Henry Phipps , 1st Earl of Mulgrave Henry Phipps , 1st Earl of Mulgrave GCB , PC ( 14 February 1755 - 7 April 1831 ) , styled The Honourable Henry Phipps until 1792 and known as The Lord Mulgrave from 1792 to 1812 , was a British soldier and politician . He notably served as Foreign Secretary under William Pitt the Younger from 1805 to 1806 . Background and education . Lord Mulgrave was a younger son of Constantine Phipps , 1st Baron Mulgrave ( also Baron Mulgrave , of New Ross ) , by his wife the Hon . Lepell , daughter of John Hervey , 2nd Baron Hervey , and was educated at Eton and the Middle Temple . Military career . Lord Mulgrave entered the army in 1775 , and eventually rose to the rank of General . He saw service in the Caribbean during the American Revolutionary War . In 1793 , due to the fact that he was on a mission to the King of Sardinia in Turin , he was near at hand when British forces captured the French port of Toulon , and he briefly took command of the British land forces there , before withdrawing upon the arrival of more senior officers . In 1799 he was sent out on another special military mission , this time to the headquarters of the Austrian commander , Archduke Charles , to attempt to persuade him to retain his troops in Switzerland rather than removing them to the Middle Rhine , but he was unsuccessful . Political career . In 1784 Lord Mulgrave was elected to the House of Commons for Totnes . He supported the government of Pitt , to whom he eventually became close . In 1790 , he was elected for Scarborough in Yorkshire . He succeeded his brother Constantine Phipps , 2nd Baron Mulgrave as Baron Mulgrave in the Peerage of Ireland in 1792 , but did not succeed to his brother ' s British title . In 1794 he was granted a British peerage as Baron Mulgrave , entering the House of Lords , and in 1796 he was made Governor of Scarborough Castle . Mulgrave supported Pitt when he resigned in 1801 , and in return for his loyalty was rewarded with the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ( 1804 – 1805 ) in Pitt ' s second government . Following an accident suffered by Lord Harrowby , Mulgrave took his place as Foreign Secretary , in which position he helped Pitt to form the Third Coalition against Napoleon . With the death of Pitt and the formation of the Ministry of All the Talents in 1806 , Mulgrave , along with the other Pittites , went into opposition , but when the Pittites returned to power in 1807 , Mulgrave served in various major offices , first as First Lord of the Admiralty ( 1807 – 1810 ) , then as Master - General of the Ordnance ( 1810 – 1819 ) , and finally as Minister without Portfolio ( 1819 – 1820 ) . As First Lord he was heavily involved in planning both the successful expedition against Copenhagen in 1807 , and the disastrous one to Walcheren in 1809 . After moving to the ordnance board , Mulgrave became less active politically . He was created Viscount Normanby and Earl of Mulgrave in 1812 . Family . The Earl of Mulgrave ' s grandfather William Phipps had married Lady Catherine Annesley , who was the daughter and heiress of James Annesley , 3rd Earl of Anglesey and his wife Lady Catherine Darnley ( an illegitimate daughter of King James II by his mistress Catherine Sedley , Countess of Dorchester ) . Lady Catherine Darnley had later married John Sheffield , 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby , and hence Henry Phipps , 1st Earl of Mulgrave was the step - great - grandson of the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby . Henry Phipps , 1st Earl of Mulgrave married Martha Sophia , daughter of Christopher Thomson Maling , in 1795 . He died in April 1831 , aged 76 , and was succeeded by his eldest son , Constantine , who was later created Marquess of Normanby . His second son was the Hon . Sir Charles Beaumont Phipps . The Countess of Mulgrave died in March 1849 .