Who is castlereagh

Addington took office but Lord Castlereagh refused to serve under him. In Castlereagh accepted Addington's offer to return to the cabinet. His initial responsibility was India but he soon became the leading figure in developing Britain's foreign policy. Henry Addington resigned from office in May and was replaced by William Pitt as prime minister. Castlereagh was now giving the post of Secretary for War. Castlereagh left office in but five years later the new prime minister, Lord Liverpool , appointed Castlereagh as his foreign secretary.

Castlereagh concentrated his efforts to defeat Napoleon in Europe. In Castlereagh represented Britain at the Congress of Vienna. The agreement reached at Vienna resulted in the reinforcement of hereditary rule and the suppression of liberal and nationalist sentiments in Europe. In British forces were victorious at the Battle of Waterloo. The abdication of Napoleon and the successful conclusion of the French Wars improved the public standing of Castlereagh and Lord Liverpool. It was hoped that with the end of the conflict in Europe, Lord Liverpool's government would be able to concentrate on introducing the social reforms that were much needed in Britain.

In Britain endured an economic recession. Unemployment, a bad harvest and high prices produced riots, demonstrations and a growth in the Hampden Club movement. As leader of the House of Commons , Castlereagh in November, , introduced the bill for the suspension of Habeas Corpus.

The economic situation gradually improved and Lord Liverpool's government hoped that a reduction in taxation would prevent a revival of radicalism when the suspension of Habeas Corpus came to an end in This was not the case, and the summer of saw a series of large gatherings in favour of parliamentary reform, culminating in the massive public meeting at Manchester on 16th August Lord Liverpool and his government made it clear that he fully supported the action of the magistrates and the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry.

Radicals reacted by calling what happened in St. Peter's Fields, the Peterloo Massacre , therefore highlighting the fact that Liverpool's government was now willing to use the same tactics against the British people that it had used against Napoleon and the French Army. Down, and his first wife Lady Sarah Seymour Conway. He followed his father into politics. On 9th June he married Lady Amelia Hobart but they had no children.

His debut in the Westminster Parliament was in When his father was created Earl of Londonderry in Robert had the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh. His father was later created Marquis of Londonderry. He became a lord of the Irish Treasury and privy counsellor and retained his county seat in Dublin. He was secretary for War , Foreign Secretary and he concluded the first Peace of Paris in He negotiated the boundary settlement between the United States and Canada on the 49th parallel.

In he succeeded as 2nd Marquis of Londonderry. The strain of office caused him to take his own life by cutting his throat with a penknife at his country residence at North Cray in Kent. His Mount Stewart estate was left to his half brother Sir Charles who succeeded to his title.

Lady Amelia, Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry, was buried at the north east angle of the cloisters of the Abbey on 20th February but her grave is not marked.

But increasing fear of French influence and finally the Wolfe Tone rebellion convinced him, and the British government, that the only way to cure political corruption in Ireland and Catholic grievances on representation and tithes was parliamentary union with Britain. Castlereagh became chief secretary for Ireland in , and to him fell the distasteful task of "persuading" a majority in the Irish Parliament to accept the Act of Union For the next 11 years Castlereagh was in and out of office.

He served as president of the Board of Control for India and briefly as secretary for war under Pitt. In he returned to the War Office. In September , believing that the foreign secretary, George Canning, had been secretly intriguing against him, Castlereagh insisted on a duel in which Canning was slightly wounded.

Both had resigned from the Cabinet a few days earlier, and both remained out of office for several years. In March Castlereagh began his long tenure as secretary of state for foreign affairs, and in June he also became government leader in the House of Commons. He carried this double burden until his death, but it was in foreign affairs that he found his greatest success.

Napoleon's disastrous losses in Russia in broke his spell, and Britain could again weld an alliance with Russia, Prussia, and Austria against his restless domination. By the end of the Allies had reached the Rhine and the Duke of Wellington had crossed the Pyrenees, but differences in aims and tactics were bubbling to the surface.

The great problem now was to unite the Allies for an agreed settlement that would ensure a durable peace. Castlereagh proposed that France be allowed the boundaries of but be contained by independent buffer states and by balanced Great Powers. If these objectives were reached, Britain would return the colonies captured during the Napoleonic Wars. When Napoleon spurned these terms, Castlereagh succeeded in in pledging the Allies at Chaumont to a continuing Quadruple Alliance.

Napoleon could not rally the weary French against invasion, and the First Treaty of Paris May 30, , made with the restored Bourbon government, embodied Castlereagh's moderate terms without occupation or indemnity except private claims.