Eighteenth-century British premiers
Subtitle: Walpole to the younger Pitt
By: Dick Leonard
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Basingstoke, Hampshire [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9781403939081; 9780230284784
Subjects: Politics and government; Prime ministers; Biography
Description: Following his earlier surveys of 19th and 20th Century British Prime Ministers, Dick Leonard turns his attention to their 18th Century predecessors, including such major figures as Robert Walpole, the Elder Pitt (Lord Chatham), Lord North and the Younger Pitt.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford : "All these men have their price"; title: Spencer Compton, first Earl of Wilmington, "George II's favourite nonentity"; title: Henry Pelham : pragmatic heir to Walpole; title: Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle : mighty panjandrum, feeble premier; title: William Cavendish, fourth Duke of Devonshire : "I have no motive but the king's service"; title: John Stuart, third Earl of Bute : the king's "dearest friend"; title: George Grenville : able premier, undetermined by his own prolixity; title: Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquess of Rockingham : the conscience of the Whigs; title: William Pitt, the Elder, first Earl of Chatham : "I am sure that I can save this country, and that nobody else can"; title: Augustus Henry Fitzroy, third Duke of Grafton : well-intentioned dilettante; title: Frederick North, styled Lord North : outstanding parliamentarian, pity about the colonies ...; title: William Petty, second Earl of Shelburne : too clever by half?; title: William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, third Duke of Portland : twice a figurehead premier; title: William Pitt, the Younger : peacetime prodigy, less successful in war.