Harley, Robert, 1st earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer

Harley, Robert, 1st earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer (1661–1724). Prime minister and bibliophile. From a puritan Herefordshire family, Harley was MP for Tregony (1689–90) and New Radnor Boroughs (1690–1711), and in the 1690s a leader of the new country party (which attacked the royal prerogative and a standing army), as well as twice being chosen Speaker of the Commons. He was again Speaker (1702–5), and in 1704 was appointed secretary of state for the northern department in the Godolphin ministry. His growing Toryism and reputation for deviousness and (in the eyes of the Junto Whigs, Marlborough and Godolphin) untrustworthiness led to his resignation from the ministry in 1708. His revenge was to gain the confidence of Queen Anne and to engineer the fall of the ministry in 1710, becoming chief minister for the next four years, first as chancellor of the Exchequer and then in 1711 as lord treasurer (when he was raised to the peerage by a grateful queen after he had recovered from an assassination attempt).

Though the leader of an essentially Tory ministry, Harley wanted to establish a government above party. His failure was as a result of increased extremism in the Tory Party (which won decisively in the general elections of 1710 and 1713), the problems of the peace with France (which the Whigs strenuously opposed), and the rivalry with Bolingbroke. One week before she died, Anne dismissed Harley from office. He was impeached in 1715, largely for his part in the peace of Utrecht which George I had opposed, and remained in the Tower until 1717 when proceedings were dropped. His main political achievement was to develop a ‘party of the crown’ in Parliament, which was later taken up and refined by Walpole. His extensive collection of books and manuscripts later formed the basis of the British Museum library.

Clyve Jones