Godolphin, Sidney Godolphin, 1st earl of

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Godolphin, Sidney Godolphin, 1st earl of (1645–1712). Prime minister. MP for Helston (1668–79) and St Mawes (1679–81), Godolphin was created baron (1684) and earl (1706). A Tory by inclination, he was the archetypal bureaucratic politician, described as ‘never in the way and never out of it’, who held the offices of a lord of the Treasury (1679), secretary of state for the northern department (1684), 1st lord of the Treasury (1684–5, 1690–6, 1700–1), chamberlain to Queen Mary of Modena, and a commissioner of the Treasury (1687). From the accession of Anne, he and Marlborough (the ‘duumvirate’), and from 1704 to 1708 with Robert Harley (the ‘triumvirate’), as political managers, ran the government, Godolphin being lord treasurer and, effectively, prime minister (1702–10). His forte was in financial affairs, and he was responsible for raising the money which enabled England to fight 20 years of continental wars. He found himself increasingly unable to withstand political pressure from the Whig Junto and the duchess of Marlborough, and from 1706 the Whigs began to take over the ministry, leading to Harley's resignation in 1708. Harley intrigued with the queen and took his revenge in 1710 when Godolphin was dismissed.

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