Charles Townshend 2d Viscount Townshend

Charles Townshend Townshend, 2d Viscount , 1674-1738, English statesman. A leading Whig in the reign of Queen Anne, he served as a commissioner to negotiate the union (1707) with Scotland and as ambassador (1708-11) to the Netherlands. He strongly supported the Hanoverian succession, and when George I became king (1714) Townshend was appointed a secretary of state. He was somewhat overshadowed by his colleague James Stanhope (later 1st Earl Stanhope ), and in 1716 Stanhope and the 3d earl of Sunderland undermined his influence with the king and secured his dismissal. With his brother-in-law Robert Walpole , who left office with him, Townshend formed an opposition group, led nominally by the prince of Wales (later George II). He returned to office in 1720, and after the fall of Sunderland and the death of Stanhope, he became (1721) secretary of state again, sharing leadership of the ministry with Walpole. He negotiated the Treaty of Hanover (1725) with Prussia and France to counter the alliance between Spain and Austria and, after a brief war in which the Spanish besieged Gibraltar, concluded the Treaty of Seville (1729) with Spain. Foreign policy disagreements with Walpole led to Townshend's resignation in 1730. He retired to the country, where, as an experimental farmer, he became known as Turnip Townshend.

Townshend, Charles, 2nd Viscount (1674–1738) British Whig statesman, known as ‘ Turnip Townshend’. Robert Walpole's brother-in-law, he helped to arrange George I's accession to the throne in 1714 and, as Secretary for the Northern Department, suppressed the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. He was forced to resign in 1730, and devoted his retirement to agricultural improvements.

Townshend, Charles, 2nd Viscount (1674–1738) English politician and agriculturist. He became Secretary of State in 1714, but quarrelled with George I over foreign policy and was dismissed from the government in 1716. His brother-in-law WALPOLE resigned in sympathy and Townshend was restored as Secretary of State when Walpole came to power in 1721. Walpole at first gave him a free hand in foreign affairs, but Townshend allowed a quarrel with Austria to get out of hand and frequent interference from Walpole led to his resignation in 1730. He retired from politics completely and went back to Norfolk to improve his family estate. He became famous as a pioneer of the AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION, popularizing four-course rotation of crops, which enabled farmers to keep many more cattle alive during the winter and to grow more crops without having to keep one field in three fallow every year. He also introduced the widespread cultivation for winter fodder of the turnip, previously only a garden crop, which earned him the nickname “Turnip” Townshend.