page_title: George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville
section_title: Early political career
hierarchical_section_title: George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville / Early political career
caption_attribution_description: English: Drayton House, south-east front with gates and gatepiers
context_page_description: George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, PC, styled The Honourable George Sackville until 1720, Lord George Sackville from 1720 to 1770 and Lord George Germain from 1770 to 1782, was a British soldier and politician who was Secretary of State for America in Lord North's cabinet during the American War of Independence.
  His ministry received much of the blame for Britain's loss of thirteen American colonies. His issuance of detailed instructions in military matters, coupled with his failure to understand either the geography of the colonies or the determination of the colonists, may justify this conclusion. He had two careers. His military career had distinction, but ended with a court martial. Sackville served in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, including at the decisive Battle of Minden. His political career ended with the fall of the North government in March 1782.
context_section_description: Sackville had been a Member of Parliament at intervals since 1733. He had served terms in both the Dublin and the Westminster bodies, sometimes simultaneously, but had not taken sides in political wrangles.
  Between 1750 and 1755 he served as Chief Secretary for Ireland, during his father's second term as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
  When George III took the throne in 1760, Sackville began his political rehabilitation. There did not seem to be negative repercussions to the European stalemate of the Seven Years' War. The victories over the French within the colonial empire provided a chance for events of the war to be forgotten. The difficulty of repaying the debts incurred to fight the war caused a period of unstable ministries and shifting political alliances. In 1765, King George quietly returned him to the rolls of the Privy Council.
  Initially he was a follower of George Grenville's faction but he increasingly lined up as a supporter of Lord North and, in 1769, he made this alliance formal. Then, in 1769, Lady Elizabeth Germain died without natural heirs, and left her estates, including Drayton, Northamptonshire, to him. This not only improved his finances, it also gave him the chance to take that name formally. After 1770, he was known as Lord George Germain.
caption: Drayton House
exif: {}