Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax
The Right Honourable The Earl of Halifax | |
---|---|
Portrait by Michael Dahl | |
Chief Minister of Great Britain First Lord of the Treasury | |
In office 13 October 1714 – 19 May 1715 | |
Monarch | George I |
Preceded by | The Duke of Shrewsbury as Lord High Treasurer |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Carlisle |
In office 1 May 1697 – 15 November 1699 | |
Monarch | William III |
Preceded by | The Earl of Godolphin |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Tankerville |
10th President of the Royal Society | |
In office 1695–1698 | |
Preceded by | Sir Robert Southwell |
Succeeded by | John Somers |
Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
In office 3 May 1694 – 15 November 1699 | |
Monarchs | William III and Mary II |
Preceded by | Richard Hampden |
Succeeded by | John Smith |
Commissioner of the Treasury | |
In office 21 March 1692 – 3 May 1694 | |
Monarchs | William III and Mary II |
Preceded by | Thomas Pelham |
Succeeded by | John Smith and William Trumbull |
Personal details | |
Born | 16 April 1661 Horton, Northamptonshire Kingdom of England |
Died | 19 May 1715(1715-05-19) (aged 54) |
Spouse(s) | The Dowager Countess of Manchester, née Anne Yelverton |
Relations | Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester, paternal grandfather |
Parent |
|
Profession | Politician, poet |
Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, KG, PC, FRS (16 April 1661 – 19 May 1715) was an English statesman and poet. He was the grandson of the 1st Earl of Manchester and was eventually ennobled himself, first as Baron Halifax in 1700 and later as Earl of Halifax in 1714. As one of the three members of the so-called Whig Junto, Montagu played a major role in English politics under the reigns of King William III and Queen Anne. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1694 to 1699 and as First Lord of the Treasury from 1714 until his death the following year. He was also president of the Royal Society and a patron of the scientist Isaac Newton.
Early life
Charles Montagu was born in Horton, Northamptonshire, to Elizabeth Irby and George Montagu, fifth son of the 1st Earl of Manchester. He was educated first in the country, and then at Westminster School, where he was chosen as a Queen's Scholar in 1677, and entered into close friendship with George Stepney.
In 1679 Montagu was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge. At the time his relation, Dr. John Montagu, was Master of Trinity College and took him under his wing. While studying at Cambridge Montagu began a lasting association with Isaac Newton. He graduated with an MA in 1682 and became a Fellow of Trinity in 1683.[1]
Two portraits of Montagu by Godfrey Kneller are in the college collection.[2]
In 1685, Montagu's verses on the death of King Charles II made such an impression on the Earl of Dorset that he was invited to town and introduced to other entertainments. In 1687, Montagu joined with Matthew Prior in The City Mouse and the Country Mouse, a burlesque of John Dryden's The Hind and the Panther. Shortly before the Glorious Revolution, he married his cousin's widow, the Dowager Countess of Manchester. In the 1689 election, with the support of the Earl of Dorset and the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, the Earl of Oxford, he successfully contested the Maldon constituency against the Tory Sir John Bramston. Montagu sat for Maldon in the Convention Parliament of 1689.[3] He also purchased for £1,500 a position as Clerk of the Council, to which he was appointed on 21 February 1689. He was returned for Maldon again without a contest at the 1690 election.[4]
Political office
In 1691, having become a member of the House of Commons, he argued in favour of a law to grant the assistance of counsel in trials for high treason. He became flustered in the middle of his speech, and upon recovering himself, observed "how reasonable it was to allow counsel to men called as criminals before a court of justice, when it appeared how much the presence of that assembly could disconcert one of their own body".
After the House of Commons he rose quickly, becoming one of the Commissioners of the Treasury and a member of the Privy Council. In 1694 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reward for devising the establishment of the Bank of England, the plan which had been proposed by William Paterson three years before but not acted upon. After an unsuccessful attempt to supplant the Earl of Sunderland's leadership with the Whigs, he was compelled to reconcile with him in August 1695. With the support of Sunderland and the Court, Montagu was returned to Parliament for the Westminster constituency in October 1695.[4] In the same year he was involved in the successful recoinage project. In 1698, having been appointed to the first Commission of the Treasury, he was also one of the regency in the King's absence. The next year he was made Auditor of the Exchequer, and the year after was created Baron Halifax, of Halifax in the County of Yorkshire, with remainder to his nephew George Montagu. His impeachment by the Commons failed, when the Articles were dismissed by the House of Lords.
John Macky relates a short description of the circumstances leading up to Charles, Lord Halifax's impeachment, in the Secret Service Papers published by his son in 1733.
...But as all courtiers, who rise too quick, as he did, are envied, so his great Favour with the King, and powerful Interest in the House, raised a great Party against him, which he strengthened, by seeming to despise them. The Deficiency of Parliamentary Funds, and the growing Debts of the Nation, by the great Interest of Paper Credit, laid him but too much open to these Attacks, he having the whole Administration of the Revenue. When he saw the Party growing too strong for him in the House of Commons, he prudently got himself made a Lord; and as a Screen from all Objections against his Administration, quitted his Management of Commissioner, to serve as Auditor: But his Enemies did not quit him so, they followed him into the House of Peers with an Impeachment, and so left no Stone unturned, to get him out of his Employ, bespattering him every Day with Pamphlets.
- —Memoirs of the Secret Services of John Macky Esq., pp. 51–54.
On the accession of Queen Anne, Montagu was dismissed from the Council, and in the first Parliament of her reign was again attacked by the Commons, and again escaped by the protection of the Lords. In 1704 he wrote an answer to Bromley's speech against occasional conformity. He headed the inquiry into the danger of the Church. In 1706 he proposed and negotiated the Union with Scotland and when the Elector of Hanover received the Garter, after the Act had passed for securing the Protestant Succession, he was appointed to carry the ensigns of the Order to the Electoral Court. He sat as one of the judges of Henry Sacheverell, but voted for a mild sentence. Being now no longer in favour, he obtained a writ for summoning the Electoral Prince to Parliament as Duke of Cambridge.
Earl of Halifax
At the Queen's death Montagu was again appointed one of the regents. At the accession of George I, he was made Viscount Sunbury and Earl of Halifax, with remainder to heirs male, a Knight of the Garter, and First Lord of the Treasury, with a grant to his nephew of the reversion of the Auditorship of the Exchequer. Shortly afterwards he died of an inflammation of his lungs. The viscountcy and earldom became extinct on his death as he had no sons while he was succeeded in the barony according to the special remainder by his nephew George Montagu.
Halifax is reported to have left Catherine Barton, Newton's niece, a sizable inheritance for "her excellent conversation", as John Flamsteed wryly reported at the time.[5] Many of his possessions were auctioned by Christopher Cock on 25 March 1740 at his room in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden.[6]
Alexander Pope commemorated the Earl's death in his unpublished poem "Farewell to London in the Year 1715":
The love of arts lies cold and dead
In Halifax's urn,
And not one Muse of all he fed
Has yet the grace to mourn.
See also
- Poetry portal
- Whig Junto
- List of presidents of the Royal Society
Bibliography
- Cooper, C. H. (1861). Memoirs of Cambridge. London: Macmillan.
- Johnson, Samuel (2006). The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. Roger Lonsdale, editor. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Thomson, A. T. (1871). The Wits and Beaux of Society. London: Routledge.
- Handley, Stuart (2004). "Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press online edn, Oct 2005.
References
- ^ "Montagu, Charles (MNTG679C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "Trinity College, University of Cambridge". BBC Your Paintings. Archived from the original on 19 November 2014.
- ^ Hampson, Gillian (1983). "MONTAGU, Charles (1661–1715), of Jermyn Street, Westminster.". In Henning, B. D. (ed.). The House of Commons 1660-1690. The History of Parliament Trust.
- ^ a b Knights, Mark (2002). "MONTAGU, Charles (1661–1715), of Jermyn Street, Westminster, and Bushey Park, Hampton Court, Mdx.". In Hayton, David; Cruickshanks, Eveline; Handley, Stuart (eds.). The House of Commons 1690-1715. The History of Parliament Trust.
- ^ See Westfall, Life of Isaac Newton, p. 240
- ^ Cock, Christopher (1740). 1740.03 A catalogue of the valuable collection of prints, antient Greek and Roman medals, coins, &c. in gold, silver, and brass, of the Most Noble ... London: Christopher Cock.
External links
- Media related to Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by or about Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax at Wikisource
Parliament of England | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Sir John Bramston Sir Thomas Darcy | Member of Parliament for Maldon 1689–1695 With: Sir John Bramston 1689–1693 Sir Eliab Harvey 1693–1695 | Succeeded by Irby Montagu Sir Eliab Harvey |
Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Westminster 1695–1701 With: Sir Stephen Fox 1695–1698 James Vernon 1698–1701 | Succeeded by Sir Thomas Crosse James Vernon |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1694–1699 | Succeeded by John Smith |
Preceded by | First Lord of the Treasury 1697–1699 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by Christopher Montagu | Auditor of the Exchequer 1699–1714 | Succeeded by |
Preceded byas Lord High Treasurer | First Lord of the Treasury 1714–1715 | Succeeded by |
Honorary titles | ||
Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Surrey 1714–1715 | Succeeded by |
Peerage of Great Britain | ||
New creation | Earl of Halifax 2nd creation 1714–1715 | Extinct |
Peerage of England | ||
New creation | Baron Halifax 1700–1715 | Succeeded by |
Professional and academic associations | ||
Preceded by Sir Robert Southwell | 10th President of the Royal Society 1695–1698 | Succeeded by |
- v
- t
- e
(1603–1625)
- Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset (1603–1608)
- Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (1608–1612)
- Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (1612–1613)
- Thomas Egerton, 1st Baron Ellesmere (1613–1614)
- Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk (1614–1618)
- George Abbot (1618–1620)
- Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester (1620–1621)
- Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex (1621–1624)
- James Ley, 1st Earl of Marlborough (1624–1625)
(1625–1649)
- James Ley, 1st Earl of Marlborough (1625–1628)
- Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland (1628–1633)
- William Laud (1635–1636)
- William Juxon (1636–1641)
- Edward Littleton, 1st Baron Lyttelton (1641–1643)
- Francis Cottington, 1st Baron Cottington (1643–1646)
(1660–1685)
- Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (June–September 1660)
- Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton (1660–1667)
- George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1667–1670)
- Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1672–1673)
- Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds (1673–March 1679)
- Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex (March–November 1679)
- Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester (November 1679–1684)
- Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1684–1685)
(1685–1688)
- Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester (1685–1686)
- John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse (1687–December 1688)
(1689–1694)
- John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse (December 1688–April 1689)
- Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough (April 1689–March 1690)
- John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale (March 1690–November 1690)
- Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (November 1690–1694)
(1694–1702)
- Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1694–1697)
- Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (1697–1699)
- Ford Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville (1699–1700)
- Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1700–1701)
- Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle (1701–1702)
(1702–1714)
- Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1702–1710)
- John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett (1710–1711)
- Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer (1711–July 1714)
- Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury (July–October 1714)