William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. Historians call him "Chatham" or "Pitt the Elder" to distinguish him from his son William Pitt the Younger, who also served as prime minister. Pitt was also known as "the Great Commoner" because of his long-standing refusal to accept a title until 1766.
Pitt was a member of the British cabinet and with a brief interlude in 1757, its informal leader from 1756 to 1761, during the Seven Years' War. He again led the ministry, holding the official title of Lord Privy Seal, between 1766 and 1768. Much of his power came from his brilliant oratory. He was out of power for most of his career and became well known for his attacks on the government, such as those on Walpole's corruption in the 1730s, Hanoverian subsidies in the 1740s, peace with France in the 1760s, and the policy toward the American colonies during the 1770s.
Pitt is best known as the wartime political leader of Britain during the Seven Years' War, especially for his single-minded devotion to victory over France, a victory that ultimately solidified Britain's dominance over world affairs. He is also known for his popular appeal, his opposition to corruption in government, his support for the American position in the run-up to the American Revolutionary War, his advocacy of British greatness, expansionism and empire, and his antagonism toward Britain's chief enemies and rivals for colonial power, Spain and France. Marie Peters argues his statesmanship was based on a clear, consistent and distinct appreciation of the value of the Empire.
The British parliamentary historian P. D. G. Thomas argued that Pitt's power was based not on his family connections, but on the extraordinary parliamentary skills by which he dominated the House of Commons. He displayed a commanding manner, brilliant rhetoric and sharp debating skills that cleverly used his broad literary and historical knowledge. Scholars rank him highly among all British prime ministers.
Early life
Family
Pitt was the grandson of Thomas Pitt, the governor of Madras, known as "Diamond" Pitt for having discovered a diamond of extraordinary size and having sold it to the Duke of Orléans for approximately £135,000. This transaction, as well as other trading deals in India, established the Pitt family fortune. After returning home the governor was able to raise his family to a position of wealth and political influence: in 1691, he purchased the property of Boconnoc in Cornwall, which gave him control of a seat in Parliament. He made further land purchases and became one of the dominant political figures in the West Country, controlling seats such as the rotten borough of Old Sarum.William's mother was Harriet Villiers, the daughter of Edward Villiers-FitzGerald and the Irish heiress Katherine FitzGerald. William's father was Robert Pitt, the eldest son of Governor Pitt. He served as a Tory Member of Parliament from 1705 to 1727.
Both William's uncles Thomas and John were MPs, while his aunt Lucy married the leading Whig politician and soldier General James Stanhope. From 1717 to 1721, Stanhope served as effective First Minister in the Stanhope–Sunderland Ministry, and was a useful political contact for the Pitt family until the collapse of the South Sea Bubble, a disaster that engulfed the government.
Birth and education
William Pitt was born at Golden Square, Westminster, on 15 November 1708. His older brother Thomas Pitt had been born in 1704 and they had five sisters: Harriet, Catherine, Ann, Elizabeth, and Mary. From 1719, William was educated at Eton College along with his brother. William disliked Eton, later claiming that "a public school might suit a boy of turbulent disposition but would not do where there was any gentleness". It was at school that Pitt began to suffer from gout. Governor Pitt died in 1726, and the family estate at Boconnoc passed to William's father. When he died the following year, Boconnoc was inherited by William's elder brother, Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc.In January 1727, William was entered as a gentleman commoner at Trinity College, Oxford. There is evidence that he was an extensive reader, if not a minutely accurate classical scholar. Virgil was his favourite author. William diligently cultivated the faculty of expression by the practice of translation and re-translation. In these years he became a close friend of George Lyttelton, who would later become a leading politician. In 1728, a violent attack of gout compelled him to leave Oxford without finishing his degree. He then chose to travel abroad, from 1728 attending Utrecht University in the Dutch Republic, gaining a knowledge of Hugo Grotius and other writers on international law and diplomacy. It is not known how long Pitt studied at Utrecht but, by 1730, he had returned to his brother's estate at Boconnoc.
He had recovered from the violent attack of gout, but the disease proved intractable, and he continued to be subject to attacks of growing intensity at frequent intervals until his death.
Military career
On Pitt's return home it was necessary for him, as the younger son, to choose a profession and he opted for a career in the army. He obtained a cornet's commission in the dragoons with the King's Own Regiment of Horse. George II never forgot the jibes of "the terrible cornet of horse". It was reported that the £1,000 cost of the commission had been supplied by Robert Walpole, the prime minister, out of Treasury funds in an attempt to secure the support of Pitt's brother Thomas in Parliament. Alternatively, the fee may have been waived by the commanding officer of the regiment, Lord Cobham, who was related to the Pitt brothers by marriage.Pitt grew close to Cobham, whom he regarded as almost a surrogate father. He was stationed for much of his service in Northampton, on peacetime duties. Pitt was particularly frustrated that he had not been tested in battle since Britain had not entered the War of the Polish Succession that began in 1733 owing to Walpole's isolationist policies. Pitt was granted extended leave in 1733 and he toured France and Switzerland. He briefly visited Paris, but spent most of his time in the French provinces, spending the winter in Lunéville in the Duchy of Lorraine.
Pitt's military career was destined to be relatively short. His elder brother Thomas was returned at the general election of 1734 for two separate seats, Okehampton and Old Sarum, and chose to sit for Okehampton, passing the vacant seat to William who, accordingly, in February 1735, entered parliament as member for Old Sarum. He became one of a large number of serving army officers in the House of Commons.
Rise to prominence
Patriot Whigs
Pitt soon joined a faction of discontented Whigs known as the Patriots who formed part of the opposition. The group commonly met at Stowe House, the country estate of Lord Cobham, who was a leader of the group. Cobham had originally been a supporter of the government under Sir Robert Walpole, but a dispute over the controversial Excise Bill of 1733 had seen them join the opposition. Pitt swiftly became one of the faction's most prominent members.Pitt's maiden speech in the Commons was delivered in April 1736, in the debate on the congratulatory address to George II on the marriage of his son Frederick, Prince of Wales. He used the occasion to pay compliments, and there was nothing striking in the speech as reported, but it helped to gain him the attention of the House when he later took part on debates on more partisan subjects. In particular, he attacked Britain's non-intervention in the ongoing European war, which he believed was in violation of the Treaty of Vienna and the terms of the Anglo-Austrian Alliance.
He became such a troublesome critic of the government that Walpole moved to punish him by arranging his dismissal from the army in 1736, along with several of his friends and political allies. This provoked a wave of hostility to Walpole because many saw such an act as unconstitutional—that members of Parliament were being dismissed for their freedom of speech in attacking the government, something protected by Parliamentary privilege. None of the men had their commissions reinstated, however, and the incident brought an end to Pitt's military career. The loss of Pitt's commission was soon compensated. The heir to the throne, Frederick, Prince of Wales, was involved in a long-running dispute with his father, George II, and was the patron of the opposition. He appointed Pitt one of his Grooms of the Bedchamber as a reward. In this new position Pitt's hostility to the government did not in any degree relax, and his oratorical gifts were substantial.
War
Spanish war
During the 1730s Britain's relationship with Spain had slowly declined. Repeated cases of reported Spanish mistreatment of British merchants, whom they accused of smuggling, caused public outrage, particularly the incident of Jenkins' Ear. Pitt was a leading advocate of a more hard-line policy against Spain and he often castigated Walpole's government for its weakness in dealing with Madrid. Pitt spoke out against the Convention of El Pardo that aimed to settle the dispute peacefully. In the speech against the convention in the House of Commons on 8 March 1739 Pitt said:When trade is at stake, it is your last entrenchment; you must defend it, or perish ... Sir, Spain knows the consequence of a war in America; whoever gains, it must prove fatal to her ... is this any longer a nation? Is this any longer an English Parliament, if with more ships in your harbours than in all the navies of Europe; with above two millions of people in your American colonies, you will bear to hear of the expediency of receiving from Spain an insecure, unsatisfactory, dishonourable Convention?
Owing to public pressure, the British government was pushed toward declaring war with Spain in 1739. Britain began with a success at Porto Bello. However the war effort soon stalled, and Pitt alleged that the government was not prosecuting the war effectively—demonstrated by the fact that the British waited two years before taking further offensive action fearing that further British victories would provoke the French into declaring war. When they did so, a failed attack was made on the South American port of Cartagena that left thousands of British troops dead, more than half from disease, and cost many ships. The decision to attack during the rainy season was held as further evidence of the government's incompetence.
After this, the colonial war against Spain was almost entirely abandoned as British resources were switched toward fighting France in Europe as the War of the Austrian Succession had broken out. The Spanish had repelled a major invasion intended to conquer Central America and succeeded in maintaining their trans-Atlantic convoys while causing much disruption to British shipping and twice broke a British blockade to land troops in Italy, but the war with Spain was treated as a draw. Many of the underlying issues remained unresolved by the later peace treaties leaving the potential for future conflicts to occur. Pitt considered the war a missed opportunity to take advantage of a power in decline, although later he became an advocate of warmer relations with the Spanish in an effort to prevent them forming an alliance with France.