Yorkist Leader

With his father, the earl of Salisbury, Warwick supported Richard of York in his bid for the protectorship of Henry VI (1454) and took up arms when York lost his office. Warwick was largely responsible for the Yorkist victory at the first battle of St. Albans (1455) and was appointed to the strategic post of governor of Calais. In 1459 when fighting broke out again, York, Salisbury, and Warwick were forced to flee the country, but in 1460 they returned and captured the king at the battle of Northampton. The queen, Margaret of Anjou, raised an army in the north, defeated and killed York and Salisbury at Wakefield (1460), and defeated Warwick and recaptured Henry at the second battle of St. Albans (1461). But York's son, Edward, won the battle of Mortimer's Cross (1461), entered London, and was proclaimed king as Edward IV.

Rising against Edward IV

Henry and Margaret were decisively defeated at Towton (1461), and Edward was crowned. Warwick was now the most powerful man in England, and the Nevilles received extensive royal favors; but Edward resented the earl's domination. In the midst of negotiations by Warwick to marry Edward to Bona of Savoy, the sister-in-law of Louis XI of France, the king announced (1464) that he had secretly married Elizabeth Woodville. Edward now favored a Burgundian alliance against France, the Woodvilles received favor, and Warwick was gradually pushed into the background.

He formed an alliance with the king's brother George, duke of Clarence, to whom he married his daughter, against Edward's orders. Together they rose against Edward in 1469, defeated the king's forces, and placed Edward in captivity. By the end of the year, however, Edward had regained control, and in 1470, after another abortive rising, Warwick and Clarence fled to France. There Louis XI persuaded them to make up their differences with Margaret of Anjou, and in Sept., 1470, Warwick invaded England as a Lancastrian, defeated Edward (who fled abroad), and restored Henry VI. Within six months Edward secured Burgundian aid, landed in England, and was joined by Clarence. Edward and Warwick met in battle at Barnet; the earl was defeated and was slain in flight.

Although an able diplomat and a man of great energy, Warwick owed much of his greatness to his birth and marriage. By the marriage of his daughter to Clarence and the marriage after his death of another daughter to the duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, all of Warwick's property went to the royal house.

Early Life and Career

He was the younger son of a prominent Whig family of Norfolk. After the death of his father and elder brothers he was returned (1701) to Parliament from the family borough of Castle Rising, and in 1702 he took the seat for King's Lynn, from which he was regularly returned thereafter. Walpole soon made his mark as a hardworking administrator. In 1708 he was appointed secretary of war and later (1710-11) was treasurer of the navy. As a Whig, he led the opposition in Parliament to the Tory administration of 1710-14 and as a consequence was falsely convicted (1712) of corruption and spent some months in the Tower of London.

The accession of George I (1714) returned the Whigs to power, and Walpole served variously as paymaster of the forces, first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer (1715) under his brother-in-law, Viscount Townshend, and James Stanhope (later 1st Earl Stanhope). The dismissal of Townshend led to Walpole's resignation (1717), and together they formed an opposition nominally headed by the prince of Wales (later George II). The two returned to office in 1720.

The Height of Power

Soon after Walpole's return to office in 1720, he was called upon to salvage the financial wreckage resulting from the South Sea Bubble, in which he himself lost a substantial amount of money. This marked the turning point of his career. His successful handling of this matter led to his appointment (1721) as first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. He shared power with John Carteret (later 1st Earl Granville) until 1724 and with Townshend, whom he left in charge of foreign affairs, until 1730, but thereafter his ascendancy was complete until 1742.

He enjoyed the confidence of both George I and George II, influencing the latter through his friendship with the queen, Caroline of Ansbach, and handled Parliament with unprecedented skill. His control of Parliament was due partly to the dispensation of royal patronage, partly to the electoral management of Thomas Pelham-Holles, duke of Newcastle, but also to Walpole's own debating skills and the popularity of many of his policies.

In financial policy, his strongest point, he created the sinking fund to reduce the national debt. He mollified the largely Tory gentry by reduction of the land tax and promoted trade by awarding bonuses for exports and encouraging the production of raw materials by the colonies. Walpole's plan to reduce smuggling and make London a free port by replacing tariffs on wine and tobacco with an excise tax was defeated in 1733, largely because of widespread popular prejudice against excise. After this debacle Walpole dismissed all the officeholders who had voted against him, an action that created a much stronger opposition group than he had previously faced.

It was on foreign policy that the opposition against him finally coalesced. Walpole had pursued a policy of friendship with France and avoidance of war, and he had managed (against fierce opposition) to keep Great Britain neutral during the War of the Polish Succession (1733-35). In 1739, however, the war party forced him into the War of Jenkins's Ear (1739-41; see Jenkins's Ear, War of), which in turn involved Britain in a general European war (see Austrian Succession, War of the). Military reverses increased the opposition, and Walpole was forced to resign in 1742. Walpole was created earl of Orford and remained politically powerful until his death.

Legacy

Walpole is usually described as the first prime minister of Great Britain, but he was not a prime minister in the modern sense. Although management of Parliament, and particularly the House of Commons, was an essential part of his power, so too was royal favor, on which he ultimately depended. The purge of his ministry in 1733, sometimes hailed as a major step in the development of cabinet solidarity, could not have been accomplished without royal support. Moreover, the contention that there was any idea of cabinet solidarity is refuted by the fact that when Walpole left office his most important colleagues remained in the ministry. Walpole's primacy was achieved and maintained through his own political talents and the circumstances of the time; he made little impact on constitutional development.

Life

Russell had a distinguished background: His grandfather Lord John Russell introduced the Reform Bill of 1832 and was twice prime minister; his parents were both prominent freethinkers; and his informal godfather was John Stuart Mill. Orphaned as a small child, Russell was reared by his paternal grandmother under stern puritanic rule. That experience powerfully affected his thinking on matters of morality and education. Russell studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (1890-94), where later he was a fellow (1895-1901) and a lecturer (1910-16). It was during this time that he published his most important works in philosophy and mathematics, The Principles of Mathematics (1903) and, with A. N. Whitehead, Principia Mathematica (3 vol., 1910-13), and also had as his student Ludwig Wittgenstein.

World War I had a crucial effect on Russell: until that time he had thought of himself as a philosopher and mathematician. Although he had already embraced pacifism, it was in reaction to the war that he became passionately concerned with social issues. His active pacifism at the time of the war inspired public resentment, caused him to be dismissed from Cambridge, attacked by former associates, and fined by the government (which confiscated and sold his library when he refused to pay), and led finally to a six-month imprisonment in 1918. From 1916 until the late 1930s, Russell held no academic position and supported himself mainly by writing and by public lecturing. In 1927 he and his wife, Dora, founded the experimental Beacon Hill School, which influenced the development of other schools in Britain and America.

He succeeded to the earldom in 1931 and in 1938 began teaching in the United States, first at the Univ. of Chicago and then at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles. In 1941 he went to teach at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pa., after his appointment to the College of the City of New York was canceled as a result of a celebrated legal battle occasioned by protest against his liberal views, particularly those on sex. These views, much distorted by his critics, had appeared in Marriage and Morals (1929), where he took liberal positions on divorce, adultery, and homosexuality. In 1944 he was restored to a fellowship at Cambridge. In 1950 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Prior to World War II, in the face of the Nazi threat, Russell abandoned his pacifist stance; but after the war he again became a leading spokesman for pacifism and especially for the unilateral renunciation (by Great Britain) of atomic weapons. In 1961 his activity in mass demonstrations to ban nuclear weapons led once more to his imprisonment. He organized, but was unable to attend, what was called the war crimes tribunal, held in Stockholm in 1967, presided over by Jean-Paul Sartre, and directed against U.S. activities in Vietnam. Almost until his death he was active in social reform.

Philosopher and Mathematician

Throughout his life his dissent had scorned easy popularity with either the right or the left. Untamable, he had profound trust in the ultimate power of rationality, which he voiced with an undogmatic but quenchless zeal. Philosophically and ethically Russell's thought grew in reaction against the extremes he encountered. He answered the idealism of F. H. Bradley and J. M. E. McTaggart with a logical atomism founded on a rigorous empirical base: he was deeply convinced of the logical independence of individual facts and the dependence of knowledge on the data of original experience. His emphasis on logical analysis influenced the course of British philosophy in the 20th cent.

One of his most important notions was that of the logical construct, the realization that an object normally thought of as a unity was actually constructed from various, discrete, simpler empirical observations. The technique of logical constructionism was first employed in his mathematical theory. Under the influence of the symbolic logic of Giuseppe Peano, Russell tried to show that mathematics could be explained by the rules of formal logic. His demonstration involved showing that mathematical entities could be "constructed" from the less problematic entities of logic. Later he applied the technique to concepts such as physical objects and the mind.

Although he came to have misgivings about logical atomism and never assented to all the propositions of empiricism, he never ceased trying to base his thought—mathematical, philosophical, or ethical—not on vague principle but on actual experience. This can be seen in his pacifism as well as in his philosophy: he objected to specific wars in specific circumstances. So, in the circumstances preceding World War II he could abandon pacifism and, following the war, resume it.

Similarly, in ethics he described himself as a relativist. Good and evil he saw to be resolvable in (or constructed from) individual desires. He did distinguish, however, between what he called "personal" and "impersonal" desires, those founded mainly on self-interest and those formed regardless of self-interest. He admitted difficulties with this ethical stance, as well as with his logical atomism. As much as anything, his thought was characterized by a pervasive skepticism, toward his own thought as well as that of others.

Social Reformer

As with his philosophical stance, Russell's positions on social issues developed as a reaction against extremes in his own experience. He believed that cruelty and an admiration for violence grew from inward or outward defects that were largely an outcome of what happened to people when they were very young. Pacifism could not be effected politically; a peaceful and happy world could not be achieved without deep changes in education. "I believe that nine out of ten who have had a conventional upbringing in their early years have become in some degree incapable of a decent and sane attitude toward marriage and sex generally."

His objections to religion were similarly based. What he tried to draw attention to was the destructiveness of accepting propositions on faith—in the absence of, or even in opposition to, evidence. "The important thing is not what you believe, but how you believe it." The person who bases his belief on reason will support it by argument and be ready to abandon the position if the argument fails. Belief based on faith concludes that argument is useless and resorts to "force either in the form of persecution or by stunting and distorting the minds of the young whenever [it] has the power to control their education."

If Russell's logic was not always unassailable, his life showed that ethical relativism could be combined with a passionate social conscience, and that passionate commitment could be stated without dogmatism. In his autobiography (3 vol., 1967-69) Russell summarized his personal philosophy by saying, "Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind."

In the next six years Asquith's government put through an advanced program of social welfare legislation, including old-age pensions (1908) and unemployment insurance (1911). It also embarked on a program of naval expansion to match Germany's. To finance both programs, Asquith's chancellor of the exchequer, David Lloyd George, introduced (1909) a radical budget that was rejected by the House of Lords. This caused a constitutional crisis. After two general elections (Jan. and Dec., 1910), Asquith secured passage of the Parliament Act of 1911, which stripped the House of Lords of its veto power (see Parliament). In 1912, Asquith renewed Liberal efforts to establish Irish Home Rule, a course that provoked a violent reaction from Protestants in Ulster, who were firmly supported by the Conservative party. Ireland appeared to be on the verge of civil war but the outbreak (1914) of World War I forestalled it.

Having brought Great Britain into the war, Asquith proved a less than successful wartime leader. In 1915 he formed a coalition government with the Conservatives, but conflicts within the cabinet, continued reverses in the field, and a virulent campaign waged against him by the newspapers of Lord Northcliffe made his position increasingly difficult. At the end of 1916 a complicated intrigue on the part of Lloyd George and the Conservative leaders resulted in Asquith's resignation. He remained leader of the declining Liberal party until 1926, having been raised to the peerage in 1925.

Asquith's second wife, Margot (Tennant) Asquith, countess of Oxford and Asquith, 1864-1945, whom he married in 1894, was prominent in London society and noted for her wit. Her frank autobiography (1920-22) created a minor sensation. She wrote a novel and several volumes of personal reminiscence, including Places and Persons (1925), More Memories (1933), and Off the Record (1944).

Early Life

He was born in France, the son of Simon de Montfort, leader of the Albigensian Crusade. After his father's death, he received the claim to the earldom of Leicester, inherited from his grandmother. He went to England in 1229, and two years later his earldom was recognized by Henry III. He became one of the king's advisers and in 1238 married Eleanor, Henry's sister. In 1240, Simon distinguished himself on crusade in Palestine under Richard, earl of Cornwall.

The Gascon Campaigns

Returning to France in 1242, he joined Henry III in the Gascon campaigns of 1242-43. Simon was preparing to go on a new crusade when in 1248 Henry sent him to Gascony with unlimited powers to bring order out of the anarchy of petty feudal wars and rebellions against English authority. Simon was skillful and ruthless in using military force to crush the turbulent Gascon barons and achieved a somewhat unstable order. But loud Gascon protests provoked Henry in 1252 to call Simon to an inquiry in England. After a bitter quarrel with the king was temporarily ended, Simon returned to Gascony, only to be interrupted a second time by a royal order to desist in the middle of his campaign so that young Prince Edward (later Edward I) might take Gascony in charge.

Leader of the Baronial Opposition

By 1258 Simon was an active member of the baronial opposition that forced the king to turn over the power of government to a committee of 15 (of whom Simon was one), which ruled under the Provisions of Oxford, supplemented by the Provisions of Westminster of 1259. Divisions soon appeared in the baronial party, and in 1261, when a majority of the barons consented to an unfavorable compromise with the king, Simon left England. There was, however, renewed discontent in England following Henry's annulment (1262) of the provisions, and in 1263 Simon returned to assume leadership in the Barons' War.

Simon won a great victory at Lewes in 1264 and became master of England, which he intended to place under a form of government similar to that prescribed in the Provisions of Oxford. However, he could achieve no legal settlement with the king and so ruled as virtual military dictator. His famous Parliament of 1265, to which he summoned not only knights from each shire but also, for the first time, representatives from boroughs, was an attempt to rally national support, but at the same time he was alienating many of his baronial supporters. In 1265 his most powerful ally, Gilbert de Clare, 8th earl of Gloucester, deserted and with Prince Edward joined the nobles of the Welsh Marches to start the wars again. Simon de Montfort was defeated and killed at Evesham.

Early Career

Elected (1890) to Parliament as a Liberal, the young Lloyd George soon became known as a radical and an anti-imperialist. He bitterly opposed the South African War. In 1905 he entered Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's ministry as president of the board of trade, establishing an outstanding reputation for his welfare reforms. In 1908 he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer by Herbert Asquith, later 1st earl of Oxford and Asquith. The rejection by the House of Lords of his 1909 budget, which provided for a system of social insurance partly financed by land and income taxes, led to passage of the Parliament Act of 1911, by which the Lords lost its power of veto (see Parliament).

During World War I

In 1911, Lloyd George made his famous Mansion House speech, in which he warned Germany that Britain would not tolerate interference with its international interests. After the outbreak of World War I, Lloyd George remained chancellor until 1915 when he became minister of munitions. He was then (1916) minister of war before he succeeded (Dec., 1916) in ousting Asquith and formed his own coalition government.

Lloyd George immediately reorganized the structure of the government, creating a small war cabinet of five (which when attended also by representatives of the dominions and India became the Imperial war cabinet) and forming for the first time a cabinet secretariat. His war policy was bold and aggressive, and, although he was often at odds with the military leaders, he was largely responsible for the unification of military command under Marshal Ferdinand Foch. At the Paris Peace Conference (1919), Lloyd George exercised a moderating influence on both the harsh demands of Georges Clemenceau and the idealistic proposals of Woodrow Wilson, and to a large extent he shaped the final agreement (see Versailles, Treaty of).

After the War

A general election in 1918 had given Lloyd George and his coalition a substantial majority, but he was heavily dependent on Conservative support. This fact accounts at least partially for the repressive policy he adopted in Ireland, although he finally concluded the treaty that set up (1922) the Irish Free State. In 1922 the Chanak crisis occurred, in which Lloyd George delivered an ultimatum to the Turks, who, having seized Smyrna from the Greeks, were poised to strike across the neutralized Straits zone. The Turks agreed to withdraw, but in Britain Lloyd George was accused of recklessness. The Conservatives withdrew from the coalition, and his ministry fell (1922).

Lloyd George continued to be active in Parliament and, despite the fact that he was disliked by many Liberals for his treatment of Asquith, served (1926-31) as the leader of the by-then shattered Liberal party. In 1936 he visited and was much impressed by Adolf Hitler, but he later attacked the policy of appeasing Nazi Germany. He was raised to the peerage only a few months before his death.

His son, Victor Alexander Bruce, 9th earl of Elgin, 1849-1917, was viceroy of India (1894-99) during an extremely troubled period in that country's history and served as colonial secretary from 1905 to 1908.

Early Career

Disraeli was of Jewish ancestry, but his father, the literary critic Isaac D'Israeli, had him baptized (1817). In 1826 Disraeli published his first novel, Vivian Grey. It was the beginning of a prolific literary career, and his political essays and numerous novels earned him a permanent place in English literature. After a period of foreign travel (1830-31), Disraeli returned to London, where he soon became prominent in society. Standing four times for Parliament without success, he was finally elected in 1837 and rapidly developed into an outstanding, realistic, and caustically witty politician.

He was a follower of Sir Robert Peel until 1843, but he then became spokesman for the Young England group of Tories, espousing a sort of romantic and aristocratic Toryism. He expressed these themes in the political novels Coningsby (1844) and Sybil (1846). He criticized Peel's free-trade legislation, particularly repeal of the corn laws (1846). After repeal went through (1846), he helped bring down Peel's ministry.

At the death of Lord George Bentinck (1848), Disraeli became leader of the Tory protectionists. He was chancellor of the exchequer in the brief governments of the earl of Derby in 1852 and 1858-59, and after continuing opposition during the Liberal governments of Palmerston and Russell, he became chancellor under Derby again in 1866. With consummate political skill, he piloted through Parliament the Reform Bill of 1867 (see under Reform Acts), which enfranchised some two million men, largely of the working classes, and greatly benefited his party.

Prime Minister

Disraeli succeeded the earl of Derby as prime minister in 1868 but lost the office to Gladstone in the same year. Disraeli's second ministry (1874-80) enacted many domestic reforms in housing, public health, and factory legislation, but it was more notable for its aggressive foreign policy. The annexation of the Fiji islands (1874) and of the Transvaal (1877), the war against the Afghans (1878-79), and the Zulu War of 1879 proclaimed England a world imperial power more clearly than before. So did Queen Victoria's assumption (1876) of the title of empress of India; Disraeli was a great favorite of the queen.

The government's purchase (1875) of the controlling share of Suez Canal stock from the bankrupt khedive of Egypt strengthened British Mediterranean interests, which were jealously guarded in the diplomacy during and after the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78). During the war Disraeli supported Turkey diplomatically and by threat of intervention in order to combat Russian influence in the eastern Mediterranean, and he induced Turkey to cede Cyprus to Great Britain. He forced Russia to submit the Treaty of San Stefano to the Congress of Berlin (1878) and there secured the treaty revisions that greatly reduced Russian power in the Balkans (see Berlin, Congress of) and helped preserve peace in Europe. Disraeli was created earl of Beaconsfield in 1876. He was defeated by Gladstone in 1880.

Early Life

A member of a family whose wealth had been made in India, he entered Parliament in 1735. With his older brother he became a member of a group known as "Cobham's cubs" (after their leader Lord Cobham) or the "boy patriots," who opposed the ministry of Sir Robert Walpole, particularly its foreign policy, and supported Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, in his quarrel with King George II. After the fall (1742) of Walpole, Pitt was the leading critic of Lord Carteret (later earl of Granville) in his conduct of the War of the Austrian Succession.

Years in Government

Although detested by the king, Pitt entered the government as postmaster general of the forces in 1746 and won great popularity by his unusual honesty in refusing the usual perquisites of that office. He was dismissed in 1755, but the early disasters in the Seven Years War gave him such an opportunity to denounce government policies in his eloquent speeches that in 1756 George II was forced to call on him to become a secretary of state. The next year he formed a coalition ministry with Thomas Pelham-Holles, duke of Newcastle.

Pitt wished to conduct the war primarily against the French to win imperial supremacy, a policy popular with the mercantile interests and with the generally anti-French public. His subsidies to Frederick II of Prussia, his efficient handling of military supplies, his shrewd choice of commanders, his insistence on naval expansion, and his ability to raise English morale resulted in the defeat of the French power in India and the capture of the French provinces in Canada.

After the accession of George III, however, Pitt was forced to resign (1761), and he fiercely denounced the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), by which the war was concluded. He joined the opposition in protesting the prosecution (1763) of John Wilkes and the imposition of the Stamp Act (1765) on the American colonies.

In 1766, Pitt was recalled to office as lord privy seal, accepted the title earl of Chatham, and formed such a broadly based ministry that it was soon impossibly divided. Troubled by increasing mental illness and gout, Chatham exercised little control over this administration, and his chancellor of the exchequer, Charles Townshend, not only sabotaged his plans to reorganize the East India Company but passed the ill-fated Townshend Acts (1767). In virtual retirement from 1767, he resigned office in 1768.

In his rare speeches in the House of Lords thereafter, he urged conciliation of the American colonies, and after the outbreak of the American Revolution he favored any peace settlement short of granting the colonies independence. On this issue he broke with the Whigs, and his last speech was a plea against the disruption of the empire he had done so much to build. At its conclusion he collapsed and was carried home to die.

Attlee entered Parliament in 1922. In 1927 he visited India as a member of the Simon commission and was converted to views that strongly favored Indian self-government. He joined the Labour government in 1930 but resigned in 1931 when Ramsay MacDonald formed the National government. As leader of the Labour party from 1935, Attlee was an outspoken critic of Conservative foreign policy, objecting particularly to the government's failure to intervene in the Spanish civil war. During World War II he served (1940-45) in Winston Churchill's coalition cabinet, and on Labour's electoral victory in 1945 he became prime minister.

Under Attlee's leadership, the Bank of England, the gas, electricity, coal, and iron and steel industries, and the railways were nationalized. His government also enacted considerable social reforms, including the National Health Service. Independence was granted to Burma (Myanmar), India, Pakistan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Palestine, and Britain allied itself closely with the United States in the cold war confrontation with the Soviet Union. The postwar economic crisis required stringent economic and financial controls, which reduced support for the government. Labour won the 1950 general election by a narrow margin, but in 1951, Attlee decided to go to the country again and was defeated. He was leader of the opposition until his retirement in 1955, when he received the title of Earl Attlee.

(born Nov. 22, 1428—died April 14, 1471, Barnet, Hertfordshire, Eng.) English nobleman influential in the Wars of the Roses. Son of the earl of Salisbury, he became through marriage (1449) the earl of Warwick and acquired vast estates. With his father, he helped the Yorkists win the Battle of St. Albans (1455). Appointed captain of Calais, in 1460 he crossed to England to defeat and capture Henry VI at Northampton. In 1461 he was routed by the Lancastrians, but he recovered to march on London with York's son Edward, soon crowned Edward IV. Warwick was the virtual ruler during Edward's early reign (1461–64), but tensions between the two mounted, and in 1469 Warwick engineered a revolt in northern England that forced Edward to flee to Flanders in 1470. Warwick joined the Lancastrians and restored Henry VI to the throne, earning his later nickname “the Kingmaker.” He was killed by Edward's forces at the Battle of Barnet.

Learn more about Warwick, Earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Learn more about Warren, Earl with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Learn more about Walpole, Robert, 1st earl of Orford with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Learn more about Walpole, Horace, 4th earl of Orford with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1576, Menstrie, Clackmannan, Scot.—died Feb. 12, 1640, London, Eng.) Scottish poet and colonizer of Canada. He was a member of the court of James I, where he wrote his sonnet sequence Aurora (1604). In 1621 he obtained a grant for territory in North America that he named New Scotland (Nova Scotia), despite French claims to part of the land. He offered baronetcies to Scotsmen who would sponsor settlers, but the region was not colonized until his son established a settlement at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal). Alexander was compelled to surrender the territory under the Treaty of Susa (1629), which ended an Anglo-French conflict. Scottish settlers were ordered to withdraw by 1631.

Learn more about Stirling, William Alexander, 1st earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1673, Paris, France—died Feb. 5, 1721, London, Eng.) English soldier and statesman. He began a military career in 1691 and rose rapidly to become commander in chief of the English army in Spain in 1708 in the War of the Spanish Succession. He was defeated and captured by the French (1710), then returned to England (1712) and regained his seat in the House of Commons (1701–21). He served in the Whig government as secretary of state and negotiated the Quadruple Alliance against Spain (1718). Stanhope served as first lord of the treasury (1717–18), but his ministry was discredited by the South Sea Bubble scandal.

Learn more about Stanhope, James Stanhope, 1st Earl with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 21, 1505, London, Eng.—died July 30, 1550, London) English politician. He followed his father, a herald, into royal service and became personal secretary to Thomas Cromwell (1533), whom he succeeded as a secretary of state to Henry VIII (1540). Wriothesley became one of Henry's leading councillors and was appointed lord chancellor of England (1544–47). After Henry's death, he was created earl of Southampton (1547) by the duke of Somerset, but he was deprived of the chancellorship. He supported Somerset's overthrow in 1549 but was excluded from the privy council in 1550.

Learn more about Southampton, Thomas Wriothesley, 1st earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 6, 1573, Cowdray, Sussex, Eng.—died Nov. 10, 1624, Bergen op Zoom, Neth.) English nobleman, patron of William Shakespeare. Grandson of the 1st earl of Southampton, he became a favourite of Elizabeth I. He was a liberal patron of writers, including Thomas Nashe. Shakespeare dedicated two long poems to him (1593, 1594), and he has often been identified as the noble youth addressed in most of Shakespeare's sonnets. He accompanied the 2nd earl of Essex on expeditions to Cádiz and the Azores (1596, 1597). For supporting the Essex rebellion (1601), he was imprisoned (1601–03); following James I's accession, he regained his place at court. He became a privy councillor in 1619, but he lost favour by opposing the 1st duke of Buckingham. He and his son volunteered to fight for the United Provinces against Spain, but, soon after landing in the Netherlands, they both died of fever.

Learn more about Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 26, 1671, London, Eng.—died Feb. 15, 1713, Naples) English politician and philosopher. Grandson of the 1st earl of Shaftesbury, he received his early education from John Locke. He entered Parliament in 1695; succeeding to his h1 in 1699, he served three years in the House of Lords. His numerous philosophical essays were influenced by Neoplatonism; published as Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), they became the chief source of English Deism and influenced writers such as Alexander Pope, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Immanuel Kant.

Learn more about Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 1, 1563, London, Eng.—died May 24, 1612, Marlborough, Wiltshire) English statesman. Trained in statesmanship by his father, William Cecil, Robert entered the House of Commons in 1584. He became acting secretary of state in 1590 and was formally appointed to the post by Elizabeth I in 1596. He succeeded his father as chief minister in 1598 and guided the peaceful succession of Elizabeth by James I, for whom he continued as chief minister from 1603 and lord treasurer from 1608. He negotiated the end of the war with Spain in 1604 and allied England with France.

Learn more about Cecil, Robert, 1st earl of Salisbury with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1536, Buckhurst, Sussex, Eng.—died April 19, 1608, London) English politician and poet. A London barrister, he entered Parliament in 1558. He was a member of the Privy Council (1585) and conveyed the death sentence to Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1586. He later served on diplomatic missions to The Hague and served as lord high treasurer (1599–1608). He was also noted as the coauthor of The Tragedie of Gorboduc (1561), the earliest English drama in blank verse, and for his “Induction,” the most famous part of the verse collection A Myrrour for Magistrates (1563).

Learn more about Sackville, Thomas, 1st earl of Dorset with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Learn more about Russell, Bertrand (Arthur William), 3rd Earl Russell with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 7, 1847, London, Eng.—died May 21, 1929, Epsom, Surrey) British politician. He served in William E. Gladstone's governments as undersecretary for Scottish affairs (1881–83) and foreign secretary (1886, 1892–94). He succeeded Gladstone as prime minister (1894–95) but was ineffective in resolving conflicts within the Liberal Party and in passing legislation through the Conservative-dominated House of Lords. He broke with the Liberal Party by opposing Irish Home Rule (1905) and retired from public life.

Learn more about Rosebery, Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 1, 1647, Ditchley Manor House, Oxfordshire, Eng.—died July 26, 1680, Woodstock, Oxfordshire) English poet and wit. The most notorious debauchee of the Restoration court, Rochester was also its best poet and one of the most original and powerful English satirists. A Satyr Against Mankind (1675) is a scathing denunciation of rationalism and optimism that contrasts human perfidy with animal wisdom, and “History of Insipids” (1676) is a devastating attack on the government of Charles II. In 1680 he became ill, experienced a religious conversion, and recanted his past, ordering “all his profane and lewd writings” burned. His single dramatic work is Valentinian (1685).

Learn more about Rochester, John Wilmot, 2nd earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 12, 1550, Castle Hedingham, Essex, Eng.—died June 24, 1604, Newington, Middlesex) English lyric poet. A brilliantly gifted linguist and one of the most dashing figures of his time, Oxford was also reckless, hot-tempered, and disastrously spendthrift. He was the patron of an acting company, Oxford's Men, and possibly later of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (as hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of England), as well as of such writers as John Lyly and Edmund Spenser. He wrote highly praised poems and plays in his earlier years, though none of the plays are known to have survived. A 1920 book by J. Thomas Looney made Oxford the leading candidate, next to William Shakespeare himself, for the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, a theory supported by the coincidence that Oxford's literary output apparently ceased just before Shakespeare's work began to appear. A major difficulty in the Oxfordian theory, however, is his death date (1604), because, according to standard chronology, 14 of Shakespeare's plays, including many of the most important ones, were apparently written after that time. The debate, however, remained lively into the 21st century.

Learn more about Oxford, Edward de Vere, 17th earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 19, 1610, London, Eng.—died July 21, 1688, Kingston Lacy, Dorset) Anglo-Irish statesman. Born into the prominent Butler family of Ireland, he succeeded to the earldom of Ormonde in 1632. In service to the English crown in Ireland from 1633, he fought against the Catholic rebellion from 1641. He concluded a peace with the Catholic confederacy in 1649, then rallied support for Charles II, but he was forced to flee when Oliver Cromwell landed at Dublin. He was Charles's adviser in exile (1650–60). After the Restoration he was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland (1662–69, 1677–84), where he encouraged Irish commerce and industry. He was created a duke in 1682.

Learn more about Ormonde, James Butler, 12th earl and 1st duke of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 25, 1540, Shottesham, Norfolk, Eng.—died June 15, 1614, London) English noble noted for his intrigues in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Younger brother of the 4th duke of Norfolk, he was implicated in efforts to free Mary, Queen of Scots. He successfully sought favour with the Scottish king James VI, who, on his accession as James I of England, made Howard a privy councillor (1603) and earl of Northampton (1604). As a judge at the trials of Walter Raleigh (1603) and Guy Fawkes (1605), he pressed for conviction.

Learn more about Northampton, Henry Howard, earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1516—died June 2, 1581, Edinburgh, Scot.) Scottish nobleman. Appointed chancellor by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1563, he conspired with other Protestant nobles to murder Mary's adviser David Riccio and probably was involved in the murder of Lord Darnley. He led the nobles that drove Mary's husband, the earl of Bothwell, from Scotland and forced her to abdicate in favour of her infant son, James (later James I of England). He became regent for James in 1572 and restored the rule of law to Scotland. Resented by the other nobles, he was forced to resign in 1578; he was later charged with complicity in Darnley's murder and executed.

Learn more about Morton, James Douglas, 4th earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1612—died May 21, 1650, Edinburgh, Scot.) Scottish general in the English Civil Wars. He served in the Covenanter army that invaded northern England (1640) but remained a royalist. Appointed lieutenant-general by Charles I (1644), he led his royalist army of Highlanders and Irish to victories in major battles in Scotland. After Charles's defeat in 1645, Montrose fled to the European continent. He returned to Scotland in 1650 with 1,200 men, but he was defeated, captured, and hanged.

Learn more about Montrose, James Graham, 5th earl and 1st marquess of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1208, Montfort, Ile-de-France, France—died Aug. 4, 1265, Evesham, Worcestershire, Eng.) The second son of Simon de Montfort, he gave up Montfort lands in France but revived the family claim to the English earldom of Leicester. His marriage to Henry III's sister (1238) offended the barons and led to his temporary exile. Simon distinguished himself on a Crusade to the Holy Land (1240–42) and joined Henry's failed invasion of France (1242). Sent to pacify Gascony (1248), he was censured for his harsh methods there and recalled. He joined the other leading barons in forcing Henry to accept the Provisions of Oxford. When Louis IX annulled the Provisions, Simon defeated and captured Henry (1264) and summoned (1265) what became the beginning of the modern Parliament. He governed England for less than a year before being defeated and killed by Henry's son Edward.

Learn more about Montfort, Simon de with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 17, 1863, Manchester, Eng.—died March 26, 1945, Ty-newydd, near Llanystumdwy, Caernarvonshire, Wales) British prime minister (1916–22). He entered Parliament in 1890 as a Liberal and retained his seat for 55 years. He served as president of the Board of Trade (1905–08), then as chancellor of the Exchequer (1908–15). Rejection of his controversial “People's Budget” (to raise taxes for social programs) in 1909 by the House of Lords led to a constitutional crisis and passage of the Parliament Act of 1911. He devised the National Insurance Act of 1911, which laid the foundation of the British welfare state. As minister of munitions (1915–16), he used unorthodox methods to ensure that war supplies were forthcoming during World War I. He replaced H.H. Asquith as prime minister in 1916, with Conservative support in his coalition government. His small war cabinet ensured speedy decisions. Distrustful of the competence of the British high command, he was constantly at odds with Gen. Douglas Haig. In the 1918 elections his decision to continue a coalition government further split the Liberal Party. He was one of the three great statesmen responsible for the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference. He began the negotiations that culminated in the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921. He resigned in 1922 and headed an ailing Liberal Party (1926–31).

Learn more about Lloyd George of Dwyfor, David Lloyd George, Earl with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 7, 1770, London, Eng.—died Dec. 4, 1828, Fife House, Whitehall, London) British prime minister (1812–27). He entered the House of Commons in 1790 and became a leading Tory, serving as foreign secretary (1801–04), home secretary (1804–06, 1807–09), and secretary for war and the colonies (1809–12). The War of 1812 with the U.S. and the final campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars were fought during his premiership. He urged abolition of the slave trade at the Congress of Vienna (1814–15). Although sometimes overshadowed by his colleagues and by the duke of Wellington's military prowess, he conducted a sound administration.

Learn more about Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 24, 1850, near Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ire.—died June 5, 1916, at sea off Orkney Islands) British field marshal and imperial administrator. Trained as a military engineer, Kitchener served in posts in the Middle East and Sudan before being appointed commander in chief of the Egyptian army in 1892. In 1898 he crushed the rebellious Mahdist movement in the Battle of Omdurman and forced concessions from France in the Fashoda Incident. He entered the South African War as chief of staff in 1899, becoming commander in chief a year later. In the last 18 months of the war, he resorted to brutal methods, burning Boer farms and herding Boer women and children into concentration camps. He was later sent to India to reorganize the army there. A clash with Lord Curzon over control of the army resulted in Curzon's resignation in 1905. In 1911 Kitchener returned to Khartoum as proconsul of Egypt and the Sudan. As secretary of state for war during World War I, he organized armies on a scale unprecedented in British history and became a symbol of the national will to victory. He died on a mission to Russia when his ship was sunk by a German mine.

Learn more about Kitchener, H(oratio) H(erbert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 17, 1931, Arkabutla, Miss., U.S.) U.S. actor. He studied acting in New York City and made his Broadway debut in 1957. He was praised for his performance in Othello (1964) and in roles with the New York Shakespeare Festival (1961–73). He starred as the black boxer in The Great White Hope (1969, Tony Award; film, 1970). After returning to Broadway in Paul Robeson (1978) and Fences (1985, Tony Award), he starred in the television series Paris (1979–80) and Gabriel's Fire (1990–91, Emmy Award). He has appeared in numerous films; his sonorous voice lent gravity to the character of Darth Vader in Star Wars (1977) and its sequels and to the Mufasa role in The Lion King (1994).

Learn more about Jones, James Earl with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 16, 1881, Powderham Castle, Devonshire, Eng.—died Dec. 23, 1959, Garroby Hall, near York, Yorkshire) British statesman. He was elected to Parliament in 1910. As viceroy of India (1925–31), he worked on terms of understanding with Mohandas K. Gandhi and accelerated constitutional advances. His tenure as foreign secretary (1938–40) in Neville Chamberlain's government was controversial because of Chamberlain's policy of appeasement toward Adolf Hitler, but Halifax kept the post into Winston Churchill's ministry. As ambassador to the U.S. (1941–46), he greatly served the Allied cause in World War II, for which he was created earl of Halifax in 1944.

Learn more about Halifax, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 16, 1541, Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales—died Sept. 22, 1576, Dublin, Ire.) English soldier. Born to a h1d family, he helped suppress a rebellion in northern England in 1569 and was made earl of Essex in 1572. In 1573 he offered to subdue and colonize, at his own expense, a portion of Ulster that had not accepted English overlordship. There he treacherously captured and executed the Irish rebel leaders and massacred hundreds of the populace, contributing to Irish bitterness toward the English. Elizabeth I commanded him to break off the enterprise in 1575. He died of dysentery shortly after returning to Ireland from England.

Learn more about Essex, Walter Devereux, 1st earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 20, 1811, London, Eng.—died Nov. 20, 1863, Dharmshala, India) British governor-general of Canada. He was appointed governor of Jamaica in 1842. As governor of British North America (1847–54), he implemented the policy of responsible, or cabinet, government recommended by Lord Durham. Elgin supported the Rebellion Losses Act (1849), which compensated Canadians for losses during the 1837 rebellion in Lower Canada, a stand criticized by Tory opponents in England and French-Canadian rioters in Montreal. He negotiated the Reciprocity Treaty (1854) between the Canadian colonies and the U.S. In 1857 he left Canada to serve in diplomatic posts in China, Japan, and India.

Learn more about Elgin, James Bruce, 8th earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 12, 1792, London—died July 28, 1840, Cowes, Isle of Wight, Eng.) British colonial administrator in Canada. He was a member of the British House of Commons (1813–28) and served in the cabinet of Earl Grey (1830–33). In 1838 he was appointed governor-general and lord high commissioner of Canada. He appointed a new executive council to placate the rebellious French Canadians of Lower Canada (later Quebec). Criticized in England for his action, he resigned. He later issued the Durham Report, which advocated the union of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and the expansion of self-government to preserve Canadian loyalty to Britain.

Learn more about Durham, John George Lambton, 1st earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 29, 1799, Knowsley Park, Lancashire, Eng.—died Oct. 23, 1869, London) English statesman. Having entered Parliament as a Whig in 1820, he later joined the Conservatives and became leader of the Conservative Party (1846–68) and prime minister (1852, 1858, and 1866–68). Legislation adopted during his tenure included the removal of Jewish discrimination in Parliament membership, the transfer of India's administration from the East India Company to the crown, and the Reform Bill of 1867. He is remembered as one of England's greatest parliamentary orators.

Learn more about Derby, Edward (George Geoffrey Smith) Stanley, 14th earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 12, 1800, London, Eng.—died June 27, 1870, London) British statesman. After serving as British ambassador to Spain (1833–39), he held various cabinet posts until Lord Aberdeen named him secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1853. Clarendon failed to prevent the outbreak of the Crimean War, and his performance during it was undistinguished, but he secured favourable terms for Britain at the Congress of Paris (1856). He continued in office under Lord Palmerston until 1858 and also served as foreign secretary under Earl Russell (1865–66) and William E. Gladstone (1868–70).

Learn more about Clarendon, George William Frederick Villiers, 4th earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 13, 1793, Helpston, near Peterborough, Northamptonshire, Eng.—died May 20, 1864, Northampton, Northamptonshire) British poet. Clare grew up in extreme rural poverty, with little access to books, but he had a prodigious memory and absorbed folk ballads. His Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820) brought a short period of celebrity, but later volumes, including The Shepherd's Calendar (1827) and The Rural Muse (1835), sold poorly. Suffering from penury and poor health, he fell prey to delusions and was placed in an asylum in 1837. After four years he briefly escaped; certified insane, he spent his final 23 years in another asylum, where he wrote some of his most lucid, lyrical poetry.

Learn more about Clare, John with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 16, 1797, Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, Eng.—died March 27/28, 1868, Deene Park, Northamptonshire) British general. After entering the army (1824), he purchased promotions to become a lieutenant colonel (1832) and gained a reputation as a martinet. He spent his inherited wealth to make his regiment the best-dressed in the service (introducing the later-named cardigan jacket). At the outbreak of the Crimean War (1853), he was appointed commander of the Light Brigade of British cavalry, which he led in the ill-fated charge at the Battle of Balaklava. Despite the disaster, Cardigan was lionized on his return to England and appointed inspector general of cavalry.

Learn more about Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell, 7th earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1672, Liscarton, County Meath, Ire.—died July 17, 1726, Kensington, near London, Eng.) British soldier. He served as a trusted colleague with the duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession. Later he became involved in intrigues to secure the succession for the Hanoverian George I (1714). He crushed a Jacobite rebellion in 1716, was granted an earldom in 1718, and was promoted to commander in chief in 1722.

Learn more about Cadogan, William, 1st Earl with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 25, 1713, Edinburgh, Scot.—died March 10, 1792, London, Eng.) Scottish-born British statesman. He was the tutor and constant companion of the future George III; when the latter ascended to the throne, he named Bute secretary of state (1761). As prime minister (1762–63), Bute negotiated the peace ending the Seven Years' War, but, having failed to create a stable administration, he resigned in 1763.

Learn more about Bute, John Stuart, 3rd earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 17, 1907, St. Paul, Minn., U.S.—died June 25, 1995, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. He graduated with honours from St. Paul (now William Mitchell) College of Law in 1931, after which he joined a prominent law firm and became active in the Republican Party. He was appointed an assistant U.S. attorney general (1953) and named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (1955), where his conservative approach commended him to Pres. Richard Nixon, who nominated him for chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1969. Contrary to the expectations of some, he did not try to reverse the liberal decisions on civil-rights issues and criminal law made during the tenure of his predecessor, Earl Warren. Under his leadership, the court upheld the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona decision, permitted busing as a means of ending racial segregation in public schools, and endorsed the use of racial quotas in the awarding of federal grants and contracts. Burger voted with the majority in Roe v. Wade (1973). Keenly interested in judicial administration, he became deeply involved in efforts to improve the judiciary's efficiency. He retired in 1986 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988.

Learn more about Burger, Warren E(arl) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 20, 1891, Wichita, Kan., U.S.—died June 27, 1973, Princeton, N.J.) U.S. Communist Party leader (1930–44). He was imprisoned in 1919–20 for his opposition to U.S. participation in World War I. In 1921 he joined the U.S. Communist Party; he served as the party's general secretary from 1930 to 1944 and was its presidential candidate in 1936 and 1940. In 1944 he was removed from his position for declaring that capitalism and socialism could coexist, and in 1946 he was expelled from the party.

Learn more about Browder, Earl (Russell) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Learn more about Balfour (of Whittingehame), Arthur James, 1st Earl with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Learn more about Baldwin (of Bewdley), Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 28, 1784, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Dec. 14, 1860, London, Eng.) British foreign secretary and prime minister (1852–55). As special ambassador to Austria in 1813, he helped form the coalition that defeated Napoleon. As foreign secretary (1828–30, 1841–46), he settled boundary disputes between Canada and the U.S. with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty and the Oregon Treaty (see Oregon Question). As prime minister, he formed a coalition government, but his indecision hampered peacekeeping efforts and led to Britain's involvement in the Crimean War. Constitutionally responsible for the mistakes of British generals in the war, he resigned in 1855.

Learn more about Aberdeen, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th earl of with a free trial on Britannica.com.