James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope

James Stanhope, 1st Earl of Stanhope PC (* 1673 in Paris , † February 5, 1721 in London ) was a British statesman and military.

James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, painting by Godfrey Kneller, before 1723, National Portrait Gallery

Life

Stanhope was the eldest of the seven children of Alexander Stanhope (1638–1707) and Katherine Burghill. He attended Eton College and from 1688 Trinity College at the University of Oxford . In 1690 he accompanied his father to Madrid , where he was the British ambassador.

Military career

He then embarked on a military career and served as a volunteer in the wars against France in Italy and Flanders. In 1695 he received a patent in the British Army and served on the Iberian Peninsula in the War of the Spanish Succession . At the same time he was from 1701 a member of the House of Commons .

In 1702 he fought off Cadiz and in 1703 under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough , in Flanders. In 1705 he served under Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough , in Spain, among other things, in the siege of Barcelona . In 1706 he became British envoy ("Minister") in Spain, but continued to serve in the military. He took command of the British expeditionary forces from Mordaunt in 1708 and immediately took the offensive by capturing Port Mahon on Menorca , which made the capture of Gibraltar possible (1704). From 1708 to 1711 he was the first British governor of Menorca. After a short return to England he was involved in the victorious battles of Almenara and Saragossa in 1710 , so that Archduke Charles of Austria was able to enter Madrid. But Stanhope had to capitulate in Brihuega on December 9, 1710 to a French overwhelming power, which subsequently secured the Spanish throne for Philip V , who was favored by the French .

politics

After a year in captivity, Stanhope returned to England in August 1712. In the meantime he had lost his House of Commons to a brewer belonging to the Torys (he had run against him from a distance during his imprisonment in Spain). Stanhope now switched entirely to politics, was given a seat in the House of Commons and became one of the leaders of the Whig opposition.

Stanhope was involved in establishing the Hanoverian Elector George I on the English throne and became Secretary of State in the Southern Department of the Foreign Ministry in 1714 , which he remained until 1716. From 1714 he was again in the lower house. He also served as British envoy to the Holy Roman Empire in 1714 . With Robert Walpole , he led the Whigs in the House of Commons and was responsible for suppressing the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 . In 1716 he narrowly failed to conclude an alliance treaty with France. That same year he became Secretary of State in the Northern Department.

In 1717 there was a break in the Whig party between supporters of Stanhope and Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland , on the one hand, and Walpole and Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend , on the other. In the same year 1717 Stanhope became First Lord of the Treasury , which he remained until 1718. In 1718 he was again Secretary of State in the Northern Department, which he remained until 1721. He was in the favor of the king and from 1717 to 1721 was in fact British Prime Minister, if not nominal. 1717/1718 he was a follower of Walpole Chancellor of the Exchequer ( Chancellor of the Exchequer ). In 1718 he concluded the Quadruple Alliance between Spain, the Emperor, Great Britain and the Netherlands. He also pushed for an end to the Northern War in order to counteract Russian expansionist tendencies. He negotiated with Spain over Gibraltar , but only wanted to give up the base against Cuba and Florida, so the negotiations failed.

His government was troubled when the South Sea Bubble burst in 1721. He and his government were partly to blame for this, but had not personally benefited from it. As a result of the heated debates, he had a stroke from which he died.

family

Stanhope married on February 24, 1713 Lucy Pitt (1692-1713), daughter of the governor of Madras Thomas Pitt (and aunt of William Pitt ), with whom he had seven children, including two pairs of twins. In 1717 he became Viscount Stanhope of Mahon and in 1718 he was earliest as Earl Stanhope . His title inherited from his eldest son Philip Stanhope (1714-1786), who was a gifted mathematician and Fellow of the Royal Society .

literature

• Basil Williams: Stanhope , Oxford, Clarendon Press 1932
• Hugh Stanhope: Memoirs of the life and action of the right honorable James Stanhope , 1721
• as well as the histories of Lord Mahon, 5th Earl Stanhope , on English history in the 18th century and the War of the Spanish Succession, which used the papers of his ancestor James Stanhope
• Ottokar Weber: The Quadruple Alliance of 1718 , Vienna 1887

Remarks

1. ↑ This made it to incredible wealth in India, among other things he brought the diamond Le Régent into his possession

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Earl Stanhope 1718-1721	Philip Stanhope