting war policy toward France but agree that Grenville played a major role at all times until 1801. The consensus of scholars is that war with France presented an unexpected complex of problems. There was a conflict between secular ideologies, the conscription of huge armies, the new role of the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
as a continental power, and especially the sheer length and cost of the multiple coalitions.
Grenville energetically worked to build and hold together the Allied coalitions and paid suitable attention to smaller members such as Denmark and the Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica among other names, was a State (polity), country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century, and from 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of ...
. He negotiated the complex alliance with Russia and the Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
. He hoped that with British financing, they would bear the brunt of the ground campaigns against the French.
Grenville's influence was at the maximum during the formation of the Second Coalition. His projections of easy success were greatly exaggerated, and the result was another round of disappointment. His resignation in 1801 was caused primarily by George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
's refusal to allow Catholics to sit in Parliament.
Dropmore House
Dropmore House was built in the 1790s for Lord Grenville. The architects were Samuel Wyatt and Charles Tatham. Grenville knew the spot from rambles during his time at Eton College
Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
and prized its distant views of his old school and of Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...
. On his first day in occupation, he planted two cedar trees. At least another 2,500 trees were planted. By the time he died, his pinetum contained the biggest collection of conifer
Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
species in Britain. Part of the post-millennium restoration is to use what survives as the basis for a collection of some 200 species.
Personal life
Lord Grenville married Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...
, daughter of Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford
Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford (3 March 1737 – 19 January 1793) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 until 1784 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Camelford. He was an art connoisseur.
Early life
Pit ...
, in 1792. The marriage was childless and he produced no legitimate offspring during his lifetime. He died in January 1834, aged 74, when the barony became extinct.[Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 3868]
Ministry of All the Talents
* Lord Grenville – First Lord of the Treasury
The First Lord of the Treasury is the head of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury exercising the ancient office of Lord High Treasurer in the United Kingdom. Traditional convention holds that the office of First Lord is held by the Prime Mi ...
and Leader of the House of Lords
The leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The post is also the leader of the governing party in the House of Lords who acts ...
* Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a British British Whig Party, Whig politician and statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centurie ...
– Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons
The Leader of the House of Commons is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom whose main role is organising government business in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The Leader is always a memb ...
* The Lord Erskine – Lord Chancellor
The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...
* The Earl Fitzwilliam – Lord President of the Council
The Lord President of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. The Lor ...
* The Viscount Sidmouth – Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and abov ...
* The Earl Spencer – Secretary of State for the Home Department
The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...
* William Windham – Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
The Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was a British cabinet-level position responsible for the army and the British colonies (other than India). The Secretary was supported by an Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies.
Hist ...
* Viscount Howick – First Lord of the Admiralty
First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...
* Lord Henry Petty – Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
* The Earl of Moira – Master-General of the Ordnance
The Master-General of the Ordnance (MGO) was a very senior British military position from 1415 to 2013 (except 1855–1895 and 1939–1958) with some changes to the name, usually held by a serving general. The Master-General of the Ordnance was ...
* The Lord Ellenborough – Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench
The Lord or Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the president of the courts of England and Wales.
Until 2005 the lord chief justice was the second-most senior judge of the English and ...
Changes
* September 1806On Fox's death, Lord Howick succeeds him as Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. Thomas Grenville succeeds Howick at the Admiralty. Lord Fitzwilliam becomes Minister without Portfolio, and Lord Sidmouth succeeds him as Lord President. Lord Holland succeeds Sidmouth as Lord Privy Seal.
Honours
Arms
Hereditary Peerage
* He was given a Hereditary Peer
The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of April 2025, there are 800 hereditary peers: 30 dukes (including six royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary ...
age in 1790 allowing him to sit in 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 ...
. He sat with the Whig Party Benches. He took the title of 1st Baron Grenville. This title became extinct upon his death in 1834 as he had no surviving heir.
British Empire honours
; British Empire honours
Scholastic
; Chancellor, visitor, governor, and fellowships
Memberships and fellowships
Notes
Further reading
*
* Ehrman, John. ''The Younger Pitt: The Years of Acclaim (1969); ''The Reluctant Transition'' (1983); ''The Consuming Struggle'' (1996).
* Furber, Holden. ''Henry Dundas: First Viscount Melville, 1741–1811, Political Manager of Scotland, Statesman, Administrator of British India'' (Oxford UP, 1931)
online
* Jupp, Peter. "Grenville, William Wyndham, Baron Grenville (1759–1834)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2009) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/11501
*
* Leonard, Dick. "William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville—Not Quite 'All the Talents'." in Leonard, ed, ''Nineteenth-Century British Premiers'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). 38-54.
* McCahill, Michael W. "William, First Lord Grenville." (2003) 22#1 pp 29-42
* Mori, Jennifer. ''Britain in the Age of the French Revolution: 1785-1820'' (2014).
* Negus, Samuel D. Further concessions cannot be attained': the Jay-Grenville treaty and the politics of Anglo-American relations, 1789–1807." (Texas Christian University, 2013. PhD thesis
online
* Sack, James J. ''The Grenvillites, 1801–29: Party Politics and Factionalism in the Age of Pitt and Liverpool'' (U. of Illinois Press, 1979)
* Sherwig, John M. "Lord Grenville's plan for a concert of Europe, 1797-99." ''Journal of Modern History'' 34.3 (1962): 284–293.
* Temperley, Harold and L.M. Penson, eds. ''Foundations of British Foreign Policy: From Pitt (1792) to Salisbury (1902)'' (1938), primary source
online
*
*
*
External links
*
More about William Wyndam Grenville, Lord Grenville
on the Downing Street website.
GrEco Project
On Lord Grenville's Economics
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William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
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