William Pitt the Younger

Early life

Family

William Pitt, the second son of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, was born on 28 May 1759 at Hayes Place in the village of Hayes in Kent. He was from a political family on both sides, as his mother, Hester Grenville, was the sister of the former prime minister George Grenville. According to the biographer John Ehrman, Pitt exhibited the brilliance and dynamism of his father's line, and the determined, methodical nature of the Grenvilles.

Education

Suffering from occasional poor health as a boy, he was educated at home by the Reverend Edward Wilson. An intelligent child, Pitt quickly became proficient in Latin and Greek. He was admitted to Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 26 April 1773, a month before turning fourteen, going up to Cambridge in October 1773. He studied political philosophy, classics, mathematics, trigonometry, chemistry and history. At Cambridge, Pitt was tutored by George Pretyman Tomline, also at Pembroke College, who became a close personal friend and looked after Pitt whilst at University. Pitt later appointed Pretyman Bishop of Lincoln, then Winchester, and drew upon his advice throughout his political career. While at Cambridge, he befriended the young William Wilberforce, who became a lifelong friend and political ally in Parliament. Pitt tended to socialise only with fellow students and others already known to him, rarely venturing outside the university grounds. Yet he was described as charming and friendly. According to Wilberforce, Pitt had an exceptional wit along with an endearingly gentle sense of humour: "no man ... ever indulged more freely or happily in that playful facetiousness which gratifies all without wounding any." An example of Pitt's innocent wit was recorded by Sir John Sinclair. In the early years of Pitt's ministry there was great interest in the new young First minister. Sinclair was required to write an account of Pitt to satisfy foreign curiosity when he was abroad. At the end of a long description of Britain's eminent leader he added: "'Of all the places where you have been, where did you fare best?' My answer was, 'In Poland; for the nobility live there with uncommon taste and splendour; their cooks are French,- their confectioners Italian, – and their wine Tokey.' He immediately observed, 'I have heard before of The Polish diet.'"

In 1776 Pitt, plagued by poor health, took advantage of a little-used privilege available only to the sons of noblemen, and chose to graduate without having to pass examinations. Pitt's father was said to have insisted that his son spontaneously translate passages of classical literature orally into English, and declaim impromptu upon unfamiliar topics in an effort to develop his oratorical skills. Pitt's father, who had by then been raised to the peerage as Earl of Chatham, died in 1778. As the younger son, Pitt received only a small inheritance. In the months following the death of the Earl of Chatham, Pitt was forced to defend his father's reputation. This came about when the Bute family made claims that the late Lord had sought out the Earl of Bute with the desire to form a political coalition. Pitt although just over nineteen years of age publicly argued that this was not the case. Faced with Pitt's arguments the Bute family backed off and ceased making their claims. He acquired his legal education at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar in the summer of 1780.

Early political career (1780–1783)

Member of Parliament

During the general elections of September 1780, at the age of 21, Pitt contested the University of Cambridge seat, but lost, coming bottom of the poll of the five candidates. Pitt had campaigned on his own merit, not as part of any group or with prominent backers. He explained to a friend that 'I do not wish to be thought inlisted [sic] in any party or to call myself anything but the Independent Whig, which in words is hardly a distinction, as every one alike pretends to it.' Intent on entering Parliament, Pitt secured the patronage of James Lowther, later 1st Earl Lowther, with the help of his university friend Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland. Lowther effectively controlled the pocket borough of Appleby; a by-election in that constituency sent Pitt to the House of Commons in January 1781. Pitt's entry into Parliament is somewhat ironic as he later railed against the very same rotten and pocket boroughs that had given him his seat.

In Parliament, the youthful Pitt cast aside his tendency to be withdrawn in public, emerging as a noted debater right from his maiden speech. Pitt's first speech made a dramatic impression. Sir John Sinclair, member of Parliament for Lostwithiel, thought that Pitt's first speech was never surpassed and "rarely equalled by any ever delivered in that assembly." When Pitt resumed his seat after finishing speaking there was thunderous applause. Sinclair noted that there was "utter astonishment ... by an audience accustomed to the most splendid efforts of eloquence." Pitt originally aligned himself with prominent Whigs such as Charles James Fox. With the Whigs, Pitt denounced the continuation of the American War of Independence, as his father strongly had. Instead he proposed that the prime minister, Lord North, should make peace with the rebellious American colonies. Pitt also supported parliamentary reform measures, including a proposal that would have checked electoral corruption. He renewed his friendship with Wilberforce, now the MP for Hull, with whom he frequently met in the gallery of the Commons.

Chancellorship

After Lord North's ministry collapsed in 1782, the Whig Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, was appointed prime minister. Pitt was offered the minor post of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, but he refused, considering the post overly subordinate. Lord Rockingham died only three months after coming to power; he was succeeded by another Whig, William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne. Many Whigs who had formed a part of the Rockingham ministry, including Fox, now refused to serve under Lord Shelburne, the new prime minister. Pitt, however, was comfortable with Shelburne, and thus joined his government; he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Fox, who became Pitt's lifelong political rival, then joined a coalition with Lord North, with whom he collaborated to bring about the defeat of the Shelburne administration. When Lord Shelburne resigned in 1783, King George III, who despised Fox, offered to appoint Pitt prime minister, but Pitt declined, for he knew he would be incapable of securing the support of the Commons. The Fox–North coalition rose to power in a government nominally headed by William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland.

Pitt, who had been stripped of his post as Chancellor of the Exchequer, joined the Opposition. He raised the issue of parliamentary reform in order to strain the uneasy Fox–North coalition, which included both supporters and detractors of reform. He did not advocate an expansion of the electoral franchise, but he did seek to address bribery and rotten boroughs. Though his proposal failed, many reformers in Parliament came to regard him as their leader, instead of Charles James Fox.

Effects of the American War of Independence

Losing the war and the Thirteen Colonies was a shock to the British system. The war revealed the limitations of Britain's fiscal-military state when it had powerful enemies and no allies, depended on extended and vulnerable transatlantic lines of communication, and was faced for the first time since the 17th century by both Protestant and Catholic foes. The defeat heightened dissension and escalated political antagonism to the king's ministers. Inside parliament, the primary concern changed from fears of an over-mighty monarch to the issues of representation, parliamentary reform, and government retrenchment. Reformers sought to destroy what they saw as widespread institutional corruption. The result was a crisis from 1776 to 1783. The peace in 1783 left France financially prostrate, while the British economy boomed due to the return of American business. That crisis ended in 1784 as a result of the king's shrewdness in outwitting Fox and renewed confidence in the system engendered by the leadership of Pitt. Historians conclude that the loss of the American colonies enabled Britain to deal with the French Revolution with more unity and organisation than would otherwise have been the case. Britain turned towards Asia, the Pacific, and later Africa with subsequent exploration leading to the rise of the Second British Empire.

First Premiership (1783–1801)

Rise to power

The Fox–North Coalition fell in December 1783, after Fox had introduced Edmund Burke's bill to reform the East India Company to gain the patronage he so greatly lacked while the King refused to support him. Fox stated the bill was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy. Pitt responded that: "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." The king was opposed to the bill; when it passed in the House of Commons, he secured its defeat in the House of Lords by threatening to regard anyone who voted for it as his enemy. Following the bill's failure in the Upper House, George III dismissed the coalition government and finally entrusted the premiership to William Pitt, after having offered the position to him three times previously.

A constitutional crisis arose when the king dismissed the Fox–North coalition government and named Pitt to replace it. Though faced with a hostile majority in Parliament, Pitt was able to solidify his position within a few months. Some historians argue that his success was inevitable given the decisive importance of monarchical power; others argue that the king gambled on Pitt and that both would have failed but for a run of good fortune.

Pitt, at the age of 24, became Great Britain's youngest prime minister ever. The contemporary satire The Rolliad ridiculed him for his youth:

Many saw Pitt as a stop-gap appointment until some more senior statesman took on the role. However, although it was widely predicted that the new "mince-pie administration" would not outlast the Christmas season, it survived for seventeen years.

So as to reduce the power of the Opposition, Pitt offered Charles James Fox and his allies posts in the Cabinet; Pitt's refusal to include Lord North, however, thwarted his efforts. The new government was immediately on the defensive and in January 1784 was defeated on a motion of no confidence. Pitt, however, took the unprecedented step of refusing to resign, despite this defeat. He retained the support of the king, who would not entrust the reins of power to the Fox–North Coalition. He also received the support of the House of Lords, which passed supportive motions, and many messages of support from the country at large, in the form of petitions approving of his appointment which influenced some MPs to switch their support to Pitt. At the same time, he was granted the Freedom of the City of London. When he returned from the ceremony to mark this, men of the City pulled Pitt's coach home themselves, as a sign of respect. When passing a Whig club, the coach came under attack from a group of men who tried to assault Pitt. When news of this spread, it was assumed Fox and his associates had tried to bring down Pitt by any means.

First government

In domestic politics, Pitt concerned himself with the cause of parliamentary reform. In 1785 he introduced a bill to remove the representation of thirty-six rotten and pocket boroughs, and to extend, in a small way, the electoral franchise to more individuals. Pitt's support for the bill, however, was not strong enough to prevent its defeat in the Commons. The bill of 1785 was the last parliamentary reform proposal introduced by Pitt to British legislators.

His administration secure, Pitt could begin to enact his agenda. His first major piece of legislation as prime minister was the India Act 1784, which re-organised the British East India Company and kept a watch over corruption. The India Act created a new Board of Control to oversee the affairs of the East India Company. It differed from Fox's failed India Bill 1783 and specified that the board would be appointed by the King. Pitt was appointed, along with Lord Sydney, who was appointed president. The act centralised British rule in India by reducing the power of the governors of Bombay and Madras and by increasing that of Governor-General Charles Cornwallis. Further augmentations and clarifications of the governor-general's authority were made in 1786, presumably by Lord Sydney, and presumably as a result of the company's setting up of Penang with their own superintendent (governor), Captain Francis Light, in 1786.

Convicts were originally transported to the Thirteen Colonies in North America, but after the American War of Independence ended in 1783, the newly formed United States refused to accept further convicts. Pitt's government took the decision to settle what is now Australia and found the penal colony in August 1786. The First Fleet of 11 vessels carried over a thousand settlers, including 778 convicts. The Colony of New South Wales was formally proclaimed by Governor Arthur Phillip on 7 February 1788 at Sydney.

Another important domestic issue with which Pitt had to concern himself was the national debt, which had doubled to £243 million during the American war. Every year, a third of the budget of £24 million went to pay interest. Pitt sought to reduce the national debt by imposing new taxes. In 1786, he instituted a sinking fund so that £1 million a year was added to a fund so that it could accumulate interest; eventually, the money in the fund was to be used to pay off the national debt. Pitt had learned of the idea of the 'Sinking Fund' from his father in 1772. Earl Chatham had been informed of the Welshman, Sir Richard Price's idea, Pitt approved of the idea and adopted it when he was in office. By 1792, the debt had fallen to £170 million.

Duel

In May 1798, Pitt fought a duel against George Tierney. Their dispute began when Pitt proposed a measure to increase the manpower of the Royal Navy. Tierney called for more time to consider the bill, which frustrated Pitt, who then accused Tierney of obstructing national defence. When Tierney protested against the remark, instead of ordering Pitt to withdraw his comment or apologise, Speaker Addington asked Pitt to explain his remarks. An angry Pitt stood his ground 'he would neither retract from, nor farther explain, his former expressions.' The next day, Pitt received a challenge to a duel from Major-General George Walpole, acting as Tierney's second. Pitt accepted immediately and asked the Speaker of the House of Commons, Henry Addington, to be his second, but Addington refused. He then sought Thomas Steele, but when Steele could not be contacted, Dudley Ryder agreed to act as his second.

The two met by arrangement at Putney Heath on 27 May 1798. Armed with dueling pistols, both men took aim at twelve paces and missed. When it came time to take a second shot, Pitt deliberately aimed into the air. The seconds then jointly intervened and insisted the duel end, having decided that sufficient satisfaction had been given and that both parties had retained their honor.

Resignation

The usual explanation for Pitt's resignation is explained by Hague. Following the Acts of Union 1800, Pitt sought to inaugurate the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by granting concessions to Roman Catholics, who formed a 75% majority of the population in Ireland, by abolishing various political restrictions under which they suffered. The king was strongly opposed to Catholic emancipation; he argued that to grant additional liberty would violate his coronation oath, in which he had promised to protect the established Church of England. Pitt, unable to change the king's strong views, resigned on 16 February 1801 so as to allow Henry Addington, his political friend, to form a new administration. This view has been corrected by Alter in his second volume on Pitt. The actual cause of the resignation was that Pitt wanted peace with France. With opposition from the King and significant figures in his Cabinet Pitt could not make a successful peace. His plan therefore was to engineer a situation where those who opposed peace would resign. Then with this crisis George III would seek Addington, Pitt's best friend to become First Minister. Pitt could then orchestrate peace behind the scenes and return to office later. Pitt therefore suddenly altered his views on Catholic Emancipation, persuaded those who refused to make peace to support him in the Catholic Question. Pitt then engineered the situation for the king to discover this hated policy was supported by the Cabinet. George III then insisted that the Question should be dropped. Pitt then used the king's demand as an excuse to offer his resignation and Pitt made the pro-war Cabinet resign. Addington was then to take his place. This plan was so successfully carried out that for over 200 years it was not seriously challenged.

At about the same time, however, the king suffered a renewed bout of madness, with the consequence that Addington could not receive his formal appointment. Though he had resigned, Pitt temporarily continued to discharge his duties; on 18 February 1801, he brought forward the annual budget. Power was transferred from Pitt to Addington on 14 March, when the king recovered.

Opposition (1801–1804)

Backbencher

Shortly after leaving office, Pitt supported the new administration under Addington, but with little enthusiasm; he frequently absented himself from Parliament, preferring to remain in his Lord Warden's residence of Walmer Castle—before 1802 usually spending an annual late-summer holiday there, and later often present from the spring until the autumn.

From the castle, he helped to organise a local Volunteer Corps in anticipation of a French invasion, acted as colonel of a battalion raised by Trinity House—he was also a Master of Trinity House—and encouraged the construction of Martello towers and the Royal Military Canal in Romney Marsh. He rented land abutting the Castle to farm on which to lay out trees and walks. His niece Lady Hester Stanhope designed and managed the gardens and acted as his hostess.

The Treaty of Amiens in 1802 between France and Britain marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars. Everyone expected it to be only a short truce. By 1803, war had broken out again with France under Napoleon. Although Addington had previously invited him to join the Cabinet, Pitt preferred to join the Opposition, becoming increasingly critical of the government's policies. Addington, unable to face the combined opposition of Pitt and Fox, saw his majority gradually evaporate and resigned in late April 1804.

Second premiership (1804–1806)

Reappointment

Pitt finally returned to the premiership on 10 May 1804. He had originally planned to form a broad coalition government, with both the Tories and Whigs under one government. But Pitt faced the opposition of George III to the inclusion of Fox, disliked by the king. Moreover, many of Pitt's former supporters, including the allies of Addington, joined the Opposition. Thus, Pitt's second ministry was considerably weaker than his first.

Nevertheless, Pitt formed a second government, which consisted of largely Tory members with some former ministers of the previous ministry. These include Lord Eldon as Lord Chancellor, former Foreign Secretary Lord Hawkesbury as Home Secretary, Lord Harrowby as Foreign Secretary, the former prime ministers the Duke of Portland and Addington as Lord Privy Seal and Lord President of the Council, with Pitt's prominent allies the Viscount Melville and Lord Castlereagh as First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary of State for the Colonies, respectively.

Second government

By the time Pitt became prime minister in 1804, the war in Europe had been escalating for sometime since the peace of Amiens in 1801 and in 1803 the War of the Third Coalition began. Pitt's new government resumed the war effort yet again to confront the French and to defeat Napoleon. Pitt had initially allied Britain with Austria, Prussia and Russia, and now renewed the alliance with them against Napoleonic France and its allies.

The British government began placing pressure on the Emperor of the French, Napoleon. By imposing sanctions, putting up a blockade across the English Channel and undermining French naval activities, Pitt's efforts proved a success and thanks to his efforts, the United Kingdom joined the Third Coalition, an alliance that included Austria, Russia, and Sweden. In October 1805 Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, won a crushing victory in the Battle of Trafalgar, ensuring British naval supremacy for the remainder of the war. At the annual Lord Mayor's Banquet toasting him as "the Saviour of Europe", Pitt responded in a few words that became the most famous speech of his life:

I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me; but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.

Nevertheless, the Coalition collapsed, having suffered significant defeats at the Battle of Ulm (October 1805) and the Battle of Austerlitz (December 1805). After hearing the news of Austerlitz, Pitt referred to a map of Europe, "Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years."

Pitt was an expert in finance and served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Critical to his success in confronting Napoleon was using Britain's superior economic resources. He was able to mobilise the nation's industrial and financial resources and apply them to defeating France.

With a population of 16 million, the United Kingdom was barely half the size of France, which had a population of 30 million. In terms of soldiers, however, the French numerical advantage was offset by British subsidies that paid for a large proportion of the Austrian and Russian soldiers, peaking at about 450,000 in 1813.

Death

The setbacks took a toll on Pitt's health. He had long suffered from poor health, beginning in childhood, and was plagued with gout and "biliousness", which was worsened by a fondness for port that began when he was advised to consume it to deal with his chronic ill health. On 23 January 1806, Pitt died at Bowling Green House on Putney Heath, probably from peptic ulceration of his stomach or duodenum; he was unmarried and left no children.

Pitt's debts amounted to £40,000 (equivalent to £3,100,000 in 2025) when he died, but Parliament agreed to pay them on his behalf. A motion was made to honour him with a public funeral and a monument; it passed despite some opposition. Pitt was buried in Westminster Abbey on 22 February, having lain in state for two days in the Palace of Westminster.

Pitt was succeeded as prime minister by his first cousin William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, who headed the Ministry of All the Talents, a coalition which included Charles James Fox.

Personal life

Pitt became known as a "three-bottle man" in reference to his heavy consumption of port wine. Each of these bottles would be around 350 millilitres (12 US fl oz) in volume.

At one point rumours emerged of an intended marriage to Eleanor Eden, to whom Pitt had grown close. Pitt broke off the potential marriage in 1797, writing to her father, Lord Auckland, "I am compelled to say that I find the obstacles to it decisive and insurmountable".

According to his biographer William Hague, Pitt was happiest among close male friends and showed little interest in expanding his social circle or pursuing romantic relationships. He had no known female companions outside his family, prompting contemporary rumours and satirical commentary. Though some allusions were made to possible homosexual leanings, Hague concludes that Pitt was likely asexual and abstained from intimacy throughout his life, prioritizing his political ambitions.

Legacy

Pitt was a prime minister who consolidated the powers of his office. Though he was sometimes opposed by members of his Cabinet, he helped define the role of the Prime Minister as the supervisor and co-ordinator of the various government departments. After his death the conservatives embraced him as a great patriotic hero.

One of Pitt's accomplishments was a rehabilitation of the nation's finances after the American War of Independence. Pitt made changes to the tax system in order to improve its capture of revenue, which helped manage the mounting national debt.

Some of Pitt's domestic plans were not successful; he failed to secure parliamentary reform, emancipation, or the abolition of the slave trade although this last took place with the Slave Trade Act 1807, the year after his death. The 1792 Slave Trade Bill passed the House of Commons mangled and mutilated by the modifications and amendments of Pitt, it lay for years, in the House of Lords. Hague considers the unfinished abolition of the slave trade to be Pitt's greatest failure. He notes that by the end of Pitt's career, conditions were in place that would have allowed a skillful attempt to pass an abolition bill to succeed, partly because of the long campaigning Pitt had encouraged with his friend William Wilberforce. Hague goes on to note that the failure was likely due to Pitt being a "spent force" by the time favourable conditions had arisen. In Hague's opinion, Pitt's long premiership, "tested the natural limits of how long it is possible to be at the top. From 1783 to 1792, he faced each fresh challenge with brilliance; from 1793 he showed determination but sometimes faltered; and from 1804 he was worn down by ... the combination of a narrow majority and war".

Historian Marie Peters has compared his strengths and weaknesses with his father:

Having some of his father's volatility and much of the self-confidence bordering on arrogance, the younger Pitt inherited superb and carefully nurtured oratorical gifts. These gave him, like his father, unsurpassed command of the Commons and power to embody the national will in wartime. There were, however, significant differences. The younger Pitt's eloquence, unlike his father's, included the force of sustained reasoned exposition. This was perhaps in part expression of his thoroughly professional approach to politics, so unlike his father's, but possibly deriving something from Shelburne. The younger Pitt was continuously engaged in depth with major issues of his day. He regularly and energetically sought the best information. He was genuinely progressive, as his father was not, on parliamentary reform, Catholic emancipation, commercial policy, and administrative reform. His constructive capacity in his chief responsibility, financial policy and administration, far surpassed his father's record, if it was less impressive and perhaps more equally matched in foreign and imperial policy and strategy. With good reason, his long career in high office was the mirror image of his father's short tenure. In contrast, only briefly was Chatham able to rise to the challenge of his age. By his last decade time had passed him by.

Cultural references

Film and television

William Pitt is depicted in several films and television programs.

Robert Donat portrays Pitt in the 1942 biographical film The Young Mr. Pitt, which chronicles the historical events of Pitt's life.

Pitt's attempts during his tenure as prime minister to cope with the dementia of King George III are portrayed by Julian Wadham in the 1994 film The Madness of King George.

The 2006 film Amazing Grace, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Pitt, depicts his close friendship with William Wilberforce, the leading abolitionist in Parliament.

Pitt is caricatured as a boy prime minister in the third series of the television comedy Blackadder, in which Simon Osborne plays a fictionalised Pitt as a petulant teenager who has just come to power "right in the middle of [his] exams" in the episode "Dish and Dishonesty". A fictionalised younger brother, "Pitt the Even Younger", appeared as a candidate standing in the Dunny-on-the-Wold by-election.

In the series of prime ministerial biographies Number 10, produced by Yorkshire Television, Pitt was portrayed by Jeremy Brett.

Places named after him

The University Pitt Club, a club for students at the University of Cambridge, was founded in 1835 "to do honour to the name and memory of Mr William Pitt".

Pittwater in Australia was named in 1788 by the British explorer Arthur Phillip.

Pitt Street is the main financial precinct street in the central business district of Sydney.

Pitt Town, New South Wales, near Windsor outside Sydney, together with another township called Wilberforce

Mount Pitt, second-highest mountain on Norfolk Island

Pitt Water, a body of water in South East Tasmania

Pitt's Head in Snowdonia, Wales, was named after the rock formation's resemblance to him.

While Chatham County, North Carolina, was named after his father, Pittsboro, North Carolina, was named after Pitt the Younger.

In Penang, Malaysia, Pitt Street and Pitt Lane were named for him, as British prime minister when George Town, Penang, was founded in 1786.

Pitt Street in Kowloon, an area of Hong Kong

Pittsburgh, Ontario

Pitt Street in Glasgow

Pitt Street in Windsor, Ontario

Pitt Street in Kingston, Ontario

Pitt Street in Cornwall, Ontario