thumb|Quartered arms of Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, KG, PC, FRS

Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1661 – 19 May 1715) was a British politician and poet. He was the grandson of the 1st Earl of Manchester and was eventually ennobled himself, first as Baron Halifax in 1700 and later as Earl of Halifax in 1714. As one of the four members of the so-called Whig Junto, Montagu played a major role in English politics under the reigns of King William III and Queen Anne. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1694 to 1699 and as First Lord of the Treasury from 1714 until his death the following year. He was also president of the Royal Society and a patron of the scientist Isaac Newton.

Early life

Charles Montagu was born in Horton, Northamptonshire, to Elizabeth Irby and George Montagu, fifth son of the 1st Earl of Manchester. He was educated first in the country, and then at Westminster School, where he was chosen as a Queen's Scholar in 1677, and entered into close friendship with George Stepney.

In 1679 Montagu was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge. At the time his relation, Dr. John Montagu, was Master of Trinity College and took him under his wing. While studying at Cambridge Montagu began a lasting association with Isaac Newton.

He graduated with an MA in 1682 and became a Fellow of Trinity in 1683.

Two portraits of Montagu by Godfrey Kneller are in the college collection.

In 1685, Montagu's verses on the death of King Charles II made such an impression on the Earl of Dorset that he was invited to town and introduced to other entertainments. In 1687, Montagu joined with Matthew Prior in The City Mouse and the Country Mouse, a burlesque of John Dryden's The Hind and the Panther. Shortly before the Glorious Revolution, he married his cousin's widow, the Dowager Countess of Manchester. In the 1689 election, with the support of the Earl of Dorset and the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, the Earl of Oxford, he successfully contested the Maldon constituency against the Tory Sir John Bramston. Montagu sat for Maldon in the Convention Parliament of 1689. He also purchased for £1,500 a position as Clerk of the Council, to which he was appointed on 21 February 1689. He was returned for Maldon again without a contest at the 1690 election.

Political office

In 1691, having become a member of the House of Commons, he argued in favour of a law to grant the assistance of counsel in trials for high treason. He became flustered in the middle of his speech, and upon recovering himself, observed "how reasonable it was to allow counsel to men called as criminals before a court of justice, when it appeared how much the presence of that assembly could disconcert one of their own body".

After the House of Commons he rose quickly, becoming one of the Commissioners of the Treasury and a member of the Privy Council. In 1694 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reward for devising the establishment of the Bank of England, the plan which had been proposed by William Paterson three years before but not acted upon. After an unsuccessful attempt to supplant the Earl of Sunderland's leadership with the Whigs, he was compelled to reconcile with him in August 1695. With the support of Sunderland and the Court, Montagu was returned to Parliament for the Westminster constituency in October 1695. Many of his possessions were auctioned by Christopher Cock on 25 March 1740 at his room in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden.

Alexander Pope commemorated the Earl's death in his unpublished poem "Farewell to London in the Year 1715":

<blockquote><poem>The love of arts lies cold and dead

In Halifax's urn,

And not one Muse of all he fed

Has yet the grace to mourn.</poem></blockquote>

See also

  • Whig Junto
  • List of presidents of the Royal Society

Bibliography

  • Cooper, C. H. (1861). Memoirs of Cambridge. Macmillan.
  • Johnson, Samuel (2006). The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. Roger Lonsdale, editor. Oxford University Press.
  • Thomson, A. T. (1871). The Wits and Beaux of Society. Routledge.
  • Handley, Stuart (2004). "Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press online edn, Oct 2005.

References