Eighteenth-Century British Premiers: Walpole to the Younger Pitt

Introduction: The Road to the Prime Ministership Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford - 'all these men have their price' Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington - 'George II's favourite nonentity' Henry Pelham - Pragmatic Heir to Walpole Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle - Mighty Panjamdrum, Feeble Premier William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire - 'I have no motive but the King's service' John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute - the King's 'dearest friend' George Grenville - Able Premier, Undermined by his own Prolixity Charles Wentworth-Watson, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham - the Conscience of the Whigs William Pitt, the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham -'I am sure that I can save this country, and that nobody else can' Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Gracfton - Well-intentioned Dilettante Frederick North, styled Lord North - Outstanding Parliamentarian, Pity about the Colonies... William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne - Too Clever by Half William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland - Twice a Figurehead William Pitt, the Younger - Peacetime Prodigy, Less Successful in War Epilogue Appendix Index