Eighteenth-Century British Premiers

Introduction: The Road to the Prime Ministership Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford – 'all these men have their price' Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington – 'George II's favourite nonentity' Henry Pelham – Pragmatic Heir to Walpole Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle – Mighty Panjamdrum, Feeble Premier William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire – 'I have no motive but the King's service' John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute – the King's 'dearest friend' George Grenville – Able Premier, Undermined by his own Prolixity Charles Wentworth-Watson, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham – the Conscience of the Whigs William Pitt, the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham – 'I am sure that I can save this country, and that nobody else can' Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Gracfton – Well-intentioned Dilettante Frederick North, styled Lord North – Outstanding Parliamentarian, Pity about the Colonies… William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne – Too Clever by Half William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland – Twice a Figurehead William Pitt, the Younger – Peacetime Prodigy, Less Successful in War Epilogue Appendix Index