Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Stanhope, painting by Allan Ramsay , 1765

Philip Stanhope, painting by William Hoare

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield KG PC (born September 22, 1694 in London , † March 24, 1773 ibid) was a British statesman and writer. He was known as Lord Stanhope until his father's death in 1726. Today he is best known as a writer.

Life

Stanhope studied at Cambridge and was on the Grand Tour in Europe when the succession to the throne of King George I , whose minister James Stanhope (1673-1721) was a relative of his, allowed him to return to England. Thanks to the influence of James Stanhope, he became "Gentleman of the Bedchamber" to the Prince of Wales . In 1715 he became a member of the House of Commons (as a supporter of the Whig Party), but then went on a tour to Europe again, providing the British government with valuable information about the Jacobites in Paris. Politically, he stayed on the side of the Prince of Wales when he got into serious conflict with his father, but did not break completely with the other side either. He became a member of the House of Lords and in 1728 Ambassador to The Hague . He was so successful that he (along with the friendship of Robert Walpole ) the Order of the Garter was given and " Lord Steward " was.

In 1731 he negotiated the Second Treaty of Vienna . The following year he resigned from the post of ambassador on health grounds and returned to Britain. He was then one of the political leaders in the House of Lords, where he initially supported Robert Walpole, but then came into violent opposition to him after he stopped his "Excise Bill", the introduction of consumption taxes on tobacco and wine. In 1733 Walpole kicked him out of the government. His opposition to Walpole had again undermined his health, and in 1741 he visited Europe again, seeing Voltaire in Brussels and Montesquieu , Crebillon , Fontenelle and others in Paris.

After the fall of Walpole in 1742, he remained in opposition to the new government under Carteret and also fell out with George II, the former Prince of Wales, against whom he polemicized in the newly founded newspaper Old England under the pseudonym Jeffrey Broadbottom. Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough , was so taken with it that she bequeathed him £ 20,000.

In 1744 the coalition led by him and William Pitt came to power ( Broad Bottom Party ) and Stanhope was again ambassador to The Hague under the ministry of Henry Pelham . He succeeded in drawing the Dutch into the War of the Austrian Succession on the side of England , for which he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland . He stayed in this position for only one year, but he was very successful, tackling office abuse, developing the country and advocating a conciliatory attitude toward Catholics, who thanked him by not joining the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland in 1745. In 1746 he became Secretary of State , but could only hold out until 1748. He made the mistake of joining the party of the king's mistress and thus incurred the queen's displeasure. He devoted himself to writing and in 1751 pushed through the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in the House of Lords (which, however, made him hateful among the English people, who believed that “papists” had stolen 11 days from them).

He spent his last years withdrawn, on one occasion noticing "Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years, but we don't choose to have it known" (Tyrawley and I were dead these two years, but preferred it to us to keep).

writer

Stanhope is best known for the letters to his son, Philip Stanhope (1732–1768), from an illegitimate relationship with a Mademoiselle Du Bouchet. He wrote these upbringing letters when he was attending Westminster School . They should prepare him for a career as a diplomat at the time and reflect accordingly the customs and moral concepts of his circle. His son, in whom he had high hopes but who disappointed him because of a lack of ambition, died at the age of 36 in Paris, where he married without his father's knowledge and left a widow and two sons.

About the letters, Samuel Johnson , annoyed by the lack of support for his dictionary by Chesterfield, the patron of literature, wrote his familiar words that they "preach the morals of a whore and the manners of a dance teacher" ("they teach the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master "). On another occasion he said bitterly to James Boswell that he had once considered him a “lord among the witty”, but now realizes that he was just a joke among the lords (“This man (said he) I thought had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords! "). Voltaire praised the book as the best book on education ever written . It was printed a year after Chesterfield's death because of the letters his son had kept (Chesterfield himself had not wanted this and had expressly forbidden it).

Private life

Since 1733 Stanhope was married to Melusina von der Schulenburg, Countess of Walsingham , a daughter of George I with his Maitresse Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg . The marriage remained childless.

Chesterfield County in Virginia and Chesterfield County in South Carolina are named after him.

Trivia

The seating furniture of the same name , which is still widespread today and which he commissioned from Robert Adam for the first time, is named after the 4th Lord Chesterfield .

Fonts

• Chesterfield: Letters to his son Philip Stanhope about the strenuous art of becoming a gentleman , editor Friedemann Berger (selection). Munich, 1984, ISBN 3-406-09485-6
• Philip Dormer Stanhope of Chesterfield: The Art of Living Happily Among People . Translated from the French by Wilibald Schrettinger . Seidel, Munich 1802; urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10040150-0 .
• Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield: The Art of Pleasing (translation and epilogue: Gerhard Vowinckel). Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Mainz 1992

literature

• Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 6 : Châtelet - Constantine . London 1910, p. 109 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
• Will , Ariel Durant : The Age of Voltaire. A cultural history of Central and Western Europe from 1715 to 1756 with special consideration of the conflict between religion and theology (The History of Civilization; Volume 9). Francke Verlag, Bern 1967.

Web links

Wikiquote: Philip Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield  - Quotes

• Works by and about Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield  in the German Digital Library
• Letters to his son at Project Gutenberg

References and comments

1. ↑ Walpole wanted to counteract the tax shortfalls caused by smuggling these products
2. ↑ Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 6 : Châtelet - Constantine . London 1910, p. 109 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
3. ^ Durant: Age of Voltaire , p. 100
4. ↑ James O'Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley and 1st Baron Kilmaine (1682–1774), British Field Marshal, a friend of Chesterfield. The quote can be found e.g. B. Durant's The Age of Voltaire , p. 105
5. ^ Durant: Age of Voltaire , p. 104
6. ^ Durant: Age of Voltaire , p. 105

predecessor	Office	successor
Philip Stanhope	Earl of Chesterfield 1726-1773	Philip Stanhope
Lionel Sackville	Lord Steward 1730-1733	William Cavendish
William Cavendish	Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1745-1746	William Stanhope