Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham

Portrait painting of Viscount Cobham by French painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo , circa 1740

Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham PC (born October 24, 1675 , † September 14, 1749 in Stowe House , Stowe , Buckinghamshire ) was a British field marshal and Whigs politician .

Life

Temple family coat of arms

Temple was the eldest son of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet (1634-1697) and his wife Mary, née Knapp, born. His father was a long-time MP for Warwickshire and Buckingham at the time of the Commonwealth of England , after the Stuart Restoration ( Cavalier Parliament ) and after the Glorious Revolution until his death in 1697. His great-grandfather Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet, of Stowe (1567 –1637) and grandfather Peter Temple, 2nd Baronet (1592–1653) had been MPs. The family had made their fortune from sheep farming and in 1571 acquired first a lease and later title to land around Stowe, Buckinghamshire. The family seat Stowe House was built for the 3rd Baronet in the late 17th century and was completed a few years after Richard was born.

Richard Temple, the future Viscount, was educated at Eton College . At a young age he entered the future regiment of Prince George of Denmark (later known as The Buffs ) as an ensign in 1685 . Two years later he became an adjutant in his regiment and in 1689 acquired a captaincy in Babington's Regiment of Foot (later known as the Royal Warwickshire Regiment ), which William of Orange had accompanied to England in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution . Among other things, he served in the War of the Two Kings in Ireland.

In the fall of 1694 he enrolled at Christ's College of Cambridge University , but earned no degree. Instead, he took part in the siege of Namur in 1695 . After his father's death in May 1697, he succeeded him as the 4th baronet and heir and in the same year also took his seat in parliament. In the House of Commons he represented the city of Buckingham and the county of Buckinghamshire as Whig for the next 16 years.

In early 1702 he was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel to set up a regiment for the renewed war against France , which was stationed in Ireland. He was then ordered to the Netherlands to serve under the local Commander-in-Chief John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough (soon to be Duke of Marlborough). He took part in all of Marlborough's campaigns in Flanders and Germany, particularly in the battle of Oudenaarde and the siege of Lille (both 1708). He reached the rank of Brigadier General in 1706, Major General in 1709 and Lieutenant General the following year. In the same year 1710 he became the owner of The Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Dragoons . However, under the successor to Marlborough, who was killed by Queen Anne , James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde , he was struck off the list of officers fighting on the continent. He was also removed from his position as head of the regiment in 1713 because of his vote against the Peace of Utrecht , which Lieutenant-General William Evans took over.

After his return to England, Temple devoted himself to politics and the remodeling of the Stowe House family estate, which he had John Vanbrugh undertake from 1711 . At the same time, the famous gardens of the property, designed by Charles Bridgeman, were created. He was also an active member of the Kit Cat Club .

After the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I in 1714 showed him that his favor by him ambassador in Vienna as appointed (to 1715) and in October 1714 Baron Cobham in the Peerage rose. In 1715 he became regiment chief of the Royal Regiment of Dragoons and the following year Constable of Windsor Castle and a member of the Privy Council . In May 1718 he was raised to Viscount Cobham with the subordinate title of Baron Cobham . During the Quadruple Alliance War , Cobham directed the capture of Vigo in 1719 .

In 1721 Lord Cobham became head of the King's Own Regiment of Horse and in 1723 Lieutenant Governor of Jersey , followed in 1728 by the office of Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire under the new King George II.

In 1733, Cobham an quarreled on the issue on the introduction of excise tax ( excise tax ) on wine and tobacco with Prime Minister Robert Walpole , whom he had hitherto supported. One consequence of the conflict was the termination of his position as head of regiment, another the formation of a breakaway Whig faction, the Cobhamites , named after him, which included the young politicians and later Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder and George Grenville . The Cobhamites' attacks on the government continued against his successor after Walpole's resignation in 1742.

Promotion to full general in 1735 was followed by Cobham's appointment as field marshal in 1742. Associated with this were further honorary military functions, for example with the Horse Grenadier Guards and two other cavalry regiments named after him. Lord Cobham died in 1749 at the age of 73 on his estate in Stowe, where he was also buried.

Family and inheritance

Temple had married Anne Halsey in 1715, the daughter of the brewery owner Edmund Halsey. The couple remained childless, so that with his death the family property and the Viscount title fell to his sister Hester Temple, Countess Temple (married Grenville) and then in 1752 to her son Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple . The barony awarded in 1714, however, expired.

literature

• TA Heathcote: The British Field Marshals 1736-1997: A Biographical Dictionary. Casemate, 2012.
• Edward Irving Carlyle:  Temple, Richard (1669? –1749) . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 56:  Teach - Tollet. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1898, p. 38 (English).

Web links

Commons : Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham on thepeerage.com

predecessor	Office	successor
Richard Temple	Temple Baronet, of Stowe 1697-1749	William Temple
New title created	Baron Cobham 1714-1749	Title expired
New title created	Viscount Cobham Baron Cobham 1718-1749	Hester Grenville