Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey

The Right Honourable
The Earl Grey
KG PC

Portrait painting by an unknown artist, after Sir Thomas Lawrence, c. 1828
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
22 November 1830 – 16 July 1834
Monarch William IV
Preceded by Duke of Wellington
Succeeded by Lord Melbourne
Leader of the House of Lords
In office
22 November 1830 – 9 July 1834
Preceded by Duke of Wellington
Succeeded by Lord Melbourne
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office
24 September 1806 – 25 March 1807
Prime Minister Lord Grenville
Preceded by Charles James Fox
Succeeded by George Canning
Leader of the House of Commons
In office
24 September 1806 – 31 March 1807
Prime Minister Lord Grenville
Preceded by Charles James Fox
Succeeded by Spencer Perceval
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office
11 February 1806 – 24 September 1806
Prime Minister Lord Grenville
Preceded by Lord Barham
Succeeded by Thomas Grenville
Personal details
Born (1764-03-13)13 March 1764
Fallodon, Northumberland, England
Died 17 July 1845(1845-07-17) (aged 81)
Howick, Northumberland, England
Political party Whig
Spouse(s) Mary Ponsonby
Children Stillborn
Louisa
Elizabeth
Caroline
Georgiana
Henry
Charles
Frederick
Mary
William
George
Thomas
John
Francis
Henry
William
Eliza Courtney (illegitimate)
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge
Religion Church of England
Signature Cursive signature in ink

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC (13 March 1764 – 17 July 1845), known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the primary architects of the Reform Act 1832. His government also saw the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. In addition to his political achievements, he has come to be associated with Earl Grey tea.[1]

Early life

Descended from a long-established Northumbrian family seated at Howick Hall, Grey was the second but eldest surviving son of General Charles Grey KB (1729–1807) and his wife, Elizabeth (1743/4–1822), daughter of George Grey of Southwick, co. Durham. He had four brothers and two sisters. He was educated at Richmond School,[2] followed by Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge,[3] acquiring a facility in Latin and in English composition and declamation that enabled him to become one of the foremost parliamentary orators of his generation. Grey was elected to Parliament for the Northumberland constituency on 14 September 1786, aged just 22. He became a part of the Whig circle of Charles James Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the Prince of Wales, and soon became one of the major leaders of the Whig party. He was the youngest manager on the committee for prosecuting Warren Hastings. The Whig historian T. B. Macaulay wrote in 1841:

"At an age when most of those who distinguish themselves in life are still contending for prizes and fellowships at college, he had won for himself a conspicuous place in Parliament. No advantage of fortune or connection was wanting that could set off to the height his splendid talents and his unblemished honour. At twenty-three he had been thought worthy to be ranked with the veteran statesmen who appeared as the delegates of the British Commons, at the bar of the British nobility. All who stood at that bar, save him alone, are gone, culprit, advocates, accusers. To the generation which is now in the vigour of life, he is the sole representative of a great age which has passed away. But those who, within the last ten years, have listened with delight, till the morning sun shone on the tapestries of the House of Lords, to the lofty and animated eloquence of Charles Earl Grey, are able to form some estimate of the powers of a race of men among whom he was not the foremost."[4]
Charles Grey in blue coat, white waistcoat and tied cravat, and powdered hair, by Henry Bone (after Thomas Lawrence), August 1794.

Grey was also noted for advocating Parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. His affair with the Duchess of Devonshire, herself an active political campaigner, did him little harm although it nearly caused her to be divorced by her husband.

In 1806, Grey, by then Lord Howick owing to his father's elevation to the peerage as Earl Grey, became a part of the Ministry of All the Talents (a coalition of Foxite Whigs, Grenvillites, and Addingtonites) as First Lord of the Admiralty. Following Fox's death later that year, Howick took over both as Foreign Secretary and as leader of the Whigs.

A group of naked British Whig politicians, including three Grenvilles, Sheridan, St. Vincent, Moira, Temple, Erskine, Howick, Petty, Whitbread, Sheridan, Windham,and Tomline, Bishop of Lincoln, crossing the river Styx in a boat named the Broad Bottom Packet. Sidmouth's head emerges from the water next to the boat. The boat's torn sail has inscription "Catholic Emancipation" and the center mast is crowned with the Prince of Wales feathers and motto "Ich Dien". On the far side the shades of Cromwell, Charles Fox and Robespierre wave to them. Overhead, on brooms, are the Three Fates; to the left a three-headed dog. Above the boat three birds soil the boat and politicians.
In Charon's Boat (1807), James Gillray caricatured the fall from power of the Whig administration, with Howick taking the role of Charon rowing the boat.

The government fell from power the next year, and, after a brief period as a member of parliament for Appleby from May to July 1807, Howick went to the Lords, succeeding his father as Earl Grey. He continued in opposition for the next 23 years.

Lord Grey, c. 1820

Great Reform Act

In 1830, when the Duke of Wellington resigned on the question of Parliamentary reform, the Whigs finally returned to power, with Grey as Prime Minister. In 1831, he was made a member of the Order of the Garter. His term was a notable one, seeing passage of the Reform Act 1832, which finally saw the reform of the House of Commons, and the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833. As the years had passed, however, Grey had become more conservative, and he was cautious about initiating more far-reaching reforms, particularly since he knew that the King was at best only a reluctant supporter of reform. Unlike most politicians, he seems to have genuinely preferred a private life; colleagues remarked caustically that he threatened to resign at every setback. In 1834 Grey retired from public life, leaving Lord Melbourne as his successor.

Grey returned to Howick but kept a close eye on the policies of the new cabinet under Melbourne, whom he, and especially his family, regarded as a mere understudy until he began to act in ways of which they disapproved. Grey became more critical as the decade went on, being particularly inclined to see the hand of Daniel O'Connell behind the scenes and blaming Melbourne for subservience to the Radicals with whom he identified the Irish patriot. He made no allowances for Melbourne's need to keep the radicals on his side to preserve his shrinking majority in the Commons, and in particular he resented any slight on his own great achievement, the Reform Act, which he saw as a final solution of the question for the foreseeable future. He continually stressed its conservative nature. As he declared in his last great public speech, at the Grey Festival organised in his honour at Edinburgh in September 1834, its purpose was to strengthen and preserve the established constitution, to make it more acceptable to the people at large, and especially the middle classes, who had been the principal beneficiaries of the Reform Act, and to establish the principle that future changes would be gradual, "according to the increased intelligence of the people, and the necessities of the times".[5] It was the speech of a conservative statesman.[6]

Retirement

Grey spent his last years in contented, if sometimes fretful, retirement at Howick, with his books, his family, and his dogs. He became physically feeble in his last years and died quietly in his bed on 17 July 1845, forty-four years to the day since going to live at Howick.[7] He was buried in the church there on the 26th in the presence of his family, close friends, and the labourers on his estate.[6]

Commemoration

Earl Grey tea, a blend which uses bergamot oil to flavour the beverage, is named after Grey. He is commemorated by Grey's Monument in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, which consists of a statue of Lord Grey standing atop a 41 m (135 ft) high column. The monument was once struck by lightning and Earl Grey's head was seen lying in the gutter in Grey Street. The monument lends its name to Monument Metro station on the Tyne and Wear Metro, (at that point effectively Newcastle's 'underground' system), located directly underneath. Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne and Grey College, Durham are also named after Grey.

Personal life

Coat of Arms of The Rt Hon Sir Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG PC

Grey married on 18 November 1794 Mary Elizabeth Ponsonby (1776 – 1861), only daughter of William Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Imokilly and Hon. Louisa Molesworth. The marriage was a fruitful one; between 1796 and 1819 the couple had ten sons and six daughters:

Relationship with Georgiana Cavendish

Because Mary was frequently pregnant during their marriage, Grey would travel alone and would have affairs with other women. Before he married Mary, his engagement to her nearly suffered because of his affair with Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. A young Grey met Georgiana sometime in the late 1780s to early 1790s while attending a Whig society meeting in Devonshire House. Grey and Georgiana became lovers and in 1791, she became pregnant. Grey wanted Georgiana to leave her husband the duke to go and live with him instead, but the duke told Georgiana if she did, she would never see her children again. Instead, Georgiana was sent to France where she gave birth to a daughter on 20 February 1792 in Aix-en-Provence whom she named Eliza Courtney. She and the child came back to England in September 1793 and Georgiana entrusted the child to Grey's parents, who raised her as though she were his sister.

Both Georgiana and Charles spent time with their daughter, who was informed of her true parentage some time following Georgiana's death in 1806. She married General Robert Ellice. Her maternal aunt, Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough visited the Greys in 1808 (without knowing she was Eliza's aunt) and later wrote of her strange observations in which she stated "he (Charles) seems very fond of her". Eliza later named her youngest child Charles. She also named her eldest daughter Georgiana.

Lord Grey's Ministry, November 1830 – July 1834

Lord Grey atop Grey's Monument, looking down Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne
Inscription on Grey's Monument

Changes

Styles of address

In popular culture

Charles Grey is portrayed by Dominic Cooper in the 2008 film The Duchess, directed by Saul Dibb and starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. The film is based on Amanda Foreman's biography of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.

He is also a secondary character in Emma Donoghue's 2004 book Life Mask.

He is also a character in Black Butler: Book of Murder.

Notes

    1. ↑ Kramer, Ione. All the Tea in China. China Books, 1990. ISBN 0-8351-2194-1. Pages 180–181.
    2. ↑ http://fretwell.kangaweb.com.au/pdfs/Edward%20Kay.pdf
    3. ↑ "Grey, Charles (GRY781C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
    4. ↑ Thomas Babington Macaulay, ‘Warren Hastings’, Edinburgh Review LXXIV (October 1841), pp. 160–255.
    5. ↑ Edinburgh Weekly Journal, 17 September 1834.
    6. 1 2 E. A. Smith, 'Grey, Charles, second Earl Grey (1764–1845)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2009, accessed 13 February 2010.
    7. ↑ GRO Register of Deaths: SEP 1845 XXV 130 ALNWICK
    8. ↑ Burke's Peerage, (1999), pp.1225-6

    Bibliography

    External links

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