Like almost everything in the British political system, the position of Prime Minister was not created by a constitution or a set of formally defined procedures. Instead, it emerged from a set of circumstances created by the 1688 ‘Glorious Revolution’ and the Hanoverian Succession.
However, before that there have been other powerful men in English history that predated 1688. There were around forty men who fulfilled the position of what 1920s historian Clive Bingham called the ‘Chief Minister’.
Clive Bigham, The Chief Ministers of England: Nearly always he was the friend of the King, rarely the champion of the people. His duties were arduous, his tenure insecure, his favour fleeting, his fate hazardous. Officially his post was never recognized nor were his privileges defined, though his penalties were only too well known. To run such risks required great rewards, and while few Chief Ministers abjured rank and riches, many met with an unhappy end.
Bayeux Tapestry – Scene 23: Harold swearing oath on holy relics to William, Duke of Normandy. Myrabella, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0
Many of these individuals held some kind of political office or were associated with a governing function. Bigham categorises these individuals in three phases.
First, from Saxon times, the Justiciar of the Kingdom was the key figure. This continued during Norman and Angevin times. With large parts of France as part of the monarch’s possessions, there was a need for a ‘deputy’ when the King was away or at war. This person often continued to be the Justiciar.
However, during the Middle Ages, the Chancellor often became the Chief Minister; they had access to patronage, they were the head of royal clerks, and the Keeper of the King’s Great Seal, by which the monarch signalled their approval of official documents.
This ended after the Reformation with ‘the firmer establishment of the Legislature, and the expansion of trade and wealth, the Chancellor is displaced by the Treasurer, who typifies the power of the purse.’
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, submits to the queen of their Lancastrian enemies, Margaret of Anjou. Credit: Edmund Evans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Who were these people?
Between the 940s and 1721, there were around 40 men who might be called ‘Chief Minister’. While some became immensely powerful and controversial figures, exercising power for decades, others came to prominence due to a particular set of necessary skills or circumstance, and then faded soon afterwards. Their power was never complete, and they served the monarch, not the people.
This article will not profile them all, but a few deserve mention.
Godwin might have been the first Chief Minister. He was an adviser to Canute and Edward ‘the Confessor’, even supposedly murdering another claimant to the throne. He was the dominant figure in Edward’s court. But, he grew too powerful and Edward outlawed him in 1051. The following year, Godwin would lead an invasion of England, having his titles restored.
One of the Chief Ministers became King – Harold Godwinson – as Harold II after the death of Edward ‘the Confessor’. This, despite the fact that he had already promised his loyalty to Duke William of Normandy, setting in motion the Norman invasion of 1066. Godwinson was killed at the Battle of Hastings, and William ‘the Conqueror’ became King.
Later, RanulfFlambard, Bishop of Durham, had a long and tumultuous career. He earned a reputation as a shrewd financial administrator under William II, but fell out with his successor Henry I. Eventually, Henry imprisoned Flambard on charges of embezzlement. In 1101, Flambard escaped from the Tower of London (the first man to do so), using a rope that had been smuggled to him in a gallon of wine. He then allied with Henry’s brother Robert Curthouse in an attempt to oust him. He failed, though was allowed to continue as Bishop of Durham; his skills were probably just too valuable for the King to part with.
In their day, both Simon de Montfort and the Earl of Warwick were powerful influences. The former had become de facto ruler of the country during the 1260s after leading Baronial opposition to Henry II. The latter became known as ‘Warwick the Kingmaker’ during the Wars of the Roses (1455-85), when he switched sides from Lancastrian to Yorkist to Lancastrian again. Both men died in battle.
Simon de Montfort. E-Mennechet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Cardinal Wolsey served the tempestuous Henry VIII becoming one of the most important men in England. He directed most of the government’s policy, both at home and abroad, during the 14 years he was Chief Minister. He also built a great palace for himself at Whitehall, which Henry later confiscated. In 1527, he travelled to France personally to sign a Treaty, in a lengthy procession, with ‘yeomen in orange tawny coats and the Cardinal’s hat with T.C, for Thomas Cardinal embroidered on them’. In France, he even went hunting with the French King. However, against the backdrop of the burgeoning Reformation, he failed to secure a papal annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon over 1527-29. Soon afterwards, he fell from power in disgrace.
Robert Cecil (Earl of Salisbury) was an immensely important figure in Elizabeth I’s court as secretary of state. He also secretly corresponded with James VI of Scotland, advising the King on how to cultivate Elizabeth’s favour. When James became King of England in 1603, Cecil continued to serve as secretary of state. In October 1605, Catholic nobleman Lord Monteagle received an anonymous warning not to attend the state opening of Parliament. He passed the message that he had received to Cecil. Soon afterwards, Cecil showed the letter to the King, and a subsequent search of the cellars below Parliament foiled the ‘Gunpowder Plot’.
However, despite his considerable influence, Cecil did not have control of government finances until he became Lord Treasurer in 1608 and could never reign in King James I’s lavish spending. Three centuries later, at the close of the Victorian era, Cecil’s descendant, Lord Salisbury, was the last great aristocratic Prime Minister.
An illustration of the Monteagle letter found in the book “What was the Gunpowder Plot?” by John Gerard. First published in “Mischeefes mysterie London” in 1617. See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Many historians believe that the Duke of Buckingham was likely the lover of King James I, who had promoted him from the position of cupbearer at the royal table, and heaped wealth and titles upon him during the 1610s. Buckingham had a keen sense for power and administration, gathering offices, taking advice from the likes of philosopher Francis Bacon and city financier Lionel Cranfield. By the 1620s, he was Lord Admiral and effectively foreign minister. He even accompanied Charles, the Prince of Wales, on a daring incognito trip to Madrid in 1623 to meet the Habsburg Spanish infanta, who, it turned out, did not want to marry a non-Catholic. He later oversaw negotiations with France for Charles’s marriage to Henrietta Maria. Like Walpole, he had a powerful patronage network, and men known to represent his views in Parliament. He went on to serve Charles I, commanding a botched military operation against Spain in November 1625. He was assassinated in 1628 by an embittered former soldier who had been wounded in the Spanish fiasco.
The Earl of Clarendon served as an adviser to Charles I during the Civil War (1642-46), and went into exile with the royalist court. He was appointed Lord Chancellor to Charles II’s Restoration Court in 1660. His daughter married James II, and he was therefore the grandfather of both Queen Mary and Queen Anne.
Riches and power were a reward for many of the Chief Ministers, but life could be precarious. Overall, eleven Chief Ministers met an unhappy ending. These include Thomas Beckett, who was murdered in Canterbury cathedral by overzealous knights. Sir Richard Empson, Edmund Dudley, and Thomas Cromwell were executed by Henry VIII. Cardinal Wolsey died in disgrace, on his way to a trial in London that would not have turned out well for him. The Duke of Buckingham was murdered. The Earl of Strafford was executed on Parliament’s orders in the lead up to the Civil War.
Further reading
Thomas Cromwell, 1485-1540
Thomas Cromwell was born into humble circumstances during the 1480s. He was the son of a Surrey yeoman and merchant. He travelled on the continent during his youth including to France, Italy, and the Low Countries, and might have been a mercenary soldier.
He returned to England in the 1510s, and became an MP in 1523. During the following year, he began working for Cardinal Wolsey gaining a good understanding of royal administration. But he managed to escape Wolsey’s downfall, and earned the King’s favour. He was appointed to the Privy council, a body advising the King, in 1530.
Cromwell became Henry VIII’s all powerful Chief Minister over 1532-40. During that time he occupied a variety of roles including Chancellor, Principal Secretary, Master of the Roles, Lord Privy Seal, and Lord Great Chamberlain (gradually accumulating these officers, rather than giving them up).
Over these years, Cromwell drafted and enforced the legislation passed by Parliament. As an MP, he sat in Parliament, influencing proceedings. He oversaw the judicial murder of Queen Anne Boleyn in 1536 as well as others that Henry deemed his opponents and enemies.
Cromwell played an important role in the religious reforms following the Break with Rome in 1527. He clarified the Church of England’s religious position and doctrine, as well as orchestrating the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
But things began to wrong in 1539. Cromwell proposed Anne of Cleves as Henry’s wife after the death of his third wife, Jane Seymour. Cromwell had passed on exaggerated descriptions of Anne’s beauty to convince Henry. However, when they finally met on New Year’s Day 1540, Henry found Anne ugly and the marriage was unsuccessful and unconsummated.
Cromwell’s failure could not have happened at a worse time. Henry had a terrible jousting accident in January 1536. It left him in physical pain, prevented him from exercising, and worsened his already volatile temper, leaving him ever more unpredictable.
Slowly, Cromwell’s court enemies gained power, arranging the marriage of Catherine Howard to Henry. Cromwell was eventually outmanoeuvred and arrested in June 1540 and executed the following month, on Henry’s orders. Henry later regretted having Cromwell killed, supposedly referring to him as ‘the most faithful servant he ever had’. Royal government was less effective during the rest of Henry’s reign, due to Cromwell’s absence.
Thomas Cromwell, Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/1498–1543). Credit: Henry Clay Frick Bequest, Frick Collection.
Further reading
Oliver Cromwell, 1599-1658
Oliver Cromwell was the great, great grandson of Thomas Cromwell’s sister Katherine. He would surpass even Thomas’s fame, becoming the only commoner in English history to have ever ascended to become the Head of State.
Cromwell was born in Huntingdon in 1599, into a family of minor gentry. He was educated at Cambridge University, and elected MP to Huntingdon in 1628. However, the first four decades were undistinguished. He contemplated emigration to the American colonies.
However, things changed with the onset of the Civil War in 1642. Cromwell sat in Parliament as an MP for Cambridge, and supported the Roundhead cause, joining the army when war began. He quickly distinguished himself as a ruthless and courageous cavalry commander. In 1645, he was appointed commander of the New Model Army’s cavalry. He played a key role in the decisive Parliamentary victory at Naseby. Over the months that followed, he commanded Parliamentary forces as they defeated the last remaining Royalist armies and mopped up pockets of resistance, culminating in the surrender of the Royalist capital of Oxford in June 1646.
During the ‘Second Civil War’ of 1648, Cromwell once again commanded, defeating the Royalist forces at Preston. In early 1649, Cromwell was the third of 59 to sign Charles I’s death warrant, and he supposedly forced another to sign by seizing his hand. With the King’s death, the republican Commonwealth was established.
In 1649-51, Cromwell stamped down English authority on Ireland and Scotland with two more bloody military campaigns. He then defeated another Royalist uprising at Worcester in September 1651.
In April 1653, Cromwell, who had tired of fractious Parliamentary indecision, decided to dissolve Parliament. He declared “you are no Parliament, I say you are no Parliament; I will put an end to your sitting”, and his soldiers cleared the House of Commons. Cromwell replaced Parliament with a handpicked ‘Barebones Parliament’.
Cromwell dismissed the ‘Barebones’ Parliament at the end of 1653 when he created the Protectorate (officially, the Commonwealth of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland). The 1653 Instrument of Government appointed Cromwell the Lord Protector.
Oliver Cromwell Dissolving The Long Parliament
The Protectorate would experiment with different varieties of Parliament (sometimes single chamber and sometimes with an ‘Other House’) for the rest of its existence.
Cromwell was a decisive decisionmaker – something proven many times on the battlefield. But in government, he tended to moderate between factions in the higher ranks of the army. He also favoured freedom of conscience for anyone who worshipped (including Jews, Presbyterians, Independents etc).
Some opponents of the Protectorate faced imprisonment, the judiciary was purged, and blasphemers faced very severe punishment.
Governance wise, the Protectorate was quite effective, being able to harvest more taxes than the royalists could, partly due to the punitive taxes on former royalists, and the sale of royal and church lands. Better finances also meant that the Protectorate could strengthen the navy, and he even embarked on an ill-advised war with Spain in 1654.
In 1655, after a failed royalist uprising, and after a military failure in the Caribbean, Cromwell decided that he needed to make England a more religious and Godlier place, while taking further measures to weaken royal loyalty. Consequently, he decided to rule directly, with ten regional associations established, each governed by a Major General empowered to crack down on moral vice, especially sexual vice – with adultery a capital punishment.
But the Protectorate lasted little longer than Cromwell himself. He died in 1658. His son Richard was his successor, but was persuaded to leave power, leading to the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.
Cromwell is a slightly different beast to the Chief Ministers. He exists in a niche all of his own in terms of English power. His was a military regime, with the decisive factor being a powerful army, emboldened by religious fervour and victory in the Civil War.
There was little concept of consent from the people, Parliament, or aristocracy (especially in Scotland or Ireland, where Cromwell’s rule was delivered by the sword). Despite his Godliness, Cromwell’s power rested on his military prowess, and his key supporters in government were soldiers.
Unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England (1599-1658), circa 1653, three-quarters sinister, wearing a white lawn collar, brown background (unfinished), the reverse set with a bloodstone plaque. On vellum oval, 3 1/8in. high. On view at Bowhill House, Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust. Samuel Cooper, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Walpoles’s immediate predecessors
The role of Prime Minister is a direct consequence of the 1688 Settlement. However, this presents a problem; why, in that case, did it take three decades for a real Prime Minister to emerge in 1721?
Part of the answer lies in the fact that the monarchs of that period, William III and Queen Anne, were assertive figures, who ran their own governments.
Queen Anne vetoed the Scottish Militia Bill in 1708 and ennobled 12 Tory peers in order to ensure the House of Lords would assent to the Peace of Utrecht in 1711 (known as ‘Harley’s Dozen’). She was an active monarch, discussing business daily with Cabinet ministers, presiding over Cabinet meetings, attending House of Lords debates, and consulting with a wide spectrum of politicians. She was also strong minded, making her own decisions, regardless of whether her Cabinet fully agreed.
As such, there was less room for the emergence of a Prime Minister. Anne was very much her own Prime Minister. But, she did rely on two men for party and parliamentary support. These were the Tory grandees Lord Godolphin and Robert Harley (later Earl of Oxford).
Godolphin oversaw the negotiations with the Scottish Commissioners in the Cockpit (near Downing Street) that resulted in the Act of Union 1707, uniting England and Scotland in the political union of ‘Great Britain’. He was High Treasurer from 1702-10 which marked the height of his influence. He also formed a key alliance with the military commander, the Duke of Marlborough.
Godolphin was replaced by Harley. Harley (Chancellor from 1710-11, and Lord High Treasurer from 1711-14) climbed the ranks of late-Stuart government. He had had a powerful base in the Commons, and was elected Speaker three times. However, in 1701, he accepted appointment as a Secretary, which meant he had to give up his parliamentary position. He made up for the loss by forging alliances in court. He was dismissed in 1708 though returned to lead a primarily Tory government in 1711, using his position to press for peace in Europe.
Walpole had been appointed Chancellor in the first George I ministry, which he had led alongside Charles Townshend (Viscount Townshend). However, in 1717, they were replaced by one led by Viscount Stanhope and the Earl of Sunderland, with the former between 1717-18 and the latter from 1718-21.
Stanhope was an interesting figure. He was a war hero, who had commanded the British part of the allied army that occupied Madrid during the War of the Spanish Succession. He had inflicted a very heavy defeat on the Bourbon army at Saragossa at 1710. The victory, and the fall of Madrid, represented the zenith of the Grand Alliance’s fortunes during that war.
In power, the Stanhope-Sunderland ministry oversaw the defeat of Spain in the War of the Quadruple Alliance (a brief, mismanaged, and ill-advised Spanish attempt to recoup losses incurred during the Succession war) with Britain profiting from its strange alliance with both France and Austria (which Stanhope had negotiated). They also successfully suppressed the Jacobite Rising of 1719 which had been confined to the Highlands of Scotland.
But, Stanhope and Sunderland sat in the House of Lords, and therefore the extent to which they contributed to management and leadership of the Commons is questionable. By this point the Whigs had also split, with Walpole leading another faction that was out of power (and occasionally formed Parliamentary alliances with the Tories). Even so, but for the hand of fate, either of these men might well be remembered as the first Prime Minister.
However, both had allowed the South Sea Company to gobble up more and more government debt, contributing to the speculative ‘South Sea bubble’. When that bubble finally burst in 1721, they became tarnished men.
Stanhope was vigorously defending the government on 4 February 1721 in the House of Lords when he was taken ill with a terrible headache and died the next day. Sunderland was humiliated by association with the bubble, and though Walpole took pity on him and the House of Commons acquitted him, his political career was ruined, and he resigned all offices in 1721. He died the following year.
There are several reasons why these figures could not be considered Prime Ministers, though many of them took on functions that Prime Ministers would recognise.
The eighteenth century would see the creation of what historian John Brewer called the fiscal-military state. This, in short, described a state prepared to pay for large armed forces and to wage war frequently. Financial institutions were established to facilitate this process, including, in England, the Bank of England and the National Debt. This gave the modern First Lord of the Treasury a direct oversight of finance, together with fiscal tools that simply did not exist for their predecessors. Only in such circumstances could anything approaching modern government develop.
The chief concern of people like Godwin, Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell, Buckingham, and Clarendon was the dynasty they served. The fortunes of the monarch, the country, and themselves were all tied together.
In a related way, almost all Chief Ministers were dependent on royal favour. They did not have independent power. Of course, this does cross over to the late 18th Century when monarchical favour was necessary for Prime Ministers. But, the Chief Minister had little independent political identity outside the monarch, unlike the Prime Minister who could rely on Parliament, and if they lost royal favour (as in the case of Beckett and Thomas Cromwell), it would end badly for them.
Above all, Chief Ministers were valued for their administrative skills. They were seldom in charge of royal government (that was the monarch’s role), nor did they have the link with Parliament that was so important for the emergence of the Prime Minister. They were not expected to provide a majority in Parliament (and due to laws against being an MP and occupying a high office, could not really do so).
For much of British history, the monarch, or a regent, or royal relation, provided the head of the government. Assertive monarchs like Henry VIII, William III, and Anne were their own ‘Prime Ministers’.
References
ONLINE
Laura John, ‘Henry VIII’s Deteriorating Health 1509-1547’, Historic UK, 20 August 2018, <https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Henry-VIII-Health-Problems/>, accessed 19 October 2023.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia, “James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 February 2023 <https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Stanhope-1st-Earl-Stanhope>, accessed 19 October 2023.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Robert Cecil, 1st earl of Salisbury”, Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 May 2023, <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Cecil-1st-earl-of-Salisbury>, accessed 19 October 2023.
BOOKS
Clive Bigham, The Chief Ministers of England, 920-1720 (London, 1923).
John Brewer, The Sinews of Power: War and the English State, 1688–1783 (London, 1989).
Judith Lissauer Cromwell, Good Queen Anne: Appraising the Life and Reign of the Last Stuart Monarch (Jefferson, 2019).
Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed, Britain 1603-1715 (London, 1996).
Jonathan D. Oates, The Last Spanish Armada (London: Helion, 2019).
Anthony Seldon, Jonathan Meakin, Illias Thoms, The Impossible Office? The History of the British Prime Minister (Cambridge, 2021).
Robert Tombs, The English and Their History (Penguin, 2014).
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