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field-type-filefield field-field-landing-image"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <img class="imagefield imagefield-field_landing_image" width="900" height="120" alt="" src="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/files/parliaments_landing.jpg?1474904168" /> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-text field-field-icon"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> icon </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-type-text field-field-landing-titles"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <p> </p><h2 class="title">Parliaments, 1715-1754</h2><p> </p> </div> </div> </div> <p>Politics remained extremely partisan in the immediate aftermath of the accession of George I, with a large number of contests at the general election of <a href="/node/64359/">1715</a> (and an even higher proportion in <a href="/node/64360/">1722</a>). Yet, following the arrival in England of the new monarch, the proscription of most Tories from central and local offices, and the defeat of the Jacobite invasion of Scotland (<span style="text-decoration: underline;">‘the ’15’</span>), the Court Whig regime quickly entrenched itself on a stable basis. The 1st Earl Stanhope’s <span style="text-decoration: underline;">peerage bill</span>, a blatant attempt to consolidate the power of the aristocracy by capping the size of the House of Lords, was defeated in the Commons in 1719; even so, there was no significant increase in the number of peers until the 1780s.</p> <p>The main beneficiary of the internal Whig rivalry of the late 1710s, <a href="/node/59078/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Robert Walpole</span></a>, a former <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Junto</span> Whig and junior minister, effectively became head of the government on the death of the 3rd earl of Sunderland in 1722. Under him, the office of prime minister, as a position of ‘first among equals’ within a now much smaller and ‘efficient’ <span style="text-decoration: underline;">cabinet</span>, became a de facto part of the constitution (though not formally recognized as such for nearly two centuries). A ‘House of Commons man’ – he was so much at home that he ate Norfolk apples in the chamber – Walpole dominated through his unrivalled administrative competence and the distribution of political patronage.</p> <p>The <a href="/node/8828">country</a> opposition, which united Country Whigs (like <a href="/node/58742/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">William Pulteney</span></a>) and Tories (for example, <a href="/node/59197/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sir William Wyndham, 3rd bt.</span></a>), opposed his authoritarian style of government and urged such policies as the removal of placemen from the Commons. Having overcome previous threats to his majority, notably over the excise crisis in 1733 (in the Commons) and over the Quaker tithes bill in 1736 (in the Lords), he eventually fell from office in 1742, after losing support in the <a href="/node/64363/">1741 Parliament</a> over the <a href="/node/67447/">war with Spain</a>. His 20 years in office remains the record for the longest serving premiership.</p><p>Walpole’s survival in office had been partly due to his ability to win over George II, after his succession in 1727, and to remain in favour with Queen Caroline. Likewise <a href="/node/58643/">Henry Pelham</a>, who was prime minister from 1744 to 1754, owed his position to royal approval; this he won, in conjunction with his brother, the duke of Newcastle, and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, over their Whig rival Lord Carteret (2nd Earl Granville) in 1744 and again, after their resignations had forced the king’s hand, in 1746. One of the permanently flurried Newcastle’s major preoccupations was electioneering, particularly in <a href="/node/42502/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sussex</span></a>, which Pelham represented, and <a href="/node/42460/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Nottinghamshire</span></a>.</p> <p>Also like Walpole, under whom he had served his political apprenticeship, Pelham had the ability to inspire confidence in the Commons, where his plans for peace and reducing the national debt were well received. The death in 1751 of Frederick, prince of Wales, whose <a href="/node/67595/">Leicester House</a> residence was the centre of an opposition reversionary interest, was another factor in the government’s favour. Pelham, an honest and underrated premier, died just before the 1754 general election.</p><p> </p> </div> <div id="content-right"> <div id="block-block-34" class="block "> <div class="content"> <br> <br> <table width="900" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td style="background-color:#13A8C9;background-image:url('http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/sites/all/themes/custom/hop2/images/backgrounds/hanoverians_small.png');color:white;padding:3px;vertical-align:middle;text-align: right;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;" width="112" height="35"><a href="/periods/hanoverians"><h2 style="color:white;">EXPLORE the<br><br>Hanoverians Period of<br><br>historyofparliamentonline</h2></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#13A8C9;color:white; vertical-align:middle;white-space:nowrap; width: 0px; " height="140"><a href="/about/publications"><img src="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/sites/all/themes/custom/hop2/images/backgrounds/buy-our-pubs-footer-block.jpg" alt="Our Publications" width="300" height="100"></a></td> </tr> </table> <br> <h2>Related Resources</h2> <br> <a href="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/research/members/members-1715-1754">1715-1754 Members </a> <br /> <a href="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/research/constituencies/constituencies-1715-1754">1715-1754 Constituencies </a> <br /> <a href="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/research/surveys/surveys-1715-1754">1715-1754 Surveys </a> <br /> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="content-bottom"> <div id="block-views-featured_members-block_18" class="block "> <h2 class="title"><div><div><span class="feat-head">Parliaments</span></div></div></h2> <div class="content"> <div class="view view-featured-members view-id-featured_members view-display-id-block_18 view-dom-id-1"> <div class="view-content"> <table class="views-view-grid col-3"> <tbody> <tr class="row-1 row-first"> <td class="col-1 col-first"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1715"><h3>1715</h3></a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-phpcode"> <span class="field-content">The highly eventful Parliament of 1715 was dominated by the political struggles occasioned by the transition to the new royal dynasty, the House of Hanover, following the death of Queen Anne on 1 August 1714. The new parliament should have run a three-year course to 1718, but the passage of the...</span> </div> <span class="views-field-view-node"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1715">Read more</a></span> </span> </td> <td class="col-2"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1722"><h3>1722</h3></a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-phpcode"> <span class="field-content">The process of consolidating the Whig regime continued into this Parliament. The elections held in March 1722 saw further Tory losses and more Whig gains, giving the Whigs an even greater overall majority than in 1715. However, ongoing rivalries among the senior Whig politicians ensured that the...</span> </div> <span class="views-field-view-node"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1722">Read more</a></span> </span> </td> <td class="col-3 col-last"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1727"><h3>1727</h3></a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-phpcode"> <span class="field-content">The general election which was held during August and September 1727 had been unexpected, being brought about by the sudden death of George I. The timing of the election caught William Pulteney off guard and demolished his plans to confront Robert Walpole with a strong opposition in the...</span> </div> <span class="views-field-view-node"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1727">Read more</a></span> </span> </td> </tr> <tr class="row-2 row-last"> <td class="col-1 col-first"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1734"><h3>1734</h3></a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-phpcode"> <span class="field-content">When Parliament reassembled in January 1735 Sir Robert Walpole was no longer the invincible minister he once appeared to be. But although Walpole now faced a large opposition of Tories and Whigs, he would continue to benefit from its inability to unite effectively right up until the 1741 ...</span> </div> <span class="views-field-view-node"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1734">Read more</a></span> </span> </td> <td class="col-2"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1741"><h3>1741</h3></a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-phpcode"> <span class="field-content">After the 1741 election practically annihilated what remained of Sir Robert Walpole’s majority in the Commons, he resigned from the government, thereby ending his unbroken 20-year tenure as ‘prime minister’. The establishment of a stable new ministry in the midst of Britain’s...</span> </div> <span class="views-field-view-node"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1741">Read more</a></span> </span> </td> <td class="col-3 col-last"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1747"><h3>1747</h3></a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-phpcode"> <span class="field-content">The comparative quiet of proceedings in the 1751 session was remarked on by Henry Fox who said that ‘a bird might build her nest in the Speaker’s chair, or in his peruke’, and never be disturbed. Many historians agree that these years of Henry Pelham’s administration were similar to the ...</span> </div> <span class="views-field-view-node"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/volume/1715-1754/parliament/1747">Read more</a></span> </span> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>  </div> </div> <div id="footer-gradient"> </div> <div id="footer"><div id="copyright"> © Crown copyright and The History of Parliament Trust 1964-2020 </div> <div id="footer-links"> <ul> <li><a href="/about/terms-and-conditions" title="Terms & Conditions">Terms & Conditions</a></li> <li><a href="/help/privacy-and-cookies">Privacy & Cookies</a></li> <li><a href="/about/faqs">FAQs</a></li> <li><a href="/commonly-used-abbreviations" title="Abbreviations">Abbreviations</a></li> <li><a href="mailto:website@histparl.ac.uk">Contact Us</a></li> </ul> </div></div> <div id="ihr-logo"><a href="http://www.history.ac.uk" target="_blank"><img src="/files/IHR-maintained-logo.png" alt="IHR Logo" /></a></div> </div> </body> </html>