Stanhope, James Stanhope, 1st Earl

Stanhope, James Stanhope, 1st Earl (1673–1721). Soldier, diplomat, and politician. Stanhope came to prominence in the War of the Spanish Succession where he was largely responsible for the campaign of 1710, including the disaster at Brihuega, where he was captured. He was a Whig MP 1702–13 and 1714–17, was created a viscount in 1717 and an earl in 1718. From the accession of George I, Stanhope was continuously in office as secretary of state for the southern department (1714–16), for the northern department (1716–17, 1718–21), and 1st lord of the Treasury and chancellor of the Exchequer (1717–18). Foreign policy was Stanhope's main interest, his aim being to safeguard the Hanoverian succession by ending Britain's isolation by building up a series of alliances ensuring collective security. He teamed up with the 3rd earl of Sunderland (who was interested in domestic policy), and together they dominated the ministry until Stanhope's death (particularly during the Whig schism of 1717–20 when Walpole and Townshend left the government). Stanhope's diplomatic triumphs were the negotiation of the Triple and Quadruple Alliances in 1717 and 1718. He used the British navy in the Baltic and the Mediterranean to maintain the balance of power. At home he supported the Whig supremacy by trying to ensure the dominance of the existing ministry with the Septennial Act (1716), the Peerage Bill (1719), and the repeal of the Occasional Comformity and Schism Acts (1719).

Clyve Jones