Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Right Honourable

The Earl Grey

KG PC

Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, painted in 1828

by Sir Thomas Lawrence
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
22 November 1830 16 July 1834
Monarch

William IV

Preceded by Duke of Wellington

Succeeded
by

Lord Melbourne

Leader of the House of Lords

In office
22 November 1830 9 July 1834
Preceded by Duke of Wellington
Succeeded
by

Lord Melbourne

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

In office
24 September 1806 25 March 1807
Prime
Minister

Lord Grenville

Preceded by Charles James Fox

Succeeded
by

George Canning

Leader of the House of Commons

In office
24 September 1806 31 March 1807
Prime
Minister

Lord Grenville

Preceded by Charles James Fox

Succeeded
by

Spencer Perceval

First Lord of the Admiralty

In office
11 February 1806 24 September 1806
Prime
Minister

Lord Grenville

Preceded by Lord Barham

Succeeded
by

Thomas Grenville
Personal details

Born

13 March 1764
Fallodon, Northumberland,
England

Died

17 July 1845 (aged 81)

Howick, Northumberland,
England

Political
party

Whig

Spouse(s)

Mary

Children

Stillborn
Louisa
Elizabeth
Caroline
Georgiana
Henry
Charles
Frederick
Mary
William
George
Thomas
John
Francis
Henry
William
Eliza Courtney (illegitimate)

Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge

Religion

Church of England

Signature

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

1 Early life

2 Great Reform Act

3 Retirement

4 Commemoration

5 Personal life

6 Relationship with Georgiana Cavendish

7 Lord Grey's Ministry, November 1830 July 1834

8 In popular culture

9 Notes

10 References

11 External links

Early life

Descended from a long-established Northumbrian family seated at Howick Hall, Grey was the
second but eldest surviving son of General Charles Grey KB (17291807) and his wife,
Elizabeth (1743/41822), daughter of George Grey of Southwick, co. Durham. He had four
brothers and two sisters. He was educated at Richmond School,[2] followed by Eton and
Trinity College, Cambridge,[3] acquiring a facility in Latin and in English composition and
declamation that enabled him to become one of the foremost parliamentary orators of his
generation. Grey was elected to Parliament for the Northumberland constituency on 14
September 1786, aged just 22. He became a part of the Whig circle of Charles James Fox,
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the Prince of Wales, and soon became one of the major
leaders of the Whig party. He was the youngest manager on the committee for prosecuting
Warren Hastings. The Whig historian T. B. Macaulay wrote in 1841:
"At an age when most of those who distinguish themselves in life are still contending for
prizes and fellowships at college, he had won for himself a conspicuous place in Parliament.
No advantage of fortune or connection was wanting that could set off to the height his
splendid talents and his unblemished honour. At twenty-three he had been thought worthy to
be ranked with the veteran statesmen who appeared as the delegates of the British Commons,
at the bar of the British nobility. All who stood at that bar, save him alone, are gone, culprit,
advocates, accusers. To the generation which is now in the vigour of life, he is the sole
representative of a great age which has passed away. But those who, within the last ten years,
have listened with delight, till the morning sun shone on the tapestries of the House of Lords,
to the lofty and animated eloquence of Charles Earl Grey, are able to form some estimate of
the powers of a race of men among whom he was not the foremost."[4]

Charles Grey in blue coat, white waistcoat and tied cravat, and powdered hair, by
Henry Bone (after Thomas Lawrence), August 1794.

Grey was also noted for advocating Parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. His
affair with the Duchess of Devonshire, herself an active political campaigner, did him little
harm although it nearly caused her to be divorced by her husband.
In 1806, Grey, by then Lord Howick owing to his father's elevation to the peerage as Earl
Grey, became a part of the Ministry of All the Talents (a coalition of Foxite Whigs,
Grenvillites, and Addingtonites) as First Lord of the Admiralty. Following Fox's death later
that year, Howick took over both as Foreign Secretary and as leader of the Whigs.

In Charon's Boat (1807), James Gillray caricatured the fall from power of the Whig
administration, with Howick taking the role of Charon rowing the boat.

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

Lord Grey, c. 1820

Great Reform Act

In 1830, when the Duke of Wellington resigned on the question of Parliamentary reform, the
Whigs finally returned to power, with Grey as Prime Minister. His Ministry was a notable
one, seeing passage of the Reform Act 1832, which finally saw the reform of the House of
Commons, and the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833. As the years
had passed, however, Grey had become more conservative, and he was cautious about
initiating more far-reaching reforms, particularly since he knew that the King was at best only
a reluctant supporter of reform. Unlike most politicians, he seems to have genuinely preferred
a private life; colleagues remarked caustically that he threatened to resign at every setback. In
1834 Grey retired from public life, leaving Lord Melbourne as his successor.
Grey returned to Howick but kept a close eye on the policies of the new cabinet under
Melbourne, whom he, and especially his family, regarded as a mere understudy until he began
to act in ways of which they disapproved. Grey became more critical as the decade went on,
being particularly inclined to see the hand of Daniel O'Connell behind the scenes and blaming
Melbourne for subservience to the Radicals with whom he identified the Irish patriot. He
made no allowances for Melbourne's need to keep the radicals on his side to preserve his
shrinking majority in the Commons, and in particular he resented any slight on his own great
achievement, the Reform Act, which he saw as a final solution of the question for the
foreseeable future. He continually stressed its conservative nature. As he declared in his last
great public speech, at the Grey Festival organised in his honour at Edinburgh in September
1834, its purpose was to strengthen and preserve the established constitution, to make it more
acceptable to the people at large, and especially the middle classes, who had been the
principal beneficiaries of the Reform Act, and to establish the principle that future changes
would be gradual, "according to the increased intelligence of the people, and the necessities of
the times".[5] It was the speech of a conservative statesman.[6]
Retirement

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

Earl Grey tea, a blend which uses bergamot oil to flavour the beverage, is named after Grey.
He is commemorated by Grey's Monument in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, which
consists of a statue of Lord Grey standing atop a 41 m (135 ft) high column. The monument
was once struck by lightning and Earl Grey's head was seen lying in the gutter in Grey Street.
The monument lends its name to Monument Metro station on the Tyne and Wear Metro
located directly underneath. Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne and Grey College, Durham
are also named after Grey.
Personal life
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Grey married Mary Elizabeth Ponsonby (1776 1861), only daughter of William Ponsonby,
1st Baron Ponsonby and Hon. Louisa Molesworth in 1794. The marriage was a fruitful one;
between 1796 and 1819 the couple had ten sons and six daughters:

[a dau.] Grey (stillborn, 1796)

Lady Louisa Elizabeth Grey (7 April 1797 26 November 1841); married

John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, he of the Durham report

Lady Elizabeth Grey (10 July 1798 8 November 1880); married John
Crocker Bulteel (d. 10 September 1843). Their daughter, Louisa Emily
Charlotte Bulteel, is one of the great-great-great-grandmothers of Diana,
Princess of Wales, through her marriage with Edward Baring, 1st Baron
Revelstoke

Lady Caroline Grey (30 August 1799 28 April 1875); married Capt. The
Hon. George Barrington

Lady Georgiana Grey (17 February 1801 1900); never married

Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey (28 December 1802 9 October 1894),
eldest son, who became a politician like his father

General Sir Charles Grey (15 March 1804 31 March 1870), father of Albert
Grey, 4th Earl Grey

Admiral Sir Frederick William Grey (23 August 1805 2 May 1878)

Lady Mary Grey (2 May 1807 6 July 1884); married Charles Wood, 1st
Viscount Halifax

Hon. William Grey (13 May 1808 11 Feb 1815)

Admiral The Hon. George Grey (16 May 1809 3 October 1891)

Hon. Thomas Grey (29 Dec 1810 8 Jul 1826)

Rev. Hon. John Grey (2 March 1812 11 November 1895)

Rev. Hon. Sir Francis Richard Grey (31 March 1813 22 March 1890)
married Lady Elizabeth Howard (18161891), daughter of George Howard,
6th Earl of Carlisle and Georgiana Cavendish (daughter of Georgiana
Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire).

Hon. Henry Cavendish Grey (16 October 1814 5 September 1880)

Hon. William George Grey (15 February 1819 19 December 1865)

Relationship with Georgiana Cavendish

Because Mary was frequently pregnant in their marriage, Grey would travel alone and would
have affairs with other women. Before he married Mary, his engagement to her nearly
suffered because of his affair with Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. A young
Grey met Georgiana sometime in the late 1780s to early 1790s while attending a Whig society
meeting in Devonshire House. Grey and Georgiana became lovers and in 1791, she became
pregnant. Grey wanted Georgiana to leave her husband the duke to go and live with him
instead, but the duke told Georgiana if she did, she would never see her children again.
Instead, Georgiana was sent to France where she gave birth to a daughter on February 20
1792 in Aix-en-Provence who she named Eliza Courtney. She and the child came back to
England in September 1793 and Georgiana entrusted the child to Grey's parents, who raised
her as though she were his sister.
Both Georgiana and Charles spent time with their daughter, who was informed of her true
parentage some time following Georgiana's death in 1806. Her maternal aunt, Henrietta
Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough visited the Greys in 1808 (without knowing she was
Eliza's aunt) and later wrote of her strange observations in which she stated "he (Charles)
seems very fond of her". Eliza later named her youngest child Charles. She also named her
eldest daughter Georgiana.
Lord Grey's Ministry, November 1830 July 1834
Lord Grey atop Grey's Monument, looking down Grey Street in Newcastle upon
Tyne

Inscription on Grey's Monument

Lord Grey First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Lords

Lord Brougham Lord Chancellor

Lord Lansdowne Lord President of the Council

Lord Durham Lord Privy Seal

Lord Melbourne Secretary of State for the Home Department

Lord Palmerston Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Lord Goderich Secretary of State for War and the Colonies

Sir James Graham First Lord of the Admiralty

Lord Althorp Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of

Commons

Charles Grant President of the Board of Control

Lord Holland Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

The Duke of Richmond Postmaster-General

Lord Carlisle Minister without Portfolio

Changes

June 1831 Lord John Russell, the Paymaster of the Forces, and Edward
Smith-Stanley, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, join the Cabinet.

April 1833 Lord Goderich, now Lord Ripon, succeeds Lord Durham as
Lord Privy Seal. Edward Smith-Stanley succeeds Ripon as Secretary of
State for War and the Colonies. His successor as Chief Secretary for Ireland
is not in the Cabinet. Edward Ellice, the Secretary at War, joins the Cabinet.

June 1834 Thomas Spring Rice succeeds Stanley as Colonial Secretary.

Lord Carlisle succeeds Ripon as Lord Privy Seal. Lord Auckland succeeds
Graham as First Lord of the Admiralty. The Duke of Richmond leaves the

Cabinet. His successor as Postmaster-General is not in the Cabinet. Charles

Poulett Thomson, the President of the Board of Trade, and James
Abercrombie, the Master of the Mint, join the Cabinet.
In popular culture

Charles Grey is portrayed by Dominic Cooper in the 2008 film The Duchess, directed by Saul
Dibb and starring Ralph Fiennes and Keira Knightley. The film is based on Amanda
Foreman's biography of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.
He is also a secondary character in Emma Donoghue's 2004 book Life Mask.
Notes
1.
Kramer, Ione. All the Tea in China. China Books, 1990. ISBN 0-8351-2194-1.
Pages 180181.
http://fretwell.kangaweb.com.au/pdfs/Edward%20Kay.pdf
"Grey, Charles (GRY781C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of
Cambridge.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, Warren Hastings, Edinburgh Review LXXIV
(October 1841), pp. 160255.
Edinburgh Weekly Journal, 17 September 1834.
E. A. Smith, 'Grey, Charles, second Earl Grey (17641845), Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May
2009, accessed 13 February 2010.
GRO Register of Deaths: SEP 1845 XXV 130 ALNWICK

1.
References

The Encyclopdia Britannica; A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and

General Information. New York: Encyclopdia Britannica, 1910. (pp. 586
588) googlebooks Accessed 10 May 2008

Mosley, Charles (editor). (1999). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th

edition

E. A. Smith, "Grey, Charles, second Earl Grey (17641845)", Oxford

Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.

E. A. Smith, Lord Grey, 17641845 (1990)

G. M. Trevelyan, Lord Grey of the Reform Bill (1920) 413pp; full text online

"10 Downing Street website, PMs in history". Retrieved 26 July 2006.

External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey

Hansard 18032005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl Grey

More about Earl Grey on the Downing Street website.

Works by or about Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey in libraries (WorldCat

catalog)

Archival material relating to Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey listed at the UK
National Archives

Portraits of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey at the National Portrait Gallery,
London

Parliament of Great Britain

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Sir William Middle
Parliament of the United Kingdom

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Political offices

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Peerage of the United Kingdom

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