Leicester House opposition

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Leicester House opposition. Leicester House, built in the 1630s, was leased in 1718 by George, prince of Wales, and became a focus of opposition to his father's ministers. Twenty-five years later, his own son Frederick, prince of Wales, set up in opposition there and, after his death, the tradition was continued by his widow Princess Augusta, and his son, the future George III. Though Leicester House politics was often factious, it was free from the taint of Jacobitism and helped make the concept of opposition acceptable. George III sold Leicester House in 1764 and, after serving as a private museum, it was demolished in 1791. Thomas Pennant described it neatly as ‘the pouting place of princes’.

J. A. Cannon

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