Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness

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Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness. Painting by Joshua Reynolds , 1775

Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness (also Robert D'Arcy ; born May 17, 1718 , † May 16, 1778 in Isleworth in Middlesex ) was a British peer , diplomat and politician.

Origin and youth

Robert Darcy came from the old English Darcy family . He was the second, but only surviving son of Robert Darcy, 3rd Earl of Holderness , and of Lady Frederica Schomberg, the oldest surviving daughter and co-heir of Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg . He was still a minor when he inherited his father's lands and titles of nobility as 4th Earl of Holderness , 9th Baron Darcy de Knayth , 6th Baron Conyers and 5th Baron Darcy of Meinill when his father died on January 20, 1722 . His grandfather, the Duke of Schomberg, died in 1719, so that his mother inherited part of his property. Robert attended Westminster School and then Trinity College at the University of Cambridge , which he presumably left without a degree.

Courtier and diplomat

In 1740 he became Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire , which he held until 1777. In April 1741, as Lord of the Bedchamber, he became a member of the court of King George II , a position he held until 1751. He accompanied the king when he took part in the Battle of Dettingen with the British Army in Germany during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1743 . On October 29, 1743, in The Hague , he married Maria Doublet, the heir to François Doublet , a member of the Provincial States of Holland, and Anna Constancia van der Bek. Holderness was a great friend and patron of operas. Horace Walpole despised him, mocked his passion for opera and masquerade, and considered him utterly dull and of very moderate mind. Still, Holderness made a career thanks to his rank and royal favor. In the summer of 1744 he became ambassador to Venice , where he arrived in mid-October 1744. Its main task was to restore diplomatic relations that Great Britain had broken off in 1737 after Charles Edward Stuart , the Young Pretender , had been received with great effort and honor by the Republic. Holderness returned to Great Britain in August 1746.

In 1748, thanks to the favor of King George II and the Duke of Newcastle, he was made Minister Plenipotentiary in the Netherlands . He arrived in The Hague at the beginning of June 1749 and stayed there until July 1751. After the death of the inheritance holder Wilhelm IV on October 22, 1751, he returned to The Hague for an official condolence visit .

Robert Darcy. Painting by George Kapton, around 1751/53

Secretary of State of the Southern and Northern Department

Even before the end of his tenure in the Netherlands, he had been appointed Secretary of State for the Southern Department on June 18, 1751 . The nomination of the young and politically insignificant nobleman as one of the most important members of the government came suddenly and surprisingly. The reason for this was that the previous incumbent, the Duke of Bedford , had jurisdiction disputes with Newcastle, the Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Bedford had criticized Newcastle's alliance policy and demanded changes in British foreign policy, which he is said to have carried out his office negligently. Newcastle, itself considered insecure and closed, was now looking for a manageable counterpart to keep Britain's foreign policy completely under its control. Holderness’s previous performances in Venice and the Netherlands made him the ideal cast for Newcastle for this role. He was considered to be relatively conscientious, but during his tenure as plenipotentiary in the Netherlands had never criticized Newcastle's policy towards the Netherlands, which Newcastle himself had shaped through regular contact and occasional meetings with Wilhelm Bentinck , the leading statesman of the Netherlands.

With the office of State Secretary Holderness 1751 also became a member of the Privy Council . Except for the period June 9-29, 1757, when an uproar broke out in his ministry, Holderness held office for a decade. He was Secretary of State for the Southern Department until March 23, 1754, when he assumed this role for the Northern Department. Despite this long tenure, he remained insignificant for British foreign policy, even his own colleagues described him as incompetent. He only implemented the orders of the government, especially Newcastle, without having much influence on their design. The only exception was in 1755 when he accompanied King George II to Hanover . Holderness played a minor role there during the negotiations that led to the conclusion of the St. Petersburg Agreement between Great Britain and Russia on September 30, 1755. This agreement provided for the payment of British subsidies to Russia, in return Russian troops were supposed to protect the Electorate of Hanover from a Prussian or French attack. This was the only time Holderness had gained any real significance, but the agreement was never ratified. Holderness' main task remained meetings with foreign diplomats and writing dispatches to the embassies in his area of ​​responsibility. Politically, he had no goals and remained unaffected even after the reversal of the alliances , which was concluded with the alliance with Prussia in 1756.

Newcastle, of whom he continued to be a willing supporter, was weary of Holderness by the mid-1750s. King George II did not forgive Holderness the brief resignation from office in June 1757, so that he had now lost all political support. He was now totally dependent on Newcastle, with whom his relationship worsened over the next two years. Holderness now tried cautiously to approach the aspiring William Pitt , who had become Secretary of State for the Southern Department in 1756. Against this he remained obedient and once even let him write a dispatch to Andrew Mitchell , the British ambassador to Prussia. It was not until 1759 that Holderness was publicly upset that Newcastle bypassed him by being in direct contact with the British diplomats in his jurisdiction. In the autumn of 1759 the two finally broke up when Holderness complained about direct contact between Newcastle and Joseph Yorke, son of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke and envoy in The Hague. However, it was completely rebuffed and completely lost its political significance. Nevertheless, he remained in office, as Newcastle found him so insignificant that his replacement was unnecessary. In November 1760 Holderness declared that he wanted to resign from office because of the constant insults and injuries. The new King George III. finally released him on March 12, 1761, replacing him as Secretary of State for the Northern Department by his favorite, the Earl of Bute .

Next life

Holderness parting was facilitated by the prospect of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports , which he received in October 1765 along with a lifetime pension of £ 4,000. His tenure as Lord Warden was overshadowed by the scandal when his wife was accused of abusing his office for widespread smuggling. In addition, Holderness was an important patron of the poet and clergyman William Mason , although he later fell out with him. He also managed to regain the favor of the king. In 1771 he was appointed overseer of the education of the king's two eldest sons, George, Prince of Wales , and Frederick, Duke of York and Albany . He tried to exercise this office diligently, but at that time his health deteriorated. From 1774 he was abroad for 15 months in order to recover and nevertheless returned sick. Due to his long absence, he no longer had any influence on his young protégés, so that in 1776 he resigned from his position as educator.

After his death he was buried on June 1, 1778 in Hornby , North Riding of Yorkshire . His wife Maria survived him by 23 years and died on October 13, 1801 in Mayfair .

progeny

From his marriage to Maria Doublet he had two sons and a daughter:

Since he had no surviving male offspring, the titles Earl of Holderness and Baron Darcy of Meinill lapsed with his death. His possessions and the titles of Baron Darcy de Knayth and Baron Conyers, which as Baron by Writ could also be inherited in the female line, were inherited by his only daughter Amelia.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cracroft's Peerage: Holderness, Earl of (E, 1682-1778). Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
predecessor Office successor
Robert Darcy Earl of Holderness
Baron Darcy of Meinill
1722–1778 		Title expired
Robert Darcy Baron Darcy de Knayth
Baron Conyers
1722–1778 		Amelia Darcy
personal data
SURNAME Darcy, Robert, 4th Earl of Holderness
ALTERNATIVE NAMES D'Arcy, Robert; Holderness, Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nobleman, diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1718
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1778
Place of death Isleworth