William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville

The Right Honourable The Lord Grenville PC PC (Ire)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 11 February 1806 – 31 March 1807
Monarch	George III
Preceded by	William Pitt the Younger
Succeeded by	The Duke of Portland
Personal details
Born	(1759-10-25)25 October 1759 Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England
Died	12 January 1834(1834-01-12) (aged 74) Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England
Political party	Pittite Tory (until 1801) Whig (from c. 1801)
Spouse(s)	Anne
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Religion	Church of England
Signature	William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville's signature

William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville PC PC (Ire) (25 October 1759 – 12 January 1834) was a British Whig statesman. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807 as head of the Ministry of All the Talents.

Background

Grenville was the son of Whig Prime Minister George Grenville. His mother Elizabeth was daughter of the Tory statesman Sir William Wyndham Bart. He had two elder brothers Thomas and George - he was thus uncle to the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos.

He was also related to the Pitt family by marriage; William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham had married his father's sister Hester, and thus the younger Grenville was the first cousin of William Pitt the Younger.

Grenville was educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn.

Political career

Grenville entered the House of Commons in 1782. He soon became a close ally of the Prime Minister, his cousin William Pitt the Younger, and served in the government as Paymaster of the Forces from 1784 to 1789. In 1789 he served briefly as Speaker of the House of Commons before he entered the cabinet as Home Secretary. He became Leader of the House of Lords when he was raised to the peerage the next year as Baron Grenville, of Wotton under Bernewood in the County of Buckingham. The next year, in 1791, he succeeded the Duke of Leeds as Foreign Secretary. Grenville's decade as Foreign Secretary was a dramatic one, seeing the Wars of the French Revolution. During the war, Grenville was the leader of the party that focused on the fighting on the continent as the key to victory, opposing the faction of Henry Dundas which favoured war at sea and in the colonies. Grenville left office with Pitt in 1801 over the issue of Catholic Emancipation.

In his years out of office, Grenville became close to the opposition Whig leader Charles James Fox, and when Pitt returned to office in 1804, Grenville did not take part. Following Pitt's death in 1806, Grenville became the head of the "Ministry of All the Talents", a coalition between Grenville's supporters, the Foxite Whigs, and the supporters of former Prime Minister Lord Sidmouth, with Grenville as First Lord of the Treasury and Fox as Foreign Secretary as joint leaders. Grenville's cousin William Windham served as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and his younger brother, Thomas Grenville, served briefly as First Lord of the Admiralty. The Ministry ultimately accomplished little, failing either to make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation (the later attempt resulting in the ministry's dismissal in March, 1807). It did have one significant achievement, however, in the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

In the years after the fall of the ministry, Grenville continued in opposition, maintaining his alliance with Lord Grey and the Whigs, criticising the Peninsular War and, with Grey, refusing to join Lord Liverpool's government in 1812. In the post-war years, Grenville gradually moved back closer to the Tories, but never again returned to the cabinet. His political career was ended by a stroke in 1823. Grenville also served as Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1810 until his death in 1834.

Dropmore House

A caricature of Saartjie Baartman, Lord Grenville, and Richard Sheridan by William Heath

Dropmore House was built in the 1790s for Lord Grenville. The architects were Samuel Wyatt and Charles Tatham. Grenville knew the spot from rambles during his time at Eton College, and prized its distant views of his old school and of Windsor Castle. On his first day in occupation, he planted two cedar trees. At least another 2,500 trees were planted. By the time Grenville died, his pinetum contained the biggest collection of conifer species in Britain. Part of the post-millennium restoration is to use what survives as the basis for a collection of some 200 species.

Personal life

Lord Grenville married the Honourable Anne, daughter of Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford, in 1792. The marriage was childless. He died in January 1834, aged 74, when the barony became extinct. Lady Grenville died in June 1863.

The Ministry of All the Talents, February 1806 – March 1807

Main article: Ministry of All the Talents

• Lord Grenville - First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Lords
• Charles James Fox - Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons
• The Lord Erskine - Lord Chancellor
• The Earl Fitzwilliam - Lord President of the Council
• The Viscount Sidmouth - Lord Privy Seal
• The Earl Spencer - Secretary of State for the Home Department
• William Windham - Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
• Viscount Howick - First Lord of the Admiralty
• Lord Henry Petty - Chancellor of the Exchequer
• The Earl of Moira - Master-General of the Ordnance
• The Lord Ellenborough - Chief Justice, King's Bench

Changes

• September, 1806 - On Fox's death, Lord Howick succeeds him as Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. Thomas Grenville succeeds Howick at the Admiralty. Lord Fitzwilliam becomes Minister without Portfolio, and Lord Sidmouth succeeds him as Lord President. Lord Holland succeeds Sidmouth as Lord Privy Seal.

Further reading

• Jupp, P. Lord Grenville (Oxford University Press, 1985)

External links

• More about William Wyndam Grenville, Lord Grenville on the Downing Street website.

Political offices
Preceded by Hon. Richard FitzPatrick	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1782 – 1783	Succeeded by William Windham
Preceded by Edmund Burke	Paymaster of the Forces 1784 – 1789	Succeeded by The Lord Mulgrave The Marquess of Graham
New office	Vice-President of the Board of Trade 1786 – 1789	Succeeded by The Marquess of Graham
Preceded by Charles Wolfran Cornwall	Speaker of the House of Commons 1789	Succeeded by Henry Addington
Preceded by The Lord Sydney	Home Secretary 1789 – 1791	Succeeded by Henry Dundas
	President of the Board of Control 1790 – 1793
Preceded by The Duke of Leeds	Leader of the House of Lords 1790 – 1801	Succeeded by Lord Pelham
	Foreign Secretary 1791 – 1801	Succeeded by Lord Hawkesbury
Preceded by The Duke of Newcastle	Auditor of the Exchequer 1794 – 1834	Succeeded by The Lord Auckland
Preceded by Hon. William Pitt the Younger	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 11 February 1806 – 31 March 1807	Succeeded by The Duke of Portland
Preceded by Lord Hawkesbury	Leader of the House of Lords 1806 – 1807	Succeeded by Lord Hawkesbury
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by James Grenville Richard Aldworth-Neville	Member of Parliament for Buckingham 1782 – 1784 With: James Grenville	Succeeded by James Grenville Charles Edmund Nugent
Preceded by The Earl Verney Thomas Grenville	Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire 1784 – 1790 With: Sir John Aubrey 1784–1790 The Earl Verney 1790	Succeeded by The Earl Verney James Grenville
Academic offices
Preceded by The Duke of Portland	Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1809–1834	Succeeded by The Duke of Wellington
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation	Baron Grenville 1790 – 1834	Extinct

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