Attlee, Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl, 1883-1967, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he was called to the bar in 1905. His early experience as a social worker in London's East End led to his decision to give up law and devote his life to social improvement through politics. In 1907 he joined the Fabian Society and soon afterward the Labour party. He was a lecturer in social science at the London School of Economics, and, after service in World War I, he became (1919) the first Labour mayor of Stepney.

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.

Earl, Ralph: see Earle, Ralph.

Temple, Richard Grenville-Temple, Earl, 1711-79, British statesman; elder brother of George Grenville and brother-in-law of William Pitt, 1st earl of Chatham. He succeeded to his mother's peerage in 1752. He was closer to Pitt than to his brother and, as first lord of the admiralty (1756-57) in the Pitt-Devonshire ministry and lord privy seal (1757-61) under Pitt and the duke of Newcastle, gave strong backing to Pitt's war policy. He also joined Pitt in vigorous opposition to Grenville's ministry (1763-65), financing John Wilkes in his attacks upon the government. However, when Pitt (by then Lord Chatham) formed another ministry in 1766, Temple quarreled with him and allied himself with Grenville. After Grenville's death (1770) he was reconciled with Chatham.

Warren, Earl, 1891-1974, American public official and 14th Chief Justice of the United States (1953-69), b. Los Angeles. He graduated from the Univ. of California Law School in 1912. Admitted (1914) to the bar, he practiced in Oakland, Calif., and held several local offices. He served (1939-43) as state attorney general and was governor of California from 1943 to 1953. In 1948 he was the unsuccessful candidate for Vice President on the Republican ticket headed by Thomas E. Dewey. In Oct., 1953, President Eisenhower appointed him Chief Justice to succeed Fred M. Vinson. One of the most dynamic of Chief Justices, Warren led the court toward a number of landmark decisions in the fields of civil rights and individual liberties. Among these were the unanimous 1954 decision, written by Warren, ending segregation in the nation's schools (see Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.); the one man, one vote rulings, which opened the way for legislative and Congressional reapportionment; and decisions in criminal cases guaranteeing the right to counsel and protecting the accused from police abuses. In 1963-64, Warren headed the commission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy (see Warren Commission). He retired from the bench in 1969. His public papers were edited by H. M. Christman (1959).

Jellicoe, John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl, 1859-1935, British admiral. Crowning a naval career begun in 1872, he served (1914-16) as commander in chief of the Grand Fleet in World War I. His tactics at the inconclusive battle of Jutland won him some praise and much censure. As first sea lord (1916-17) he opposed the introduction of convoys to combat the German submarine campaign and was dismissed by Lloyd George. He was (1920-24) governor-general of New Zealand, and became an earl in 1925. He wrote The Grand Fleet, 1914-16 (1919) and The Crisis of the Naval War (1921).

Grey, Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl, 1851-1917, English statesman, nephew of the 3d Earl Grey. In 1880 he entered the House of Commons as a Liberal, but he lost his seat as a result of his opposition to Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1886. Grey returned to Parliament as a member of the House of Lords when he succeeded his uncle to the earldom in 1894. Administrator (1896-97) of Rhodesia, he was governor-general of Canada from 1904 to 1911.

Grey, Charles Grey, 2d Earl, 1764-1845, British statesman. Elected to Parliament in 1786, he was one of those appointed to manage the impeachment of Warren Hastings. From 1792 he was a leader of the movement for parliamentary reform and opposed the repressive policies of Sir William Pitt. He succeeded (1806) Charles James Fox as foreign secretary in the "ministry of all talents" and Whig leader of the House of Commons, putting through the measure to abolish the African slave trade (1807). As prime minister (1830-34) he secured the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832 (see under Reform Acts) by threatening to force William IV to create enough Whig peers to carry it in the House of Lords.

Fitzwilliam, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, 2d Earl, 1748-1833, British administrator. Sent to Ireland as lord lieutenant in 1795, he expressed sympathy for the cause of Catholic Emancipation and was almost immediately recalled by William Pitt's ministry for allegedly exceeding his instructions.

Rivers, Richard Woodville, 1st Earl, d. 1469, English nobleman. He was knighted (1426) by Henry VI and acquired wealth and power by marrying (c.1436) Jacquetta of Luxemburg, widow of John of Lancaster, duke of Bedford. He served in the wars in France and helped suppress the rebellion (1450) of Jack Cade in England. In the Wars of the Roses, Rivers fought for Henry VI until the Lancastrian defeat at Towton (1461). He then transferred his loyalty to the Yorkist Edward IV, to whom he gave his daughter (see Woodville, Elizabeth) in marriage in 1464. He and his family soon received extensive royal favors, Rivers himself becoming treasurer and then constable (1467) of England. He was created earl in 1466. The favoritism shown the Woodville faction embittered Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, who rebelled in 1469. Rivers was captured and executed after Edward's defeat at Edgecot. His eldest son, Anthony Woodville, 2d Earl Rivers, 1442?-1483, accompanied Edward into exile (1470-71) and later served him in various capacities. In 1473 he was appointed guardian of Edward, prince of Wales (later Edward V). On Edward IV's death, however, Rivers was arrested by Richard, duke of Gloucester (later Richard III), and executed. A somewhat romantic and otherworldly figure, Rivers wrote translations of various French works. His Dictes and Sayengis of the Philosophres (1477) was the first dated book printed in England by William Caxton.

Beatty, David Beatty, 1st Earl, 1871-1936, British admiral. He served with distinction in Egypt and Sudan (1896-98) and in the Boxer Uprising (1900) in China. Made rear admiral in 1910, he commanded successful naval actions early in World War I at Helgoland Bight (1914) and at Dogger Bank (1915). His battle cruiser squadron lured the German fleet into position for an engagement with the British grand fleet under Admiral John Jellicoe at the battle of Jutland (1916). Beatty commanded (1916-19) the fleet and was (1919-27) first sea lord of the navy. He was created Earl Beatty in 1919.

Camden, Charles Pratt, 1st Earl: see Pratt, Charles, 1st Earl Camden.

Canning, Charles John Canning, Earl, 1812-62, British statesman; third son of George Canning. Succeeding to the peerage conferred on his mother, he took his seat as Viscount Canning in the House of Lords (1837) and served as Sir Robert Peel's undersecretary for foreign affairs (1841-46) and Lord Aberdeen's postmaster general (1853-55). Appointed (1856) governor-general of India, he became known as "Clemency Canning" for his efforts to restrain revenge against the Indians during the Indian Mutiny. In 1858, when the power of government was transferred from the East India Company to the British crown, Canning became the first viceroy of India. He was created earl in 1859 and retired in 1862.

Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3d Earl, 1872-1970, British philosopher, mathematician, and social reformer, b. Trelleck, Wales.

Life

The Early Years

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.

The Middle Years

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.

The Later Years

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."

Russell, John Russell, 1st Earl, 1792-1878, British statesman; younger son of the 6th duke of Bedford, known most of his life as Lord John Russell. He became a Whig member of Parliament in 1813 and soon began his long career as a liberal reformer. He worked for Catholic Emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828. As paymaster general in the ministry of the 2d Earl Grey, Russell helped prepare and introduce the Reform Bill of 1832 (see under Reform Acts). His advocacy of the reduction of Irish church revenues helped bring down the Whig government in 1834, but when the Whigs returned to power (1835), Russell became home secretary and later secretary for war and the colonies (1839). In the meantime he had given the name to the newly emerging Liberal party and become one of its chief spokesmen. Russell led the opposition during the second ministry (1841-46) of Sir Robert Peel and, following the repeal of the corn laws (which Russell supported), succeeded him as prime minister. During his ministry Russell used public works, grants, and other relief to help the Irish during the potato famine and supported the bill (1847) that limited the working day to 10 hr for many laborers. In 1851 he demanded the resignation of his foreign secretary, Viscount Palmerston, for his unauthorized approval of Napoleon III's coup in France, and the following year Palmerston helped secure the fall of Russell's ministry. Russell served (1852-55) in Lord Aberdeen's coalition government and represented (1855) England at Vienna in an unsuccessful conference to end the Crimean War. He was reconciled with Palmerston and, as his foreign secretary (1859-65), vigorously advocated neutrality in the American Civil War and supported the Risorgimento in Italy. He had been made an earl in 1861 and became prime minister again on Palmerston's death in 1865. For many years an advocate of further parliamentary reform, he attempted to push through a new Reform Bill, but the bill was defeated and caused the fall of his ministry in 1866. Among Russell's literary and historical writings are a translation of Schiller's Don Carlos and biographies of Lord William Russell (1819) and of Charles James Fox (3 vol., 1853-57).

Howe, Richard Howe, Earl, 1726-99, British admiral; elder brother of Viscount Howe. He won early recognition in the Seven Years War for his operations in the English Channel. After the outbreak of the American Revolution, he was given (1776) command of the North American fleet. He and his brother were commissioned to seek a peaceful settlement of the dispute with the colonies, but negotiations at Staten Island in 1776 came to nothing, and he supported (1777) his brother's successful campaign against Philadelphia. In 1778 he outmaneuvered the French fleet under the comte d'Estaing in its attempt to cooperate with land troops to take British-held Newport, R.I. He resigned later that year, but in 1782 he assumed command of the Channel fleet and relieved the siege of Gibraltar. Howe is best remembered for his decisive victory over the French fleet in the battle called the First of June in 1794. Created Earl Howe in 1788, he was popularly known as Black Dick.

Kitchener, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl, 1850-1916, British field marshal and statesman. Trained at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (1868-70), he had a brief period of service in the French army before being commissioned (1871) in the Royal Engineers. After duty in Palestine and Cyprus, he was attached (1883) to the Egyptian army, then being reorganized by the British. He took part (1884-85) in the unsuccessful attempt to relieve Charles George Gordon at Khartoum. He was then (1886-88) governor-general of Eastern Sudan and helped (1889) turn back the last Mahdist invasion of Egypt. In 1892 he was made commander in chief of the Egyptian army and in 1896 began the reconquest of Sudan, having prepared the way by a reorganization of the army and the construction of a railway along the Nile. A series of victories culminated (1898) in the battle of Omdurman and the reoccupation of Khartoum. He forestalled a French attempt to claim part of Sudan (see Fashoda Incident) in the same year and was made governor of Sudan. In 1899, Kitchener was appointed chief of staff to Lord Roberts in the South African War. He reorganized transport, led an unsuccessful attack on Paardeberg, and suppressed the Boer revolt near Priska. When Roberts returned to England late in 1900, believing the Boer resistance crushed, Kitchener was left to face continued guerrilla warfare. By a slow extension of fortified blockhouses, the use of concentration camps for civilians, and the systematic denudation of the farm lands—methods for which he was much criticized—Kitchener finally secured Boer submission (1902). He was created viscount and sent to India as commander in chief of British forces there. He redistributed the troops and gained greater administrative control of the army in the face of serious opposition from the viceroy Lord Curzon. He left India in 1909, was made field marshal, and served (1911-14) as consul general in Egypt. He was made an earl in 1914. At the outbreak of World War I, Kitchener was recalled to England as secretary of state for war. Virtually alone in his belief that the war would last a number of years, he planned and carried out a vast expansion of the army from 20 divisions in 1914 to 70 in 1916. However, his relations with the cabinet were strained. In 1915 when he was attacked by the newspapers of Lord Northcliffe for the shortage of shells, responsibility for munitions was taken away from him, and later in the same year he was stripped of control over strategy. He offered to resign, but his colleagues feared the effect on the British public, which still idolized him. In 1916, Kitchener embarked on a mission to Russia to encourage that flagging ally to continued resistance. His ship, the H.M.S. Hampshire, hit a German mine and sank off the Orkney Islands, and he drowned.

Haig, Douglas Haig, 1st Earl, 1861-1928, British field marshal. He saw active service in Sudan (1898) and in the South African War (1899-1902) and upon the outbreak of World War I (1914) was given command of the 1st Army Corps in France. In Dec., 1915, he became commander in chief of the British expeditionary force. Under pressure from the French commander, Joseph Joffre, he undertook the battle of the Somme (July-Nov., 1916), which resulted in very heavy casualties and little territorial gain. The British prime minister, David Lloyd George, constantly antagonistic to Haig and unreceptive to his requests from the field, exacerbated the situation by putting the British troops under the orders of the French commander in 1917. Haig thus conducted the Passchendaele campaign (July-Nov., 1917; see Ypres, battles of) under orders from Gen. Robert Nivelle, while the French army was being reorganized after a mutiny. Haig was under continual French pressure to take over more of the front, and until the joint command of himself and Gen. Ferdinand Foch was instituted (1918), the strategy and conduct of the war were tragically mismanaged. Haig has been much criticized for the staggering casualties sustained. He was made an earl (1919) and devoted the remainder of his life to organizing the British Legion and raising funds for disabled ex-servicemen.

Spencer, George John Spencer, 2d Earl, 1758-1834, British public official. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1780 but in 1783 inherited the earldom. In 1794, William Pitt appointed him first lord of the admiralty. In his term of office the navy achieved the victories of St. Vincent and Camperdown, and Spencer was responsible for the selection of Horatio Nelson to command the fleet that won the famous battle of Aboukir (1798). He left office in 1801 but later served (1806-7) as home secretary. Afterward he devoted himself to literary and scientific pursuits. His son John Charles Spencer, 3d Earl Spencer, 1782-1845, better known as Viscount Althorp, was chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons under the 2d Earl Grey. With Lord John Russell, he piloted the Reform Bill of 1832 through the Commons. He retired from politics when he succeeded (1834) to the earldom.

Stanhope, Charles Stanhope, 3d Earl, 1753-1816, British politician and inventor; grandson of the 1st earl. He was a friend of the younger William Pitt and married (1774) Pitt's sister, Hester. Sitting in the House of Commons (1780-86) before he succeeded to the peerage, he opposed the war with the American colonies and supported parliamentary reform and other measures advocated by Pitt. Stanhope became estranged from Pitt after the outbreak of the French Revolution, opposing the British government's repressive policies at home and its policy of intervention abroad. A vigorous supporter of the French republican ideal, he became known as "Citizen" Stanhope and absented himself from the House of Lords (1795-1800). His indefatigable scientific experiments produced a fireproof stucco, calculating machines, lenses, and, most important, machines for printing and stereotyping. Others, less successful, included experiments on steam navigation. The Stanhope lens and the Stanhope press are named for him. Lady Hester Stanhope was his daughter.

Stanhope, James Stanhope, 1st Earl, 1673-1721, English general and statesman. During the War of the Spanish Succession he participated in the capture (1705) of Barcelona, was appointed (1706) minister to Spain, and in 1708 became commander in chief of the British forces there. He soon captured Minorca, taking Port Mahon and making it a winter base for the British fleet. He won the battles of Almenara and Zaragoza (1710) but lost his army to the French at Brihuega (1710) and was himself imprisoned for a year in Spain. On the accession (1714) in England of George I, Stanhope became a secretary of state. Devoting himself primarily to foreign affairs, he concluded a complex series of treaties, including the Triple Alliance (1717) with France and the Dutch. As chief minister (1717-18) he carried through the plans originated by Robert Walpole to fund the national debt and repealed (1718) the Occasional Conformity and Schism acts against dissenters. Becoming secretary of state again (1718), Stanhope negotiated the Quadruple Alliance of 1718 against Spain and formed (1719) a Baltic coalition to resist Russian expansion. His masterful diplomacy greatly strengthened Great Britain's position in Europe. He was created Earl Stanhope in 1718.

Stanhope, Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl, 1805-75, English historian. He was undersecretary for foreign affairs (1834-35) in Sir Robert Peel's first ministry and secretary of the board of control (1845-46). He favored repeal of the corn laws and secured passage of the Copyright Act of 1842. Stanhope founded (1859) the National Portrait Gallery and was prime mover in organizing (1869) the Historical Manuscripts Commission. He wrote standard histories of the reign of Queen Anne (1870) and of the period from 1713 to 1783 (7 vol., 1836-54; repr. 1968).

Cowper, William Cowper, 1st Earl, 1664?-1723, English jurist. He became lord keeper of the great seal in 1705 and in 1706 took a leading part in negotiating the union of England with Scotland. He was the first lord chancellor of Great Britain (1707-10), and presided at the trial of Henry Sacheverell, though he disapproved the action. He was forced out of office with the Whigs in 1710. Cowper wrote (1714) a tract on political parties to convince George I that the Whigs alone were loyal to the Glorious Revolution and the Act of Settlement. He was lord chancellor again (1714-18) and contributed much to the modern system of equity.

Granville, Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2d Earl, 1815-91, British statesman. He entered Parliament as a Whig in 1836 and held various cabinet positions under Lord John Russell, the earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. As colonial secretary (1868-70, 1886) under William Gladstone, he had a large part in passing the bills that disestablished the Church of Ireland and began reforms in Irish land tenure. He was also foreign secretary (1870-74, 1880-85) under Gladstone.

Granville, John Carteret, 1st Earl, 1690-1763, English statesman, better known as Lord Carteret. He served as ambassador to Sweden (1719-20) and as a secretary of state (1721-24), but his favor with George I posed a threat to Robert Walpole, who finally forced his resignation and sent (1724) him to Ireland as lord lieutenant. There he dealt skillfully with the agitation against the new English currency patent, which Jonathan Swift attacked in his Drapier Letters. The patent was withdrawn in 1725, and Carteret became quite popular. Returning to England in 1730, he led the opposition that in 1742 finally accomplished Walpole's downfall. He was the chief minister in the new cabinet but soon became unpopular because he supported George II's Hanoverian policies and aided Maria Theresa in the War of the Austrian Succession. He was dismissed in 1744 and, although he served (1751-63) as lord president of the council, he never regained much influence.

Cadogan, William Cadogan, 1st Earl, 1675-1726, British general and diplomat. He is remembered chiefly as the faithful friend and brilliant subordinate of the 1st duke of Marlborough. In addition to serving (1702-11) as the latter's quartermaster general, he was the able commander of a dragoon regiment known as Cadogan's Horse and played a distinguished part in Marlborough's many victories in the War of the Spanish Succession. When the duke fell from power in 1711, Cadogan went into exile in the Netherlands. He conducted dealings with Hanover for the English Whigs, and after the Hanoverian George I ascended (1714) the British throne, he received new commands and honors. Cadogan helped to suppress the Jacobite uprising of 1715, was created earl in 1718, and was made commander in chief of the army after Marlborough's death in 1722. He also had high diplomatic duties in the resettlements among Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire, and Spain in the years 1714-20.

Baldwin of Bewdley, Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl: see Baldwin, Stanley.

Wavell, Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl, 1883-1950, British field marshal and viceroy of India. Wavell first saw service in the South African War and in India. During World War I he fought in France (and lost an eye) and in Palestine, where, under the command of General Allenby, he first learned the desert strategy that he was to employ so successfully later. He returned to Palestine as commander of the British forces to keep order during the Arab-Jewish riots of 1937-39. In World War II, Wavell was commander in chief of the Middle East, in which capacity he put to rout the Italian forces in Cyrenaica (see North Africa, campaigns in), only to be forced back later in 1941 by the Axis drive. He then exchanged commands with General Auchinleck, becoming commander in chief of India. After Japan entered the war, he was for some months (1942) supreme commander of the Allies in East Asia, but the command was abolished as the Allies lost control of the area. Resuming his command in India, Wavell became viceroy and governor-general in 1943. From that time until his resignation in 1947, his main concern was the preparation of India for self-rule; toward this end he worked continuously with the numerous Indian factions. He was created Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester in 1943 and earl in 1947. He wrote The Palestine Campaigns (1928), Allenby (1940), Generals and Generalship (1941), Allenby in Egypt (1943), Speaking Generally (1946), and The Good Soldier (1947). He also edited an anthology of poetry, Other Men's Flowers (1944).

orig. Richard Neville

(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.

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(born March 19, 1891, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.—died July 9, 1974, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist and politician. He graduated from law school at the University of California, then served as a county district attorney (1925–39), state attorney general (1939–43), and governor of the state for three terms (1943–53). He was criticized for interning Japanese citizens in camps during World War II. His only electoral defeat came in 1948, when he ran for vice president on the Republican ticket with Thomas Dewey. In 1953 Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Warren chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a post he held until 1969. This was a period of sweeping changes in U.S. constitutional law. Under his leadership the court proved to be strongly liberal. Among Warren's notable opinions are those in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which held that segration in public education was unconstitutional; Reynolds v. Sims (1964), which declared the “one man, one vote” principle requiring state legislative reapportionment (1964); and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), which held that police must inform an arrestee of his right to remain silent and to have counsel present (appointed for him if he is indigent) and that a confession obtained in defiance of these requirements is inadmissible in court. After the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy, he chaired the Warren Commission.

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(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.

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(born Aug. 26, 1676, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Eng.—died March 18, 1745, London) English statesman generally regarded as the first British prime minister. Elected to the House of Commons in 1701, he became an active Whig parliamentarian. He served as secretary at war (1708–10) and as treasurer of the navy (1710–11). He was also a member of the Kit-Cat Club. The Tory government sought to remove his influence by impeaching him for corruption, and he was expelled from the Commons in 1712. With the accession of George I (1714), he regained his position and rose rapidly to become first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the Exchequer (1715–17, 1721–42). Although associated with the South Sea Bubble scandal, he restored confidence in the government and maintained the Whigs in office. He cultivated the support of George II from 1727 and used royal patronage for political ends, skillfully managing the House of Commons to win support for his trade and fiscal programs, including the sinking fund. With his consolidation of power, he effectively became the first British prime minister. He avoided foreign entanglements and kept England neutral until 1739 but was forced into the War of Jenkins' Ear. He resigned under pressure in 1742 and was created an earl. His acclaimed art collection, sold to Russia in 1779, became part of the Hermitage Museum collection.

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orig. Horatio Walpole

(born Sept. 24, 1717, London, Eng.—died March 2, 1797, London) English writer, connoisseur, and collector. The son of prime minister Robert Walpole, he had an undistinguished career in Parliament. In 1747 he acquired a small villa at Twickenham that he transformed into a pseudo-Gothic showplace called Strawberry Hill; it was the stimulus for the Gothic Revival in English domestic architecture. His literary output was extremely varied. He became famous for his medieval horror tale The Castle of Otranto (1765), the first Gothic novel in English. He is especially remembered for his private correspondence of more than 3,000 letters, most addressed to Horace Mann, a British diplomat. Intended for posthumous publication, they constitute a survey of the history, manners, and taste of his age.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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).

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(born May 18, 1872, Trelleck, Monmouthshire, Eng.—died Feb. 2, 1970, near Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth, Wales) British logician and philosopher. He is best known for his work in mathematical logic and for his advocacy on behalf of a variety of social and political causes, especially pacifism and nuclear disarmament. He was born into the British nobility as the grandson of Earl Russell, who was twice prime minister of Britain in the mid-19th century. He studied mathematics and philosophy at Cambridge University, where he came under the influence of the idealist philosopher J.M.E. McTaggart, though he soon rejected idealism in favour of an extreme Platonic realism. In an early paper, “On Denoting” (1905), he solved a notorious puzzle in the philosophy of language by showing how phrases such as “The present king of France,” which have no referents, function logically as general statements rather than as proper names. Russell later regarded this discovery, which came to be known as the “theory of descriptions,” as one of his most important contributions to philosophy. In The Principles of Mathematics (1903) and the epochal Principia Mathematica (3 vol., 1910–13), which he wrote with Alfred North Whitehead, he sought to demonstrate that the whole of mathematics derives from logic. For his pacifism in World War I he lost his lectureship at Cambridge and was later imprisoned. (He would abandon pacifism in 1939 in the face of Nazi aggression.) Russell's best-developed metaphysical doctrine, logical atomism, strongly influenced the school of logical positivism. His later philosophical works include The Analysis of Mind (1921), The Analysis of Matter (1927), and Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948). His A History of Western Philosophy (1945), which he wrote for a popular audience, became a best-seller and was for many years the main source of his income. Among his many works on social and political topics are Roads to Freedom (1918); The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920), a scathing critique of Soviet communism; On Education (1926); and Marriage and Morals (1929). In part because of the controversial views he espoused in the latter work, he was prevented from accepting a teaching position at the City College of New York in 1940. After World War II he became a leader in the worldwide campaign for nuclear disarmament, serving as first president of the international Pugwash Conferences on nuclear weapons and world security and of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1961, at the age of 89, he was imprisoned for a second time for inciting civil disobedience. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

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orig. Archibald Philip Primrose

(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.

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(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).

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orig. Edward de Vere

(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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).

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(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.

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later Earl Kitchener (of Khartoum and of Broome)

(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.

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(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).

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(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).

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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orig. Richard Neville

(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.

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(born March 19, 1891, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.—died July 9, 1974, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist and politician. He graduated from law school at the University of California, then served as a county district attorney (1925–39), state attorney general (1939–43), and governor of the state for three terms (1943–53). He was criticized for interning Japanese citizens in camps during World War II. His only electoral defeat came in 1948, when he ran for vice president on the Republican ticket with Thomas Dewey. In 1953 Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Warren chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a post he held until 1969. This was a period of sweeping changes in U.S. constitutional law. Under his leadership the court proved to be strongly liberal. Among Warren's notable opinions are those in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which held that segration in public education was unconstitutional; Reynolds v. Sims (1964), which declared the “one man, one vote” principle requiring state legislative reapportionment (1964); and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), which held that police must inform an arrestee of his right to remain silent and to have counsel present (appointed for him if he is indigent) and that a confession obtained in defiance of these requirements is inadmissible in court. After the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy, he chaired the Warren Commission.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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).

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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.

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orig. John Stuart

(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.

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(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.

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(born July 25, 1848, Whittinghame, East Lothian, Scot.—died March 19, 1930, Woking, Surrey, Eng.) British statesman. The nephew of the marquess of Salisbury, Balfour served in Parliament (1874–1911) and in his uncle's government as secretary for Ireland (1887–91). From 1891 he was the Conservative Party's leader in Parliament and succeeded his uncle as prime minister (1902–05). He helped form the Entente Cordiale (1904). His most famous action came in 1917 when, as foreign secretary (1916–19), he wrote the so-called Balfour Declaration, which expressed official British approval of Zionism. He served as lord president of the council (1919–22, 1925–29) and drafted the Balfour Report (1926), which defined relations between Britain and the dominions expressed in the Statute of Westminster.

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

(born Aug. 3, 1867, Bewdley, Worcestershire, Eng.—died Dec. 14, 1947, Astley Hall, near Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire) British politician. After managing his family's large industrial holdings, he became a Conservative member of the House of Commons (1908–37). He served as financial secretary of the treasury (1917–21) and president of the Board of Trade (1921–22), then was appointed prime minister (1923–24, 1924–29, 1935–37). He proclaimed a state of emergency in the general strike of 1926 and later secured passage of the antiunion Trade Disputes Act. As prime minister after 1935, he began to strengthen the British military while showing little public concern about the aggressive policies of Germany and Italy. He was criticized for not protesting the Italian conquest of Ethiopia. In 1936 he satisfied public opinion by procuring the abdication of Edward VIII, whose desire to marry divorcée Wallis Simpson, Baldwin believed, threatened the prestige of the monarchy.

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.

Earl was the Anglo-Saxon form and jarl the Scandinavian form of a title meaning "chieftain" and referring especially to chieftains set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke (hertig/hertug); in later medieval Britain, it became the equivalent of the continental count (in England in the earlier period, it was more akin to duke, while in Scotland it assimilated the concept of mormaer).

In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. The English never developed a feminine form of earl; the wife of an earl is styled countess (the continental equivalent).

Etymology

for the account in Norse mythology of the warrior Jarl or Ríg-Jarl presented as the ancestor of the class of warrior-nobles.

According to Procopius, the Heruli, after having raided the European continent for several generations, returned to Scandinavia in 512 AD as a result of military defeats. As their old territory was now occupied by the Danes, they settled next to the Geats in present-day Sweden. While the Proto-Norse word for this mysterious tribe may have been erilaz, which is etymologically near "jarl" and "earl", and it has often been suggested they introduced the runes in Scandinavia, no elaborate theory exists to explain how the word came to be used as a title. Arguably, their knowledge in interpreting runes also meant they were gifted in martial arts and, as they gradually integrated, eril or jarl instead came to signify the rank of a leader.

The Norman-derived equivalent "count" was not introduced following the Norman Conquest of England though "countess" was and is used for the female title. As Geoffrey Hughes writes, "It is a likely speculation that the Norman French title 'Count' was abandoned in England in favour of the Germanic 'Earl' […] precisely because of the uncomfortable phonetic proximity to cunt".

The Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh words for "count" or "earl" (iarla in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, iarll in Welsh) are all descended from English "earl" or one of its ancestors. In Scotland the word earl was used in English to refer to a mormaer.

Earls in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth

Forms of address

An earl has the title Earl of [X] when the title originates from a placename, or Earl [X] when the title comes from a surname. In either case, he is referred to as Lord [X], and his wife as Lady [X]. A countess who holds an earldom in her own right also uses Lady [X], but her husband does not have a title (unless he has one in his own right).

The eldest son of an earl, though not himself a peer, is entitled to use a courtesy title, usually the highest of his father's lesser titles (if any); younger sons are styled The Honourable [Forename] [Surname], and daughters The Lady [Forename] [Surname] (Lady Diana Spencer being a well-known example).

England

Changing power of English earls

In Anglo-Saxon England, earls had authority over their own regions and right of judgement in provincial courts, as delegated by the king. They collected fines and taxes and in return received a "third penny", one-third of the money they collected. In wartime they led the king's armies. Some shires were grouped together into larger units known as earldoms, headed by an ealdorman or earl. Under Edward the Confessor earldoms like Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria—names that represented earlier independent kingdoms—were much larger than any shire.

Earls originally functioned essentially as royal governors. Though the title of Earl was nominally equal to the continental count, unlike them earls were not de facto rulers in their own right.

After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror tried to rule England using the traditional system but eventually modified it to his own liking. Shires became the largest secular subdivision in England and earldoms disappeared. The Normans did create new earls like those of Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire but they were associated with only a single shire at most. There was no longer any administrative layer larger than the shire, and shires became "counties". Earls no longer aided in tax collection or made decisions in country courts and their numbers were small.

King Stephen increased the number of earls to reward those loyal to him in his war with his cousin Empress Matilda. He gave some earls the right to hold royal castles or control the sheriff and soon other earls assumed these rights themselves. By the end of his reign, some earls held courts of their own and even minted their own coins, against the wishes of the king.

It fell to Stephen's successor Henry II to again curtail the power of earls. He took back the control of royal castles and even demolished castles that earls had built for themselves. He did not create new earls or earldoms. No earl was allowed to remain independent of royal control.

The English kings had found it dangerous to give additional power to an already powerful aristocracy, so gradually sheriffs assumed the governing role. The details of this transition remain obscure, since earls in more peripheral areas, such as the Scottish and Welsh marches and Cornwall, retained some viceregal powers long after other earls had lost them. The loosening of central authority during the Anarchy also complicates any smooth description of the changeover.

By the 13th century, earls had a social rank just below the king and princes, but were not necessarily more powerful or wealthier than other noblemen. The only way to become an earl was to inherit the title or marry into one—and the king reserved a right to prevent the transfer of the title. By the 14th century, creating an earl included a special public ceremony where the king personally tied a sword belt around the waist of the new earl, emphasizing the fact that the earl's rights came from him.

Earls still held influence and as "companions of the king", were regarded as supporters of the king's power. They showed that power for the first time in 1327 when they deposed Edward II. They would later do the same with other kings they disapproved of. Still, the number of earls remained the same until 1337 when Edward III declared that he intended to create six new earldoms.

Earls, land and titles

A loose connection between earls and shires remained for a long time after authority had moved over to the sheriffs. An official defining characteristic of an earl still consisted of the receipt of the "third penny", one-third of the revenues of justice of a shire, that later became a fixed sum. Thus every earl had an association with some shire, and very often a new creation of an earldom would take place in favour of the county where the new earl already had large estates and local influence.

Also, due to the association of earls and shires, the mediæval practice could remain somewhat loose regarding the precise name used: no confusion could arise by calling someone earl of a shire, earl of the county town of the shire, or earl of some other prominent place in the shire; these all implied the same. So there were the "earl of Shrewsbury" (Shropshire), "earl of Arundel", "earl of Chichester" (Sussex), "earl of Winchester" (Hampshire), etc.

In a few cases the earl was traditionally addressed by his family name, e.g. the "earl Warenne" (in this case the practice may have arisen because these earls had little or no property in Surrey, their official county). Thus an earl did not always have an intimate association with "his" county. Another example comes from the earls of Oxford, whose property largely lay in Essex. They became earls of Oxford because earls of Essex and of the other nearby shires already existed.

Eventually the connection between an earl and a shire disappeared, so that in the present day a number of earldoms take their names from towns, mountains, or simply surnames. Nevertheless, some consider that the earldoms named after counties (or county towns) retain more prestige.

Order of precedence

List of English earls in order of precedence

• Earl of Warrington
• Earl of Bute
• Earl of Chesterfield
• Earl of Cork
• Earl of Derby
• Earl of Norfolk
• Earl of Pembroke
• Earl of Shrewsbury
• Earl Spencer
• Earl of Strathmore
• Earl of Warwick
• Earl of Holland
• Welsh Earls

Scotland

The oldest earldoms in Scotland originated from the office of mormaer, such as the Mormaer of Fife, of Strathearn, etc; later earldoms developed by analogy.

Coronet

A British earl is entitled to a coronet bearing eight strawberry leaves (four visible) and eight silver balls (or pearls) around the rim (five visible). The actual coronet is mostly worn on certain ceremonial occasions, but an Earl can bear his coronet of rank on his coat of arms above the shield.

Scandinavia

Norway

In mediæval Norway, the title of jarl was the highest rank below the king himself. The jarl was the only one beside the king himself who was entitled to have a hird (large armed retinue). There was usually no more than one jarl in mainland Norway at any one time, sometimes none. The ruler of the Norwegian dependency of Orkney held the title of jarl, and after Iceland had acknowledged Norwegian overlordship in 1261, a jarl was sent there as well as the king's high representative. In mainland Norway the title jarl was usually used for one of two purposes:

• To appoint a de facto ruler in cases where the king was a minor or seriously ill (e.g. Håkon galen in 1204 during the minority of king Guttorm, Skule Bårdsson in 1217 during the illness of king Inge Bårdsson).
• To appease a pretender to the throne without giving him the title of king (e.g. Eirik, the brother of king Sverre).

In 1237, jarl Skule Bårdsson was given the rank of duke (hertug). This was the first time this title had been used in Norway, and meant that the title jarl was no longer the highest rank below the king. It also heralded the introduction of new noble titles from continental Europe, which were to replace the old Norse titles. The last jarl in mainland Norway was appointed in 1295

Some Norwegian jarls:

• jarl Toste
• Skule Tostesson, killed by peasants near Haverö church in 12th century.
• Erling skakke, father of king Magnus Erlingsson
• Hakon galen

Sweden

The usage of the title in Sweden was similar to Norway's. Known jarls from the 12th and 13 century were Birger Brosa, Jon jarl, Folke Birgersson, Karl Döve, Ulf Fase and the most powerful of all jarls and the last to hold the title, Birger jarl.

Iceland

Only one person ever held the title of Earl (or Jarl) in Iceland. This was Gissur Þorvaldsson, who was made Earl of Iceland by King Haakon IV of Norway for his efforts in bringing Iceland under Norwegian kingship during the Age of the Sturlungs.

References

• Marc Morris, The King's Companions (History Today December 2005)
• Geoffrey Hughes, Swearing : a social history of foul language, oaths and profanity in English, ISBN 0-14-026707-7
• Lindström, Fredrik; Lindström, Henrik (2006). Svitjods undergång och Sveriges födelse. Albert Bonniers förlag. ISBN 91-0-010789-1 .