num_pages: 176
description: Lord North, more perhaps than any other British politician, has been the victim of historical mythology. For long popularly dubbed Britain's worst Prime Minister on the ground that he lost her first empire in America, he was also condemned by generations of historians as a Parliamentary Trojan Horse, a vehicle for a sovereign who threatened the country's political liberty. If modern scholars now discount this last charge, the loss of America still weighs heavily in the balance against North. Yet it can be argued that tradition has exaggerated his responsibility for both the colonial rebellion and Britain's defeat in the American War: and that his very real achievements in such other fields as finance, Ireland and India have been overshadowed by the single major catastrophe. This book, therefore, seeks to present a balanced assessment of North's career. In the context of his age he was a master politician, dominating the Parliamentary arena. While Prime Minister he produced solutions to problems of government at home and of empire overseas before being overwhelmed by the American crisis. Whether in office or in opposition North had consistently to the constitutional doctrine that in the last resort power lay in the House of Commons. Highly popular at Westminster, and a man of unquestioned probity, he retained the respect of the contemporary political world throughout his career. Is not a great Prime Minister, he was not the failure of legend.
language: English
title: Lord North
titlecomplete: Lord North
characters: George III of Britain and Ireland, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Frederick North, Lord North, Charles James Fox
ratings_count: 2
series: British Political Biography
publisher: Palgrave Macmillan