90-474: The Rockingham Whigs (or Rockinghamites ) in 18th-century British politics were a faction of the Whigs led by Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham , from about 1762 until his death in 1782. The Rockingham Whigs briefly held power from 1765 to 1766 and again in 1782, and otherwise were usually in opposition to the various ministries of the period. The faction came into existence in 1762, following
180-561: A kidney stone , and was buried at St Marylebone Parish Church , London. He had lived expensively: with an income of £17,000 a year (worth £577,000 in 2005), he had debts at his death computed at £52,000 (£1.76 million in 2005), which were paid off by his succeeding son by selling off some property, including Bulstrode Park . Along with Sir Robert Peel , Lord Aberdeen , Benjamin Disraeli , Marquess of Salisbury , Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman , Bonar Law and Neville Chamberlain , he
270-811: A political party in the Parliaments of England , Scotland , Ireland , Great Britain and the United Kingdom . Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, the Tories . The Whigs became the Liberal Party when the faction merged with the Peelites and Radicals in the 1850s. Many Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 over the issue of Irish Home Rule to form
360-511: A "party" in the modern sense. They had no definite programme or policy and were by no means even united. Generally, they stood for reducing crown patronage, sympathy towards nonconformists , support for the interests of merchants and bankers and a leaning towards the idea of a limited reform of the voting system. Most Whig leaders, such as Lord Grey , Lord Grenville , Lord Althorp , William Lamb (later Lord Melbourne ) and Lord John Russell , were still rich landowners. The most prominent exception
450-563: A Tory and Fox as a Whig, Pitt always considered himself to be an independent Whig and generally opposed the development of a strict partisan political system. Fox's supporters saw themselves as legitimate heirs of the Whig tradition and they strongly opposed Pitt in his early years in office, notably during the regency crisis revolving around the King's temporary insanity in 1788–1789, when Fox and his allies supported full powers as regent for their ally,
540-576: A Tory-dominated House of Commons but upon the accession of William III in 1688 a new Act was passed that prohibited the importation of French goods. In 1704, the Whigs passed the Trade with France Act that renewed protectionism against France. In 1710, Queen Anne appointed the predominantly Tory Harley Ministry , which favoured free trade. When the Tory minister Lord Bolingbroke proposed a commercial treaty with France in 1713 that would have led to freer trade,
630-674: A chance to die down. When it met in October 1680, an Exclusion Bill was introduced and passed in the Commons without major resistance, but was rejected in the Lords. Charles dissolved Parliament in January 1681, but the Whigs did not suffer serious losses in the ensuing election. The next Parliament first met in March at Oxford, but Charles dissolved it after only a few days, when he made an appeal to
720-418: A national network of newspapers and magazines as well as local clubs to deliver their message. The press organised petitions and debates and reported to the public on government policy, while leaders such as Henry Brougham (1778–1868) built alliances with men who lacked direct representation. This new approach to the grass roots helped to define Whiggism and opened the way for later success. Whigs thereby forced
810-529: A new system emerged with two separate opposition groups. The Rockingham Whigs claimed the mantle of Old Whigs as the purported successors of the party of the Pelhams and the great Whig families. With such noted intellectuals as Edmund Burke behind them, the Rockingham Whigs laid out a philosophy which for the first time extolled the virtues of faction, or at least their faction. The other group were
900-640: A reassertion of royal power. They were prepared to unite with reformers of all kinds to preserve the constitutional settlement of 1689. But their essentially aristocratic and oligarchic character prevented them from collaborating with " Country Party" reformers advocating radical or populistic measures. They also opposed the British position which led to the American Revolution and sought reconciliation after it. The writer and philosopher Edmund Burke , who served as Rockingham's private secretary,
990-481: A song named "Doing It for the Whigs". William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (14 April 1738 – 30 October 1809) was a British Whig and then a Tory politician during the late Georgian era . He served as chancellor of the University of Oxford (1792–1809) and as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1783) and then of
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#17327648286891080-783: A strong presidency , initially the presidency of Andrew Jackson , analogous to the British Whig opposition to a strong monarchy. The True Whig Party , which for a century dominated Liberia , was named for the American party rather than directly for the British one. 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
1170-533: Is a deficit of trade with France was bad because it would enrich France at England's expense. In 1678, the Whigs passed the Prohibition of 1678 that banned certain French goods from being imported into England. The economic historian William Ashley claimed that this Act witnessed the "real starting-point in the history of Whig policy in the matter of trade". It was repealed upon the accession of James II by
1260-640: The Duke of Bedford and elements of that which had been led by George Grenville , it also contained elements of the Kings' Men, the group formerly associated with Lord Bute and which was generally seen as Tory-leaning. The association of Toryism with Lord North's government was also influential in the American colonies and writings of British political commentators known as the Radical Whigs did much to stimulate colonial republican sentiment. Early activists in
1350-655: The Duke of Monmouth , being implicated, fled to and regrouped in the United Provinces . Algernon Sidney , Sir Thomas Armstrong and William Russell, Lord Russell , were executed for treason. The Earl of Essex committed suicide in the Tower of London over his arrest for treason, whilst Lord Grey of Werke escaped from the Tower. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Queen Mary II and King William III governed with both Whigs and Tories, despite
1440-638: The Earl of Shelburne , took its place. After Rockingham's unexpected death in July 1782, this uneasy coalition fell apart, with Charles James Fox , Rockingham's successor as faction leader, quarrelling with Shelburne and withdrawing his supporters from the government. The following Shelburne administration was short-lived and Fox returned to power in April 1783, this time in an unexpected coalition with his old enemy Lord North. Although this pairing seemed unnatural to many at
1530-669: The Liberal Unionist Party , which merged into the Conservative Party in 1912. The Whigs began as a political faction that opposed absolute monarchy and Catholic emancipation , supporting constitutional monarchism and parliamentary government , but also Protestant supremacy. They played a central role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and were the standing enemies of the Roman Catholic Stuart kings and pretenders . The period known as
1620-531: The Prince of Wales . The opposition Whigs were split by the onset of the French Revolution . While Fox and some younger members of the party such as Charles Grey and Richard Brinsley Sheridan were sympathetic to the French revolutionaries, others led by Edmund Burke were strongly opposed. Although Burke himself was largely alone in defecting to Pitt in 1791, much of the rest of the party, including
1710-551: The Prince of Wales . Following his success in defeating the government over the Peerage Bill in 1719, Walpole was invited back into government the following year. He was able to defend the government in the Commons when the South Sea Bubble collapsed. When Stanhope died unexpectedly in 1721, Walpole replaced him as leader of the government and became known as the first Prime Minister . In the 1722 general election
1800-583: The Tory party as treasonous Jacobites , and the Septennial Act ensured that the Whigs became the dominant party, establishing the Whig oligarchy. Between 1717 and 1720 the Whig Split led to a division in the party. Government Whigs led by the former soldier James Stanhope were opposed by Robert Walpole and his allies. While Stanhope was backed by George I, Walpole and his supporters were closer to
1890-562: The Treaty of Paris agreed in 1783. Rockingham's unexpected death in July 1782 led to a split in the new government with some Rockingham Whigs remaining in office under the new government of Lord Shelburne, and others going into opposition led by Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke . After Rockingham's death, the Duke of Portland became the head of the Rockingham Whig party. British Whig Party Factions: The Whigs were
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#17327648286891980-522: The United Kingdom (1807–1809). The gap of 26 years between his two terms as prime minister is the longest of any British prime minister . He was also an ancestor of King Charles III through his great-granddaughter Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne . Portland was known before 1762 by the courtesy title Marquess of Titchfield. He held a title for every degree of British nobility: duke, marquess, earl ( Earl of Portland ), viscount (Viscount Woodstock), and baron (Baron Cirencester). He
2070-558: The abolition of slavery , the expansion of the franchise (suffrage) and an acceleration of the move toward complete equal rights for Catholics (a reversal of the party's late-17th-century position, which had been militantly anti-Catholic ). The term Whig began as a short form of whiggamore , a term originally used by people in the north of England to refer to (cattle) drovers from western Scotland who came to Leith to buy corn. The Gaelic -speaking Scottish cattle drivers would call out "Chuig" or "Chuig an bothar"—meaning "away" or "to
2160-599: The colonies called themselves Whigs, seeing themselves as in alliance with the political opposition in Britain, until they turned to independence and started emphasising the label Patriots . In contrast, the American Loyalists , who supported the monarchy, were consistently also referred to as Tories. Later, the United States Whig Party was founded in 1833 on the basis of opposition to
2250-606: The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht , which they attempted to block through their majority in the House of Lords . The Tory administration led by Harley and the Viscount Bolingbroke persuaded the Queen to create twelve new Tory peers to force the treaty through. The Whigs primarily advocated the supremacy of Parliament, while calling for toleration for Protestant dissenters. They adamantly opposed a Catholic as king. They opposed
2340-757: The British Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . It purchased and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands. After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited reforms were passed in 1833. The Whigs also passed the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 that reformed the administration of relief to the poor and the Marriage Act 1836 that allowed civil marriages. It
2430-655: The British government's engagement in the American Revolutionary War . Portland resolved to make concessions and, overcoming the resistance of Lord Shelburne , the Home Secretary to whom he reported, convinced Parliament to repeal the Declaratory Act and to modify Poynings' Law . Following Rockingham's death, Portland resigned from Lord Shelburne's ministry along with other supporters of Charles James Fox . In April 1783, Portland
2520-612: The Catholic Church because they saw it as a threat to liberty, or as Pitt the Elder stated: "The errors of Rome are rank idolatry, a subversion of all civil as well as religious liberty, and the utter disgrace of reason and of human nature". Ashcraft and Goldsmith (1983) have traced in detail, in the period 1689 to 1710, the major influence of the liberal political ideas of John Locke on Whig political values, as expressed in widely cited manifestos such as "Political Aphorisms: or,
2610-454: The Church of England, opposed to a Whig". He linked 18th-century Whiggism with 17th-century revolutionary Puritanism, arguing that the Whigs of his day were similarly inimical to the established order of church and state. Johnson recommended that strict uniformity in religious externals was the best antidote to the objectionable religious traits that he linked to Whiggism. At their inception,
2700-664: The Council and then as a Minister without Portfolio . In March 1807, after the collapse of the Ministry of all the Talents , Pitt's former supporters returned to power, and Portland was once again an acceptable figurehead for a fractious group of ministers that included George Canning , Lord Castlereagh , Lord Hawkesbury and Spencer Perceval . Portland's second government saw the United Kingdom's complete isolation on
2790-620: The House of Lords on its proposed reform of the East India Company after George III had let it be known that any peer voting for the measure would be considered his personal enemy. In 1789, Portland became one of several vice presidents of London 's Foundling Hospital . The charity had become one of the most fashionable of the time, with several notables serving on its board. At its creation, 50 years earlier, Portland's father, William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland , had been one of
Rockingham Whigs - Misplaced Pages Continue
2880-595: The Junto led to a split among the Whigs, with the so-called Country Whigs seeing the Junto as betraying their principles for office. The Country Whigs, led by Robert Harley , 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
2970-548: The Presbyterians), while the Tories generally favoured the minor gentry and people who were ( relatively speaking ) smallholders; they also supported the legitimacy of a strongly established Church of England . (The so-called High Tories preferred high church Anglicanism, or Anglo-Catholicism . Some, particularly adherents of the non-juring schism , openly or covertly supported the exiled House of Stuart 's claim to
3060-645: The Rockinghamites made concessions to the Patriots' demand for Irish legislative independence. They sought and failed to obtain a permanent solution that would have involved British control over external legislation and Irish control over internal affairs. They also failed to implement British party models in Ireland. Rockinghamites Charles James Fox and Burke were actively involved in Irish issues, says Powell,
3150-496: The True Maxims of Government Displayed", an anonymous pamphlet that appeared in 1690 and was widely cited by Whigs. The 18th-century Whigs borrowed the concepts and language of universal rights employed by political theorists Locke and Algernon Sidney (1622–1682). By the 1770s the ideas of Adam Smith , a founder of classical liberalism became important. As Wilson and Reill (2004) note: "Adam Smith's theory melded nicely with
3240-681: The Whig Party ( blue and buff , a yellow-brown colour named after buff leather ) were particularly associated with Charles James Fox . Poet Robert Burns in "Here's a health to them that's awa" wrote: It's guid to support Caledonia's cause And bide by the Buff and the Blue. "The British Whig March" for piano was written by Oscar Telgmann in Kingston, Ontario , c. 1900 . Punk band The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing have
3330-628: The Whig Supremacy (1714–1760) was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714 and the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1715 by Tory rebels. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715 and thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the Church of England , the legal profession, and local political offices. The first great leader of
3420-494: The Whigs swept to a decisive victory. Between 1714 and 1760, the Tories struggled as an active political force, but always retained a considerable presence in the House of Commons . The governments of Walpole, Henry Pelham and his older brother the Duke of Newcastle dominated between 1721 and 1757 (with a brief break during the also-Whig Carteret ministry ). The leading entities in these governments consistently referred to themselves as "Whigs". This arrangement changed during
3510-520: The Whigs was Denzil Holles ' parliamentarian faction, which was characterised by its opposition to absolute monarchism . Under Lord Shaftesbury's leadership, the Whigs (also known as the Country Party) sought to exclude the Duke of York (who later became King James II) from the throne due to his Roman Catholicism, his favouring of monarchical absolutism, and his connections to France. They believed
3600-412: The Whigs was Robert Walpole , who maintained control of the government from 1721 to 1742, and whose protégé, Henry Pelham , led the government from 1743 to 1754. Great Britain approximated a one-party state under the Whigs until King George III came to the throne in 1760 and allowed Tories back in. But the Whig Party's hold on power remained strong for many years thereafter. Thus historians have called
3690-549: The Whigs were protectionist in economic policy, with free trade policies being advocated by Tories. The Whigs were opposed to the pro-French policies of the Stuart kings Charles II and James II as they believed that such an alliance with the Catholic absolute monarchy of France endangered liberty and Protestantism. The Whigs claimed that trade with France was bad for England and developed an economic theory of overbalance, that
Rockingham Whigs - Misplaced Pages Continue
3780-582: The Whigs were vehemently against it and it had to be abandoned. In 1786, Pitt's government negotiated the Eden Agreement , a commercial treaty with France which led to freer trade between the two countries. All of the Whig leaders attacked this on traditional Whig anti-French and protectionist grounds. Fox claimed that France was England's natural enemy and that it was only at Britain's expense that she could grow. Edmund Burke , Richard Sheridan , William Windham and Charles Grey all spoke out against
3870-516: 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 and the Duke of Shrewsbury , who began to intrigue with Robert Harley's Tories. In the spring of 1710, Anne dismissed Godolphin and the Junto ministers, replacing them with Tories. The Whigs now moved into opposition and particularly decried
3960-551: The Younger 's new Tories. The foundation of both parties depended more on the support of wealthy politicians than on popular votes. Although there were elections to the House of Commons , only a few men controlled most of the voters . Both parties slowly evolved during the 18th century. In the beginning, the Whig Party generally tended to support the aristocratic families, the continued disenfranchisement of Catholics and toleration of nonconformist Protestants ( dissenters such as
4050-547: The coalition, the Whiggish elements of the new party progressively lost influence during the long leadership of former Peelite William Ewart Gladstone. Subsequently, the majority of the old Whig aristocracy broke from the party over the issue of Irish home rule in 1886 to help form the Liberal Unionist Party , which in turn would merge with the Conservative Party by 1912. However, the Unionist support for trade protection in
4140-584: The complex and changing factional politics of the Restoration into the neat categories of 19th-century political divisions. In 1836, a private gentleman's Club was constructed in Pall Mall , Piccadilly as a consequence of the successful Reform Act 1832 . The Reform Club was founded by Edward Ellice Sr. , MP for Coventry and Whig Whip , whose riches came from the Hudson's Bay Company but whose zeal
4230-403: The continent but also the beginning of its recovery with the start of the Peninsular War . In late 1809, with Portland's health poor and the ministry rocked by the scandalous duel between Canning and Castlereagh , Portland resigned and died shortly thereafter. He was Recorder of Nottingham until his death. He died on 30 October 1809 at Burlington House , Piccadilly , after an operation for
4320-444: The country against the Whigs and determined to rule without Parliament. In February, Charles had made a deal with the French King Louis XIV , who promised to support him against the Whigs. Without Parliament, the Whigs gradually crumbled, mainly due to government repression following the discovery of the Rye House Plot . The Whig peers, the Earl of Melville , the Earl of Leven , and Lord Shaftesbury , and Charles II's illegitimate son
4410-436: The decline of the Liberal Party in the early 20th century, it was de rigueur for Liberal MPs and peers to be members of the Reform Club, being regarded as an unofficial party headquarters. However, in 1882 the National Liberal Club was established under William Ewart Gladstone 's chairmanship, designed to be more "inclusive" towards Liberal grandees and activists throughout the United Kingdom. The Liberal Party (the term
4500-498: The dismissal of the Duke of Newcastle 's government and the dismissal of many of Newcastle's supporters from their posts by his successor, Lord Bute , in the so-called "Massacre of the Pelhamite Innocents". For many years Newcastle and his late brother Henry Pelham had dominated parliament and government through their mastery of patronage and the "old corruption", to the point where King George II had proved incapable of dispensing with their services even when he desired to. When
4590-405: The early twentieth century under Joseph Chamberlain (probably the least Whiggish character in the Liberal Unionist party) further alienated the more orthodox Whigs. By the early twentieth century "Whiggery" was largely irrelevant and without a natural political home. One of the last active politicians to celebrate his Whiggish roots was the Liberal Unionist statesman Henry James . The colours of
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#17327648286894680-454: The fact that many of the Tories still supported the deposed Roman Catholic James II . William saw that the Tories were generally friendlier to royal authority than the Whigs and he employed both groups in his government. His early ministry was largely Tory, but gradually the government came to be dominated by the so-called Junto Whigs , a group of younger Whig politicians who led a tightly organised political grouping. The increasing dominance of
4770-432: The fall of the Talents ministry in 1807, the Foxite Whigs remained out of power for the better part of 25 years. The accession of Fox's old ally, the Prince of Wales, to the regency in 1811 did not change the situation, as the Prince had broken entirely with his old Foxite Whig companions. The members of the government of Lord Liverpool from 1812 to 1827 called themselves Whigs. By 1815, the Whigs were still far from being
4860-408: The fanatical conventiclers in Scotland, who were known by the name of Whigs: The country party found a resemblance between the courtiers and the popish banditti in Ireland, to whom the appellation of Tory was affixed. And after this manner, these foolish terms of reproach came into public and general use; and even at present seem not nearer their end than when they were first invented. The precursor to
4950-416: The followers of Lord Chatham , who as the great political hero of the Seven Years' War generally took a stance of opposition to party and faction. The Whigs were opposed by the government of Lord North which they accused of being a Tory administration. While it largely consisted of individuals previously associated with the Whigs, many old Pelhamites as well as the Bedfordite Whig faction formerly led by
5040-403: The former opportunistically and the latter with a genuine interest in reform. In 1782 they joined forces with other members of the Opposition to bring down the North government which had overseen the American War since the beginning, and was blamed for the surrender of the British army at Yorktown. The new government was led by Rockingham and began to seek peace terms, laying the foundations for
5130-484: The founding governors, as listed on the charity's royal charter granted by George II . The hospital had a mission to care for the abandoned children in London, and it achieved rapid fame through its poignant mission, its art collection donated from supporting artists and the popular benefit concerts by George Frideric Handel . In 1793, Portland took over the presidency of the charity from Lord North. Along with many other conservative Whigs such as Edmund Burke , Portland
5220-426: The franchise and ended the system of " rotten and pocket boroughs " (where elections were controlled by powerful families) and instead redistributed power on the basis of population. It added 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales. Only the upper and middle classes voted, so this shifted power away from the landed aristocracy to the urban middle classes. In 1832, the party abolished enslavement in
5310-449: The government to recognise the role of public opinion in parliamentary debate and influenced views of representation and reform throughout the 19th century. Whigs restored their unity by supporting moral reforms, especially the abolition of slavery. They triumphed in 1830 as champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lord Grey prime minister 1830–1834 and the Reform Act 1832 championed by Grey became their signature measure. It broadened
5400-427: The hands of the very wealthy young aristocrat the Marquess of Rockingham, who soon gave his name to the group. Although the Rockingham Whigs were briefly brought into power in 1765, following the fall of the ministry of George Grenville , this ministry was based on an always uneasy relationship with the crown and collapsed a year later. In fact, the faction showed less interest in holding office than in preventing
5490-476: The heir presumptive, if allowed to inherit the throne, would endanger the Protestant religion, liberty and property. The first Exclusion Bill was supported by a substantial majority on its second reading in May 1679. In response, King Charles prorogued Parliament and then dissolved it, but the subsequent elections in August and September saw the Whigs' strength increase. This new parliament did not meet for thirteen months, because Charles wanted to give passions
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#17327648286895580-405: The influential House of Lords leader the Duke of Portland , Rockingham's nephew Lord Fitzwilliam and William Windham , were increasingly uncomfortable with the flirtations of Fox and his allies with radicalism and the French Revolution. They split in early 1793 with Fox over the question of support for the war with France and by the end of the year they had openly broken with Fox. By the summer of
5670-402: The king's Episcopalian order in Scotland. The word Whig entered English political discourse during the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1679–1681: there was controversy about whether King Charles II's brother, James, Duke of York , should be allowed to succeed to the throne on Charles's death, and Whig became a term of abuse for members of the Country Party , which sought to remove James from
5760-432: 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. The North administration left power in March 1782 following the American Revolution and a coalition of the Rockingham Whigs and the former Chathamites, now led by
5850-468: The latter. North Bentinck Arm and South Bentinck Arm were named for the Bentinck family by George Vancouver in 1793, along with other names on the British Columbia Coast, such as Portland Canal and Portland Channel . Portland Bay in Victoria, Australia was named in 1800 by the British navigator James Grant . The city of Portland is located on the bay. The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham holds
5940-408: The liberal political stance of the Whig Party and its middle-class constituents". Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), a leading London intellectual, repeatedly denigrated the "vile" Whigs and praised the Tories, even during times of Whig political supremacy. In his great Dictionary (1755), Johnson defined a Tory as "one who adheres to the ancient Constitution of the state and the apostolical hierarchy of
6030-405: The line of succession on the grounds that he was a Roman Catholic ( Samuel Johnson , a fervent Tory, often joked that "the first Whig was the Devil".). Eventually, Country Party politicians themselves would start describing their own faction as the "Whigs". In The History of England , c. 1760 , David Hume wrote: The court party reproached their antagonists with their affinity to
6120-515: The new king, George III , came to the throne in 1760, he was determined to reassert royal power and take the patronage mechanism away from Newcastle and his faction. After their fall from power Newcastle and his remaining loyalists came together to oppose Bute and assert what they believed to be Whig principles dating back to the political conflicts of the previous century. The faction was heavily dominated by wealthy aristocrats, and because of Newcastle's advanced age, effective leadership soon came into
6210-440: The next year, large portions of the opposition had defected and joined Pitt's government. Many of the Whigs who had joined with Pitt would eventually return to the fold, joining again with Fox in the Ministry of All the Talents following Pitt's death in 1806. The followers of Pitt—led until 1809 by Fox's old colleague the Duke of Portland—rejected the label of Tories and preferred to call themselves The Friends of Mr. Pitt . After
6300-419: The other. On 17 December 1783, Fox stated in the House of Commons that "[i]f [...] a change must take place, and a new ministry is to be formed and supported, not by the confidence of this House or the public, but the sole authority of the Crown, I, for one, shall not envy that hon. gentleman his situation. From that moment I put in my claim for a monopoly of Whig principles". Although Pitt is often referred to as
6390-464: The parties, supported by her moderate Tory ministers, the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Godolphin . However, as the War of the Spanish Succession went on and became less and less popular with the Tories, Marlborough and Godolphin were forced to rely more and more on the Junto Whigs, so that by 1708 they headed an administration of the Parliament of Great Britain dominated by the Junto. Anne herself grew increasingly uncomfortable with this dependence on
6480-471: The past. Later on, several members from the Whig party came to oppose the protectionism of the Corn Laws , but trade restrictions were not repealed even after the Whigs returned to power in the 1830s. With the succession of Elector George Louis of Hanover as king in 1714, the Whigs returned to government with the support of some Hanoverian Tories . The Jacobite rising of 1715 discredited much of
6570-470: The period from roughly 1714 to 1783 the "long period of Whig oligarchy". During the American Revolution , the Whigs were the party more sympathetic to American independence and the creation of a democracy in the United States. By 1784, both the Whigs and Tories had become formal political parties, with Charles James Fox becoming the leader of a reorganized Whig Party arrayed against William Pitt
6660-426: The reign of George III , who hoped to restore his own power by freeing himself from the great Whig magnates. Thus George promoted his old tutor Lord Bute to power and broke with the old Whig leadership surrounding the Duke of Newcastle. After a decade of factional chaos, with distinct Bedfordite , Chathamite , Grenvillite and Rockinghamite factions successively in power and all referring to themselves as "Whigs",
6750-779: The road"; this sounded to the English like "Whig", and they came to use the word "Whig" or "Whiggamore" derisively to refer to these people. During the English Civil Wars , when Charles I reigned, the term "Whig" was picked up and used by the English to refer derisively to a radical faction of the Scottish Covenanters who called themselves the Kirk Party (see the Whiggamore Raid ). It was later applied to Scottish Presbyterian rebels who were against
6840-400: The throne—a position known as Jacobitism .) Later, the Whigs came to draw support from the emerging industrial reformists and the mercantile class while the Tories came to draw support from farmers, landowners, royalists and (relatedly) those who favoured imperial military spending. By the first half of the 19th century, the Whig manifesto had come to encompass the supremacy of parliament ,
6930-533: The time, it was to last beyond the demise of the coalition in December 1783. The coalition's untimely fall was brought about by George III in league with the House of Lords and the King now brought in Chatham's son William Pitt the Younger as his prime minister. It was only now that a genuine two-party system can be seen to emerge, with Pitt and the government on the one side, and the ousted Fox-North coalition on
7020-487: The trade agreement on the same grounds. Ashley claimed that "[t]he traditional policy of the Whig party from before the Revolution [of 1688] down to the time of Fox was an extreme form of Protectionism". The Whigs' protectionism of this period is today increasingly cited with approval by heterodox economists such as Ha-Joon Chang , who wish to challenge contemporary prevailing free trade orthodoxies via precedents from
7110-454: Was Henry Brougham , the talented lawyer, who had a relatively modest background. Hay argues that Whig leaders welcomed the increasing political participation of the English middle classes in the two decades after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. The fresh support strengthened their position in Parliament. Whigs rejected the Tory appeals to governmental authority and social discipline and extended political discussion beyond Parliament. Whigs used
7200-473: Was around this time that the great Whig historian Thomas Babington Macaulay began to promulgate what would later be coined the Whig view of history , in which all of English history was seen as leading up to the culminating moment of the passage of Lord Grey's reform bill. This view led to serious distortions in later portrayals of 17th-century and 18th-century history, as Macaulay and his followers attempted to fit
7290-530: Was chiefly devoted to securing the passage of the Reform Act 1832 . This new club, for members of both Houses of Parliament , was intended to be a forum for the radical ideas which the First Reform Bill represented: a bastion of liberal and progressive thought that became closely associated with the Liberal Party , who largely succeeded the Whigs in the second half of the 19th century. Until
7380-551: Was deeply uncomfortable with the French Revolution ; he broke with Fox over that issue and joined Pitt's government as Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1794. In that role he oversaw the administration of patronage and financial inducements, which were often secret, to secure the passage of the Act of Union 1800 . He continued to serve in the cabinet until Pitt's death in 1806, from 1801 to 1805 as Lord President of
7470-739: Was elected to sit in the Parliament of Great Britain for Weobley in 1761 before he entered the House of Lords after he succeeded his father as Duke of Portland the next year. He was associated with the aristocratic Whig Party of Lord Rockingham and served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household in Rockingham's first government (1765–1766). Portland served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Rockingham's second ministry (April–August 1782). He faced strong demands for conciliatory measures following years of coercion and taxation brought about by
7560-484: Was first used officially in 1868, but had been used colloquially for decades beforehand) arose from a coalition of Whigs, free trade Tory followers of Robert Peel and free trade Radicals , first created, tenuously under the Peelite Earl of Aberdeen in 1852 and put together more permanently under the former Canningite Tory Lord Palmerston in 1859. Although the Whigs at first formed the most important part of
7650-519: Was one of the faction's leading spokesmen in the House of Commons . They did not favor Irish constitutional goals but when out of power they used Irish problems to embarrass the government. During Rockingham's government in 1765–66, his faction was generally hostile to the Irish Patriot Party, but during the administration of Lord North in 1770–82, it supported the Patriots' charges of mismanagement of Irish affairs. In power again in 1782,
7740-542: Was selected as the titular head of a coalition government as Prime Minister , whose real leaders were Charles James Fox and Lord North . He served as First Lord of the Treasury in the ministry until its fall in December that same year. During his tenure, the Treaty of Paris was signed, which formally ended the American Revolutionary War. The government was brought down after it had lost a vote in
7830-541: Was the daughter of John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle . He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford , where he graduated MA in 1757. In December 1757, the nineteen-year-old Lord Titchfield was sent to study under Lord Stormont for a year in Warsaw, he was accompanied by Stormont's secretary Benjamin Langlois . Stormont was to superintend all expenditures on his equipage, while Benjamin Langlois
7920-757: Was the first of eight British prime ministers to die while his direct successor was in office. The Portland Vase of Roman glass was given its name because it was owned by Portland at his family residence at Bulstrode Park. Portland Parish, in Jamaica, was named after him. The Titchfield School, founded in 1786, is in the parish and is also named in his honour. The school's crest is derived from his personal crest. Two major streets in Marylebone are named after him: Portland Place and Great Portland Street . Both were built on land that he once owned. Great Portland Street tube station , opened in 1863, takes its name from
8010-639: Was the leader of the Portland Whigs faction, which broke with the Whig leadership of Charles James Fox and joined with William Pitt the Younger in the wake of the French Revolution . William Henry, Lord Titchfield, was born on 14 April 1738 at Bulstrode Park in Buckinghamshire . He was the eldest son of William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland and "the richest woman in great Britain" Lady Margaret Cavendish-Harley and inherited many lands from his mother and his maternal grandmother, who
8100-637: Was to hire local masters and direct the studies of teenage Titchfield. The books he directed to read were ancient history, modern history, general law. In 1759, he travelled with Benjamin Langlois through Germany to Italy, spent a year in Turin, and went on to Florence. When Stormont was appointed ambassador to Vienna in 1763, Langlois went with him as Secretary of the embassy. On 8 November 1766, Portland married Lady Dorothy Cavendish , only daughter of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Charlotte Boyle . They were parents of six children: Portland
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