page_title: Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: Sin, Death, and the Devil - vide Milton SUMMARY: A satire on the struggle between Pitt and Thurlow travestied as a scene from Paradise Lost. Pitt is Death, wearing only the king's crown. Thurlow is Satan. The Queen is Sin, naked, with two writhing serpents for legs, attempting to protect Pitt. MEDIUM: 1 print&#160;: etching, hand-colored. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [London]&#160;: Pubd. by H. Humphrey, 1792 June 9th. According to Wright &amp; Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray (1851, OCLC 59510372), p. 48, "On the quarrel between Pitt and Thurlow, which ended in the dismissal of the latter from the Chancellorship. It was said that the Queen's influence at this time kept Pitt in power, the King hesitating for some time between his attachment to Thurlow and his sense of the value of Pitt's services. Pitt, in the character of Death, shelters himself under the Crown, and combats with the Sceptre. Satan's weapon, the Chancellor's mace, is breaking in the struggle. The hell hounds bear the visages of Dundas, Grenvill, &amp;c. This is without doubt one of the boldest pictoral parodies that was ever published&#160;: it is said to have given great offence at Court, and not without reason."
context_page_description: Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow, PC, KC, was a British lawyer and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1765 to 1778 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Thurlow. He served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain for fourteen years and under four Prime Ministers.
context_section_description: Thurlow then turned to politics, and in 1768 he was elected Member of Parliament for Tamworth as a Tory. Two years later, as a recognition of his defence the previous January of the expulsion of John Wilkes he was appointed Solicitor-General in the government of Lord North. He held this post until 1772, when he was promoted to Attorney General. He was to remain in this office for six years, during which period he became known as an ardent opponent of the American colonists' strive for independence.  He is noted for his defeat in the case of Woodfall, who was publisher of the Letters of Junius, upon which a verdict of mistrial was entered by Lord Mansfield.
  In 1778 Thurlow was admitted to the Privy Council, raised to the peerage as Baron Thurlow, of Ashfield in the County of Suffolk, and appointed Lord Chancellor by Lord North. In this post he notably opposed the economical and constitutional reforms proposed by Edmund Burke and John Dunning. The Tory administration of Lord North fell in March 1782, after twelve years in office. The Whigs under Lord Rockingham came to power, but Thurlow managed to cling on as Lord Chancellor. Rockingham died in July 1782, but Thurlow remained Lord Chancellor also when Lord Shelburne became Prime Minister. The latter government fell in April 1783, when a coalition government under Charles James Fox and Lord North was formed (with the Duke of Portland as titular Prime Minister). Thurlow was not invited to resume the role of Lord Chancellor, and instead the Great Seal was put into commission. He went into opposition and contributed to the downfall of the coalition in December 1783. William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister and reinstated Thurlow as Lord Chancellor. The relationship between Pitt and Thurlow was always fragile, and Thurlow often relied on his friendship with King George III to be able to remain in office. He opposed a bill for the restoration to the heirs of estates forfeited in the Jacobite rising of 1745. Partly to please the king, he consistently and strongly supported Warren Hastings, and negotiated with the Whigs to ensure his continued power in the event of a change of government. In 1792, when he attacked Pitt's bill to establish a fund to redeem the national debt, he was finally dismissed.
caption: In Sin, Death, and the Devil (1792), James Gillray caricatured the political battle between Pitt (Death) and Thurlow (Satan), with Queen Charlotte (Sin) in the middle, protecting Pitt.
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