George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon

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George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon
George Villiers, 1865.

George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon KG GCB (born January 12, 1800 in London , † June 27, 1870 ibid) was a British nobleman , diplomat and politician.

Origin and family

George Villiers was a grandson of Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon , the second son of the Earl of Jersey, who in 1752 married the heiress of the last Earl of Clarendon of the Hyde family. George Villiers succeeded his uncle John Charles Villiers as Earl of Clarendon in 1838 .

In 1839 Villiers married Katherine (1810–1874), the eldest daughter of James Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam , with whom he had the following children:

Career

Villiers attended St John's College at the University of Cambridge , which he left with a degree in 1820.

He then went to the British Embassy in Saint Petersburg as an attaché for three years . Years in the customs office and at the embassy in Paris followed before Villiers was sent to Spain as ambassador in 1833 . During his time there, which was marked by the First Carlist War , he had considerable influence on the liberal government and the queen widow Maria Christina , who ruled as regent .

In 1840 he became Lord Privy Seal under Melbourne , and later also Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster . After the fall of the Whigs in 1841, he was an active oppositionist, but supported Peel and his brother Charles Pelham Villiers in abolishing the Corn Laws . In the government of Earl Russell he held the office of President of the Board of Trade 1846 and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1847-1852. The Great Famine in Ireland fell during his tenure . He turned down the positions of Governor General of India or Canada that he had been offered, because he felt that he would be too far removed from active politics.

In the government of George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen , a coalition between Liberals and Peelites, Villiers became foreign minister . In 1853 he was largely responsible for the involvement of Great Britain in the Crimean War . But then he helped to bring about the so-called Third Paris Peace , which ended this war. With the end of the coalition, he also left office in 1858.

It was not until 1864 that Villiers took over a public office again, namely that of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Palmerston government and was a participant in the London Conference in the same year . After Palmerston's death he was again Secretary of State, now again under Lord Russell. However, this government left office after a few months.

The last time Villiers held the office of foreign minister in the first Gladstone government was from 1868, without any special foreign policy activities during this period. Nevertheless he was involved in the Belgian railway crisis in 1869 .

He died in office in 1870. The earliest dignity was inherited by his eldest surviving son Edward .

literature

  • The Life and Letters of George William Frederick, Fourth Earl of Clarendon V2 . Kessinger Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-0-548-60313-0 , 2 (paperback) 1913
  • HE Maxwell: G. Villiers, Vanished Victorian . 1938
  • Clarendon, George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 6 : Châtelet - Constantine . London 1910, p. 434 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links


predecessor Office successor
John Villiers Earl of Clarendon
1838-1870 		Edward Villiers
John Ponsonby Lord seal keeper
1840–1841 		Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville
Henry Vassall-Fox Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1840-1841 		George Gray
John Ponsonby Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1847-1852 		Archibald Montgomerie
Edward Cardwell Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1864-1865 		George Joachim Goschen
personal data
SURNAME Villiers, George, 4th Earl of Clarendon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clarendon, 4th Earl of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nobleman, diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1870
Place of death London