For nearly twenty years Robert Walpole was the central figure of British politics. But, from 1737 onwards, a series of events broke his grip on power. In February 1742, Britain’s first Prime Minister resigned. How did it happen?
Robert Walpole had risen to power in the aftermath of the South Sea Company bubble in 1720. The bubble allowed him to protect the monarchy and political class, whilst it also tarnished many of his political rivals. Ultimately, Walpole calmed the markets, and was able to excuse over £4 million in debt. After this, Walpole became known as the ‘Skreenmaster General’, for how he had ‘screened’ the political establishment.
History records that Walpole became Prime Minister in April 1721, though the title would not be used during his lifetime, other than as a term of disdain. Nevertheless, with the benefit of hindsight, we see Walpole as establishing many of the key aspects of the premiership including commanding a majority in Parliament, leading the Cabinet, determining and introducing policy, and even living in Downing Street.
Walpole understood that power came from the House of Commons, and that he was useful to King George I, precisely because he could provide a majority to pass legislation. He had been elected to Parliament in 1701 and had developed a deep knowledge of the institution’s rules and traditions.
Walpole made himself indispensable to the Hanoverian monarchs he served. It was Walpole who managed the day-to-day aspects of politics, and whose tireless efforts ensured the smooth functioning of the government.
Throughout his time in power, Walpole presented himself as a Norfolk country squire. He often said that he preferred hunting to politics and claimed to open letters from his gamekeepers before political correspondence. He was affable, confident, personable, fond of crude jokes, but was also a decisive decision maker.
During the 1730s, Walpole’s system became known as the ‘Robinocracy’…
Walpole’s policies were peace, security, and stability. He said himself that he was ‘no Saint, no Spartan, no reformer’.
Prosperity. Walpole believed that this prosperity could only come from an alliance between the commercial and the landowning classes. Consequently, he kept the land tax low, preferring to raise money through indirect taxation like customs duty, and sought a reduced national debt and lower interest rates.
The primary policy was financial consolidation after the long and costly wars of the early 18th Century (together with the almost ruinous South Sea Bubble disaster). By 1719, Britain’s national debt had reached £50 million. When Chancellor during the 1710s, he had established a Sinking Fund which could be used for short term expenditure. Though the debt itself only fell by about £6 million, one major legacy of Walpole was that tolerance for having a large national debt increased and it became a permanent feature of national politics.
Additionally, interest payments on debt fell from £2.5 million to £1.89 million. More broadly, interest rates fell to just 3% – a direct response to the security Walpole provided.
Stability. Walpole’s system can be summarised in one word: ‘stability’. Walpole’s aim was to consolidate the Hanoverian and Protestant succession. There were no great reforms or moral crusades. A controversy over the Excise Bill in 1733, during which Walpole was burned in effigy, would see Walpole choosing a prudent retreat rather than a political fight.
Peace. Walpole was opposed to fighting wars, believing that a peace policy was best. War was expensive, invariably raised taxes, and was bad for business. He believed that war would present opportunities for ‘Jacobite’ subversives from the exiled Stuart dynasty and that ‘the King’s Crown would be fought for in the land’. During the War of the Polish Succession, Walpole overruled those who favoured intervention on behalf of Britain’s treaty ally, Austria. He boasted in the House of Commons that ‘there are 50,000 men slain this year in Europe and not one Englishman’. However, such a policy was not without cost; Walpole’s critics argued that he had alienated Austria, allowing Britain’s enemies France and Spain to gain victories.
Royal support
Walpole was First Lord of the Treasury because he had the King’s support. Both George I and George II knew that they could count on Walpole to pass legislation and run the government. Moreover, both Georges preferred to spend summers in Hanover, and needed somebody they could trust to run matters in London. As a result, Walpole was a key player in court politics.
Walpole found a key ally in Caroline of Ansbach, wife of George, Prince of Wales. It was Queen Caroline who engineered the reconciliation of George I and the Prince of Wales in 1720. When George II became King, and Caroline became queen. She would use her influence to smooth things over in court between the King and the First Lord. At least one of the courtiers referred to Walpole as ‘the Queen’s minister’.
Caroline of Ansbach, queen of the United Kingdom. Manner of Michael Dahl, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Collection: Warwick Shire Hall
Parliament
The early 18th Century was known as an era of Whig political dominance that historians have called the ‘Whig Supremacy’. When George I became king, he had forced the Tories (who Queen Anne had favoured) out of office and replaced them with the Whigs. Roughly, the difference was that Tories were more anxious with preserving the privileges of the church and more isolationist on foreign policy than the Whigs, though the lines were never clearly drawn, and party affiliation remained quite loose during this era.
The Triennial Acts (1694 and 1716) had created a system of regular elections to Parliament, which were to take place every seven years. The voting requirements different widely across the country, and the system was open to corruption (with many MPs elected by controlled ‘Rotten’ or ‘Pocket’ boroughs’). In 1722, 1727, and 1734, elections were run efficiently, provided Walpole’s Whigs with a commanding majority in the House of Commons.
Walpole was a man with excellent parliamentary and political skills. He was a great manager of people, able to maintain support within the Cabinet and in the Commons. He had a keen sense for what other people wanted, and how he could help them acquire it. It is said that he once gestured to a group of opposition MPs and said, ‘All these men have their price’.
Walpole was also a fine speaker. He was able to stand in the Commons and defend government policy effectively. Lord Hardwicke said that Walpole was ‘the best House of Commons man we ever had’. William Pitt the Elder, one of the finest speakers of the era, and a sworn opponent of Walpole, later said that one of Walpole’s 1740 parliamentary speeches was ‘one of the finest speeches he ever heard’.
Walpole also understood that power came from the Commons. He declined a peerage when offered it by George I and would only accept one after he had resigned as First Lord of the Treasury.
Every spring Walpole hosted the Whig elite for three weeks at his great house at Houghton in Norfolk. These events became known as the ‘Norfolk Congresses’.
Patronage
Robert Walpole’s political power was underpinned by an empire of patronage that became known as the ‘Robinocracy’.
MPs would not receive a salary until 1911. During earlier eras, this opened up opportunities for corruption. The Treasury’s Secret Service Fund was supposed to be used for espionage but was in fact used by Walpole to buttress his support. As it was officially part of the Civil List, the ultimate responsibility for the fund was the King’s, and it could be kept away from parliamentary scrutiny.
Jobs and contracts were distributed by Walpole’s Treasury Secretary, John Scrope. After Walpole fell from power, it was found that one MP had been given a ‘parcel of money’ for election expenses worth £500, while Walpole had spent over £50,000 on pro government propaganda.
A Popular Image
It would be wrong to conflate Walpole’s long premiership with popularity. Walpole was burned in effigy during the Excise Crisis of the 1730s.
John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera referred to ‘Robin of Bagshot, alias Gorgon, alias Bluff Bob, alias Carbuncle, alias Bob Booty’, which most would have taken as a reference to Walpole.
Another famous cartoon shows a giant man standing in the gate of St James’s Palace, whose giant bottom is being kissed by those seeking ‘preferment’. Though it is not stated anywhere, everybody would have known that the giant bottom belonged to Robert Walpole.
Anti-government pamphlets and leaflets were often shared. The writer Jonathan Swift wrote a poem accusing Walpole of ‘selling his Country to purchase his peace.’
But Walpole was capable of hitting back, and regularly spent large sums of money on pro-government propaganda sheets and pamphlets. One poem praised Walpole:
‘One bearing greatest toils with greatest ease,
One born to serve us, and yet born to please;
His soul capacious, yet his judgment clear,
His tongue is flowing, and his heart sincere:’
Queen Caroline, wife of George II, died in November 1737. Walpole wrote that only she could ‘restrain the natural violences of [George’s] temper’. Her death weakened Walpole’s influence over the King in the years to come.
Moreover, as George II aged, the prominence of his son, Frederick, Prince of Wales grew. He made clear his disdain for Walpole and it was very apparent that once he became King, he would replace Walpole. Frederick was known to be a supporter of the ‘Patriotic Whig’ faction in Parliament.
Rise of opposition
By the late 1730s, it was becoming clear that Walpole, who had been in power for two decades, would not last forever. Many ambitious MPs realised that supporting Walpole’s declining power would not do them much good and began to spend more time around the opposition MPs. According to William Coxe, some ‘pined for a new administration, from a mere desire of change’ and others believed that the end of Walpole would lead to ‘a new era, a revival of the golden age’.
The most powerful opposition group was the ‘Patriot Whigs’. They characterised the ‘Robinocracy’ as oligarchy, partisanship, and corruption. They argued that Walpole put stability before Britain’s honour. They were outraged that the insults of France and Spain went unanswered. Opponents included some of the finest speakers in both houses of Parliament, including William Pitt the Elder and George Grenville.
Opposition to Walpole gathered strength throughout the 1730s. By the end of the decade, there were about 100 ‘Patriot Whigs’ who joined with the Tories in opposing Walpole’s ministry in Parliament.
Samuel Johnson and James Boswell at the literary club in London - 1700s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo
War
Over 1738-39, the topic that animated the ‘Patriotic’ faction most was outrage at perceived Spanish insults against Britain. Every day, the House of Commons heard ‘petitions and papers relating to the inhumanities committed upon the English prisoners taken on board of trading vessels’ by the Spanish.
Critics argued that the Spanish infringed on the rights of British sailors to freely navigate to every part of the Indies. The Spanish, for their part, believed the British to be abusing trade rights and smuggling contraband.
The case of Captain Robert Jenkins was particularly celebrated. He alleged that Spanish customs officials had cut off his ear when they boarded his ship in 1731. Even at the time, some suspected a tall tale. But in fevered circumstances of 1738, his case became a symbol of Spanish brutality.
Walpole opposed a war that would upset Britain’s stability. He attempted to negotiate with the Spanish. But this did not satisfy the opposition, who were eager for war. William Pitt asked Parliament, “Is there any longer a nation?” and called Walpole’s peace-making efforts “insecure, unsatisfactory, dishonourable [and] downright subjection in every line.’ Walpole’s stance drew him ‘odium and unpopularity’ (Coxe). Ultimately, with the King and much of Parliament supportive, Britain formally declared war on 23 October 1739.
Walpole tried to resign, but George II continued to want him to be the First Lord. Walpole had told one pro-war minister ‘This war is yours. You have the conduct of it, I wish you joy of it’. But, as the most important figure of the government, it was Walpole’s reputation that quickly began to suffer as the war went badly.
Proponents had believed that the war would be over quickly and victoriously. Like so many wars, the conflict grew out of control, and would last nearly a decade.
13 February 1741, vote of no confidence
On 13 February 1741, Walpole’s opponents attempted to remove him from politics entirely. They brought a motion to Parliament that Walpole be removed ‘from His Majesty’s Presence and Councils for ever’.
William Pitt attacked Walpole’s ministry: ‘During the administration that is the object of censure, at home debts are increased, taxes multiplied, and the sinking fund alienated; abroad the system of Europe is totally subverted, and at this awful moment, when the greatest scene was opening to Europe that has ever before occurred, he who has lost the confidence of all mankind, ought not to be permitted to continue at the head of the King’s government.’
(Coxe, p. 177).
Walpole defended himself: ‘If my whole administration is to be scrutinised and arraigned, why are the most favourable parts to be omitted? If facts are to be accumulated on one side, why not on the other?…Was I not called by the voice of the King and the nation to remedy the fatal effects of the South Sea project, and to support declining credit? Was I not placed at the head of the Treasury when revenues were in the greatest confusion? Is credit revived, and does it now flourish? Is it not at an incredible height, and if so, whom must that circumstance be attributed? Has not tranquillity been preserved both at home and abroad, notwithstanding a most unreasonable and violent opposition?’ (Coxe, p. 203-4).
Walpole won the motion 290-106. A similar motion in the Lords saw it divide 108-59 in Walpole’s favour. Large numbers of peers abstained, including the King’s friend Lord Wilmington. But Walpole had survived, for now…
The Fall of Robert Walpole, 1741-42
1741 Election
Between April and June, a general election took place. Lord Pulteney, the Duchess of Marlborough, and the Prince of Wales, furnished lavish amounts to anti-Walpole candidates.
Though Walpole supporting Whigs were still the majority afterwards, their numbers were reduced, and a number of seats were won by opponents of Walpole. In Scotland and Cornwall, the Whigs had lost many seats. His majority fell from around 40 to just 19.
Later, Horace Walpole concluded that this was a critical moment, because ‘the Parliament which overthrew Sir R. W. was carried against him by his losing the majority of the Scotch and Cornish boroughs’.
Cartegena
Britain planned a major military offensive against the Spanish ports of South America. Their aim was to start with Cartegena on the coast of what is today Colombia. Cartagena was an important strategic target; it was a vital Spanish trading port, and a lynchpin of their empire. Over 100 ships and nearly 30,000 men were dispatched to seize the city, which was only defended by some 3,000 Spanish soldiers. Medals were printed to celebrate the city’s capture. After all, victory was considered a foregone conclusion.
However, a valiant Spanish defence (led by Admiral Blas de Lezo) delayed the British advance and prevented them from capturing the key forts defending the city. A siege began, with the British camped outside. Soon, the rains set in and the British were withered by Yellow Fever. A third of the force died. Further military action was impossible. The British withdrew, defeated, and humiliated. When news reached London in June 1741, many held Walpole directly responsible.
Horace Walpole:
‘I scarce know how to mention Cartagena; ’tis an ominous word in an Englishman’s mouth. After all the mad bonfires, as if we had taken it: I believe the French will light as many for joy we have not. What bad blood it will set in motion in England!’ (YaleCorrespondence, Volume Seventeen, pp.92-93).
View of the engagement during the battle of Cartagena de Indias, 1741. Luis Fernández Gordillo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
December 1741
Parliament returned in December 1741, and Walpole was now in deep political difficulty. For the next few weeks, the House heard petitions and complaints about the election, and oversaw the resolution of disputed contests.
On 11 December, Parliament divided 224 to 218 – a majority for Walpole of just six. A few days later, on 16 December, an opposition candidate, Dr George Lee, won the chairmanship of the Elections Committee, ensuring that opposition petitions would be prioritised.
Horace Walpole: ‘…There were two vast dinners at two taverns for either party; at six we met in the House. …Sir Paul Methuen and Sir Watkyn Williams Wynne proposed Dr Lee—and carried him, by a majority of four: two hundred and forty-two against two hundred thirty-eight—the greatest number I believe that ever lost a question. You have no idea of their huzza! unless you can conceive how people must triumph after defeats for twenty years together….’ (YaleCorrespondence, Volume Seventeen, p.243).
Walpole now found that allies in Parliament were failing to turn up. Former loyalists were turning against him.
Horace Walpole: ‘They cry, ‘Sir R[obert] miscalculated’; how should he calculate, when there are men like Ross, and fifty others he could name!’ (YaleCorrespondence, Volume Seventeen, p.244).
In cold late December, Commons business sometimes ran beyond four in the morning, as the ministry urgently tried to maintain a faltering majority. But it was to no avail. In the early hours of 22 December 1741, on three election matters, Walpole was defeated in the House, losing by 2-6 votes.
It was starting to dawn on Walpole that matters were no longer under his control:
Horace Walpole: ‘Sir R[obert] is in great spirits, and still sanguine: I have so little experience, that I shall not be amazed at whatever scenes follow. My dear child, we have triumphed twenty years; is it strange, that fortune should at last forsake us? Or ought we not always to expect it, especially in this kingdom?’ (Yale Correspondence, Volume Seventeen, p.245).
Over the dark late December days, Walpole tried to shore up his support, meeting his closest allies, and Whig MPs. Coxe referred to Walpole’s ‘attempts to increase his friends, and to maintain himself in power’. He asked the King to raise the Prince of Wales’s allowance, hoping that it would persuade him to call off his loyalists. The Prince, knowing that Walpole was now in trouble, did not accept.
Horace Walpole:
‘[Walpole] who was asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow . . . now never sleeps above an hour without waking ; and he who, at dinner, always forgot he was minister, and was more gay and thoughtless than all his company, now sits without speaking, and with his eyes fixed for an hour together.’ (Yale Correspondence, Volume Seventeen, p. 171).
Walpole believed that his powerful Whig allies, Lord Hardwicke and the Duke of Newcastle, were abandoning him.
Sir Dudley Ryder (MP): ‘[Walpole] spoke as if he pretty much resented the usage his friends of the Cabinet had given him, and that Lord Chancellor and the Duke of Newcastle had made up the matter with Lord Carteret quarter of a year ago.’ (Quoted in ‘Sedgwick, History of Parliament’).
A motion of no confidence
Parliament reassembled on 18 January 1742.
On 21 January 1742, the House voted on a motion about the secret committee. Everybody knew that Walpole’s majority was now very narrow. The atmosphere was electric. It was reportedly ‘the fullest house known for many years’. The opposition deployed ‘every art used to secure a majority’. Opposition MPs even tried to lock a group of Walpole supporting MPs in a room by filling the keyhole ‘with dirt and sand’ to prevent their voting. Walpole won the vote, but by a majority of just three (253 to 250). Walpole was clearly weakened.
On 28 January, Walpole supported a ministerial petition disputing the return of two members for Chippenham. This time, he was defeated by a single vote (235-236).
Now Walpole’s friends and allies gave him a message that so many Prime Ministers would hear over the centuries that followed…
Robert Walpole: ‘I must inform you that the panic was so great among what I should call my own friends that they all declared my retiring was become absolutely necessary, as the only means to carry on the public business, and this to be attended with honour and security.’ (Coxe, p. 256).
Horace Walpole: ‘… my brothers, my uncle, I and some of his particular friends persuaded Sir R[obert] to resign— He was undetermined till Sunday night…’ (Yale Correspondence, Volume Seventeen, p. 319).
William Coxe:
‘He retired unwillingly and slowly. No shipwrecked pilot ever clung to the rudder of a sinking vessel with greater pertinacity than he did to the helm of state; he did not relinquish his post until he was driven from it by the desertion of his followers and the clamours of the public.’ (Coxe, p. 255).
Pre-1834 interior of the House of Commons when it was situated in the medieval chapel of St. Stephen's where the House of Commons had sat since 1547. This painting shows the galleries designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The Speaker depicted is believed to be Richard Onslow i. The arms of Queen Anne are shown above the Speakers chair. Peter Tillemans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: Parliament web
2 February 1742
The end came on 2 February. There was another vote for Chippenham that day. Walpole’s ally Lord Hartington reflected on his mood.
Lord Hartington: ‘[Walpole] hitherto kept up his spirits tolerably well, but I think I can perceive that he is now uneasy; and indeed I am afraid he has very good reason to be so; for I really believe, and so do most of his friends, that the other party in three weeks time must get a majority by the alterations in elections; for we have a great many people that have declared they will not attend them any more.’ (Quoted in ‘Sedgwick, History of Parliament’).
This time, the motion was defeated 241-225, a majority of 16 votes. Walpole had now decided that these defeats effectively constituted a vote of no confidence and told his colleagues that he would never again sit in the Commons.
Sir Dudley Ryder (MP): ‘He said that all the Cabinet Council had told the King his affairs could not go on as long as Sir Robert continued in post, and that it would be most advisable for himself and the King that he should quit. The King had told them all he would never part with him till he himself desired it.’ (Quoted in ‘Sedgwick, History of Parliament’).
Horace Walpole described how Downing Street was filled with well wishers on the days that followed:
Horace Walpole: ‘Sir Robert has already had three levees this morning, and the rooms still overflowing; they overflow up to me. You will think this the prelude to some victory! On the contrary, when you receive this, there will be no longer a Sir Robert Walpole: you must know him for the future by the title of Earl of Orford. That other envied name expires next week with his ministry!’ (Yale Correspondence, Volume Seventeen, p. 318).
11 February 1742
On 11 February, Walpole was granted an audience with the King, and resigned.
Horace Walpole:
‘There were a few bonfires last night, but they are very unfashionable, for never was a fallen minister so followed! When he kissed the King’s hand to take his first leave, the King fell on his neck, wept and kissed him, and begged to see him frequently. He will continue in town, and assist the ministry in the Lords.’ (Yale Correspondence, Volume Seventeen, p. 319).
It is said that the nursery ‘Who Killed Cock Robin’ was inspired, or came to be associated with, the fall of Robert Walpole…
‘All the birds of the air
fell a-sighing and a-sobbing,
when they heard the bell toll
for poor Cock Robin.’
What happened next?
Politics
Spencer Compton, Lord Wilmington had long aspired to the office of First Lord of the Treasury. With Walpole out of the picture, he was appointed by George II. But historians have largely seen him as a figurehead, dominated by the monarch and more assertive men in the Cabinet, including Lord Carteret. It would be over a year before Wilmington’s death, at which point George II appointed Henry Pelham as First Lord. Pelham, supported by his brother the Duke of Newcastle, was a much more effective leader than his predecessor, and was the true successor to Walpole.
War
The ‘War of Jenkin’s Ear’ was subsumed by the Europe-wide War of the Austrian Succession, which saw the French, Spanish, and Prussians fight the British, Habsburgs, and Dutch.
Walpole’s prediction that ‘the King’s Crown would be fought for in the land’ came true when the Jacobites mounted their greatest rebellion in 1745. The predominantly Scottish Jacobite army, led by the Charles Edward Stuart defeated several government forces, and threatened London. But, turning back at Derby, they were defeated at Culloden in April 1746.
The war lasted until 1748 when it ended, indecisively. The great victories about which the Patriot Whigs had dreamed, never quite materialised. They would have another go when war came again during the 1750s…
Rest of Walpole’s life
Walpole was created the Earl of Orford on 9 February. He also ensured that his illegitimate daughter, Maria Skellett, was legitimised as ‘Lady Maria Walpole’.
Walpole’s enemies in Parliament formed a committee to investigate his rule. It found some evidence of corruption in Walpole’s political operation, including sums of money paid from Treasury funds for propaganda. But their attempts to level charges at Walpole himself failed, as key witnesses were uncooperative and some of Walpole’s friends had been appointed to the committee.
Walpole continued to advise and remained a presence at Westminster. In 1744, the dominant Lord Carteret fell, and Walpole had the satisfaction of seeing his protégé, Henry Pelham, effectively become Prime Minister. Walpole also made occasional speeches in the House of Lords. Over 1744-45, he also spent more time managing his Norfolk estate. He died in London in March 1745.
Legacy
Robert Walpole created a template for future premierships. He led the House of Commons, commanded a majority, was a powerful director of policy, and managed the government for two decades. He also lived in Downing Street, ensuring that the house itself was within the possession of the First Lord in perpetuity.
Today, Walpole’s portrait hangs in Downing Street’s entrance hall and greets all visitors. Another portrait hangs in the Cabinet Room, the only portrait in that room, a powerful reminder of his enduring legacy.
Sources
Coxe, William, Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, Volume IV (London: Longman, 1816). Available online at ‘https://archive.org/details/memoirslifeanda04coxegoog/page/n8/mode/2up’ (accessed 5 September 2023).
Hayton, D.W., ‘WALPOLE, Robert II (1676-1745), of Houghton, Norf.’, on The History of Parliament Online, 2002, ‘https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/walpole-robert-ii-1676-1745’ (accessed 5 September 2023).
Leonard, Dick, A History of British Prime Minister: Walpole to Cameron (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Sedgwick, R. ‘The Second Whig Opposition, 1722-42’, on The History of Parliament Online, ‘http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/survey/iii-second-whig-opposition-1722-42’ (accessed 5 September 2023).
Walpole, Horace, Lewis, WS (ed), The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, Volume Seventeen (Yale: Yale University Press, 1954). Available online at ‘https://walpole.library.yale.edu/’ (accessed 5 September 2023).
Dodington, George Bubb, ‘On Sir ROBERT WALPOLE’S Birth-day, AUGUST the 26th’, Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive, <https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o5155-w0430.shtml>, accessed 6 December 2023.
Harris, George, The Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, Volume 1 (London, 1847).
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