Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville

For the 20th and 21st century Lord Justice, see Brian Leveson.

The Right Honourable
The Earl Granville
KG PC FRS
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office
26 December 1851  27 February 1852
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister Lord John Russell
Preceded by The Viscount Palmerston
Succeeded by The Earl of Malmesbury
In office
6 July 1870  21 February 1874
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by The Earl of Clarendon
Succeeded by The Earl of Derby
In office
28 April 1880  24 June 1885
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by The Marquess of Salisbury
Succeeded by The Marquess of Salisbury
Lord President of the Council
In office
28 December 1852  12 June 1854
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister The Earl of Aberdeen
Preceded by The Earl of Lonsdale
Succeeded by Lord John Russell
In office
8 February 1855  26 February 1858
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister The Viscount Palmerston
Preceded by Lord John Russell
Succeeded by The Marquess of Salisbury
In office
18 June 1859  6 July 1866
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister The Viscount Palmerston
The Earl Russell
Preceded by The Marquess of Salisbury
Succeeded by The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Personal details
Born 11 May 1815 (2016-04-29UTC03:06:11)
London
Died 31 March 1891(1891-03-31) (aged 75)
London
Nationality British
Political party Liberal
Spouse(s) (1) Mary Louise von Dalberg
(1813–1860)
(2) Castila Rosalind Campbell (d. 1938)
Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford
Caricature by Ape published in Vanity Fair in 1869.

Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville KG PC FRS (11 May 1815 – 31 March 1891), styled Lord Leveson until 1846, was a British Liberal statesman[1] from the Leveson-Gower family.

In a political career spanning over 50 years, he was thrice Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, led the Liberal Party in the House of Lords for almost 30 years and was joint Leader of the Liberal Party between 1875 and 1880. He is best known for his pacific stewardship of Britain's external relations, 1870–74 and 1880–85, in co-operation with his best friend, Prime Minister Gladstone. His foreign policy was based on patience, peace, and no alliances; it kept Britain free from European wars and improved relations with the United States after the strain during the American Civil War.

Background and education

Leveson-Gower was born in London, the eldest son of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville, by Lady Harriet Cavendish, daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire. His father was a younger son of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, by his third wife; an elder son by the second wife (a daughter of the 1st Duke of Bridgwater) became the 2nd Marquess of Stafford, and his marriage with the daughter and heiress of the 18th Earl of Sutherland (Countess of Sutherland in her own right) led to the merging of the Gower and Stafford titles in that of the Dukes of Sutherland (created 1833), who represent the elder branch of the family. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.

Political career

Leveson-Gower went to Paris for a short time under his father, and in 1836 was returned to parliament in the Whig interest for Morpeth. For a short time he was Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Lord Melbourne's ministry. From 1841 till his father's death in 1846, when he succeeded to the title, he sat for Lichfield.

In the House of Lords he distinguished himself as a Free Trader, and Lord John Russell made him Master of the Buckhounds (1846). He became Vice-President of the Board of Trade in 1848, and took a prominent part in promoting the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the latter year, having already been admitted to the cabinet, he for about two months at the first of the year succeeded Palmerston as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs until Russell's defeat in 1852; and – when Lord Aberdeen formed his government at the end of the year, he became first Lord President of the Council, and then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1854). Under Lord Palmerston (1855) he was again president of the council. His interest in education (a subject associated with this office) led to his election (1856) as chancellor of the University of London, a post he held for thirty-five years; and he was a prominent champion of the movement for the admission of women, and also of the teaching of modern languages.

From 1855 Lord Granville led the Liberals in the Upper House, both in office, and, after Palmerston's resignation in 1858, in opposition. He went in 1856 as head of the British mission to the tsar's coronation in Moscow. In June 1859 the Queen, embarrassed by the rival ambitions of Palmerston and Russell, sent for him to form a ministry, but he was unable to do so, and Palmerston again became prime minister, with Russell as foreign secretary – and Granville once again as president of the council.

He received an honorary degree from Cambridge University in 1864.[2] He retained his office when, on Palmerston's death in 1865, Lord Russell (now a peer) became prime minister and took over the leadership in the House of Lords. Granville, now an established Liberal leader, was made Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

Industrial career

Lord Granville owned coal and ironstone mines[3] at Stoke-on-Trent and was the principal shareholder of the Shelton Iron & Steel Co[4] In 1873 the company operated 8 blast furnaces and 97 puddling furnaces. He also held shares in the Lilleshall Company.[5][6]

Foreign policy

During the American Civil War, Granville was non-interventionist along with the majority of Palmerston's cabinet. His memorandum against intervention in September 1862 drew Prime Minister Palmerston's attention. The document proved to be a strong reason why Palmerston refused to intervene, and why Britain's relations with the North remained basically stable throughout the rest of the conflict despite tensions.

From 1866 to 1868 he was in opposition, but in December 1868 he became Colonial Secretary in Gladstone's first ministry. His tact was invaluable to the government in carrying the Irish Church and Land Bills through the House of Lords. On 27 June 1870, on Lord Clarendon's death, he became foreign secretary. With war clouds gathering in Europe, Granville worked to authorise preliminary talks to settle American disputes and in appointing the British High Commission to sail to the United States and negotiate the most comprehensive treaty of the nineteenth century in Anglo-American relations with an American commission in Washington.

Lord Granville's name is mainly associated with his career as foreign secretary (1870–1874 and 1880–1885). His Gladstonian foreign policy based on patience, peace, and no alliances kept Britain free from European wars. It brought better relations with the United States, and it was innovative in supporting Gladstone's wish to settlement British-American fisheries and Civil War disputes over the Confederate cruisers built in Britain, like the Alabama, through international arbitration in 1872. For example, the long-standing San Juan Island Water Boundary Dispute in Puget Sound, which had been left ambiguous in the Oregon Treaty of 1846 to salve relations and get a treaty sorting out the primary differences, was arbitrated by the German Emperor also in 1872. In putting British-American relations up to the world as a model for how to resolve disputes peacefully, Granville helped create a breakthrough in international relations.[7]

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 broke out within a few days of Lord Granville's quoting in the House of Lords (11 July 1870) the opinion of the permanent under-secretary (Edmund Hammond) that "he had never known so great a lull in foreign affairs." Russia took advantage of the situation to denounce the Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris, and Lord Granville's protest was ineffectual. In 1871 an intermediate zone between Asiatic Russia and Afghanistan was agreed on between him and Shuvalov; but in 1873 Russia took possession of the Khanate of Khiva, within the neutral zone, and Lord Granville had to accept the aggression (See also: The Great Game).

When the Conservatives came into power in 1874, his part for the next six years was to criticise Disraeli's "spirited" foreign policy, and to defend his own more pliant methods. He returned to the foreign office in 1880, only to find an anti-British spirit developing in German policy which the temporising methods of the Liberal leaders were generally powerless to deal with.

Castila Rosalind, Countess Granville (1847–1938)

Lord Granville failed to realise in time the importance of the Angra Pequeña question in 1883–1884, and he was forced, somewhat ignominiously, to yield to Bismarck over it. Whether in Egypt, Afghanistan or equatorial and south-west Africa, British foreign policy was dominated by suavity rather than by the strength which commands respect. Finally, when Gladstone took up Home Rule for Ireland, Lord Granville, whose mind was similarly receptive to new ideas, adhered to his chief (1886), and gracefully gave way to Lord Rosebery when the latter was preferred to the foreign office; the Liberals had now realised that they had lost ground in the country by Lord Granville's occupancy of the post.[8] He went into Colonial Office service for six months, and in July 1886 retired from public life.

Family

Lord Granville married Lady Acton (Marie Louise Pelline de Dalberg), daughter of Emmerich Joseph de Dalberg, widow of Sir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, Bt, and mother of the historian Lord Acton, in 1840. She died in 1860.

He was engaged in 1864 to an envoy and former spy from the Confederate States of America, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, but shortly after their engagement, in returning to the CSA, she died by drowning off Wilmington, North Carolina when her rowboat overturned as she was escaping a US blockade ship. He married, as his second wife, Castila Rosalind Campbell in 1865. Their children were:

Death

Lord Granville died in London on 31 March 1891, succeeded in the title by his son, the 3rd Earl.

Legacy

Earl Granville (1815–1891), Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports by Henry Jamyn Brooks (1891)

References

  1.  "Leveson-Gower, Granville George (1815-1891)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. "Granville, Granville George (Leveson-Gower), Earl (GRNL864GG)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. http://www.thepotteries.org/geography/granville.htm
  4. Griffiths'Guide to the Iron Trade of Great Britain Samuel Griffiths 1873 Reprinted David & Charles 1967
  5. http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Lilleshall_Iron_and_Steel_Co
  6. http://shropshiremines.org.uk/misc/shropmine/lilleshall.htm
  7. Shannon, Gladstone (vol 2, 1999), pp 75, 113–14
  8. Shannon, Gladstone (vol 2, 1999) ch 9
  9. Granville: From Forest to Factory, John Watson (ed.), 1992, Granville Historical Society.
  10. Yanne, Andrew; Heller, Gillis (2009). Signs of a Colonial Era. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 31–32. ISBN 9789622099449.
Bibliography
Attribution

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Edward Howard
Member of Parliament for Morpeth
1837–1840
Succeeded by
Edward Howard
Preceded by
Sir George Anson
Lord Alfred Paget
Member of Parliament for Lichfield
1841–1846
With: Lord Alfred Paget
Succeeded by
Hon. Edward Lloyd-Mostyn
Lord Alfred Paget
Political offices
Preceded by
Hon. William Fox-Strangways
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
1840–1841
Succeeded by
The Viscount Canning
Preceded by
The Earl of Rosslyn
Master of the Buckhounds
1846
Succeeded by
The Earl of Bessborough
Preceded by
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Paymaster-General
1848–1852
Succeeded by
The Lord Stanley of Alderley
Preceded by
Sir George Clerk, Bt
Vice-President of the Board of Trade
1848–1852
Preceded by
The Viscount Palmerston
Foreign Secretary
1851–1852
Succeeded by
The Earl of Malmesbury
Preceded by
The Earl of Lonsdale
Lord President of the Council
1852–1854
Succeeded by
Lord John Russell
Preceded by
Edward Strutt
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1854–1855
Succeeded by
The Earl of Harrowby
Preceded by
Lord John Russell
Lord President of the Council
1855–1858
Succeeded by
The 2nd Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by
The Earl of Aberdeen
Leader of the House of Lords
1855–1858
Succeeded by
The Earl of Derby
Preceded by
The Earl of Derby
Leader of the House of Lords
1859–1865
Succeeded by
The Earl Russell
Preceded by
The 2nd Marquess of Salisbury
Lord President of the Council
1859–1866
Succeeded by
The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Preceded by
The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Secretary of State for the Colonies
1868–1870
Succeeded by
The Earl of Kimberley
Preceded by
The Earl of Clarendon
Foreign Secretary
1870–1874
Succeeded by
The Earl of Derby
Preceded by
The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Foreign Secretary
1880–1885
Succeeded by
The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by
Sir Frederick Stanley
Secretary of State for the Colonies
1886
Succeeded by
Hon. Edward Stanhope
Academic offices
Preceded by
The Earl of Burlington
Chancellor of the University of London
1856–1891
Succeeded by
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Party political offices
Preceded by
The Marquess of Lansdowne
Leader of the Whigs in the House of Lords
1855–1859
Party merged with Peelites, Radicals
and Independent Irish Party to form
British Liberal party
New political party Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords
1859–1865
Succeeded by
The Earl Russell
Preceded by
The Earl Russell
Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords
1868–1891
Succeeded by
The Earl of Kimberley
Preceded by
William Ewart Gladstone
Leader of the British Liberal Party
1875–1880
with Marquess of Hartington
Succeeded by
William Ewart Gladstone
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Viscount Palmerston
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
1865–1891
Succeeded by
William Henry Smith
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Granville Leveson-Gower
Earl Granville
2nd creation
1846–1891
Succeeded by
Granville Leveson-Gower
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