Erik Visits a Non-American Grave, Part 1,954

This is the grave of William Pitt the Elder.

A lot to basically discuss mid-18th century England in one post, but I’ll make a couple of points.

Interestingly, the Pitt family fortune was largely based on luck. Pitt the Elder’s grandfather Thomas Pitt was the governor of Madras in India, so obviously an elite, but he came upon a diamond that was so large that he sold it to the Duke of Orleans for 135,000 pounds, sending the family into the stratosphere and creating the fortune that would lead to statesmen instead of middling colonial officials. So Pitt was born into a lot of wealth in 1708. Amusingly, he started his long history of gout when he was still in school. Ah, that good ol’ 18th century rich British diet!! He went to Trinity College, Oxford, where his gout was so bad that he didn’t finish college, but he did take the Grand Tour of Europe so OK, I guess he could get people to carry him around while he dined on heavy meats and port day after day. That gout didn’t stop a young gentlemen from getting into the Army either. But it wasn’t long until he went to the House of Commons after his older brother was elected for two seats in 1734 and of course had to pass one along, so it went to William.

Pitt’s main belief was that England should go to war with France a lot. Nothing dominated his life more. From the moment he went into the Commons, he argued for more British intervention on the continent. Walpole hated him so much for these speeches that he tried to have Pitt thrown out of the Army, which backfired because it was such an overextension of the prime minister’s power. Pitt was already good at gaining popularity that would serve him well in his constant political battling with much of the rest of the English political class and kings. Pitt continued to condemn Walpole for being weak and wanted to punish the Spanish for its attacks on British merchants. This led to the War of Jenkins’ Ear between 1739 and 1748. That quickly moved into the War of the Austrian Succession.

Pitt, who was not good at personal diplomacy, also infuriated King George II by criticizing the subsides the British were paying to the Germans and Austrians to defend themselves; unsurprisingly the Hanover family wanted to help Hanover. Later, Pitt would stop talking about the Hanover subsidies so much so that the King would acquiesce in appointing him to a government role, which eventually worked though the two men still hated each other. Pitt would rise in government, becoming Paymaster of the Forces in 1746, which he held until 1755 and then he became Secretary of State for the Southern Department in 1756.

By the time the British colonists and French started their skirmishes in the Americas that would lead to the Seven Years War in 1756, Pitt saw himself as his nation’s savior because only he would really stick it to the hated frogs. He literally told the Duke of Devonshire, “My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and no one else can.” The man did not lack for confidence!!!

Pitt fell out of favor again for his continued criticism of British strategy in the face of early defeats in the war. But in 1757, while Pitt was too controversial to be named Prime Minister, he was the most influential in person the Duke of Newcastle’s administration, not that these guys liked each other either. What made Pitt so effective is that he was legendary at rhetoric and could basically control the House of Commons by the force of his personality. Probably no one else at the time had abilities even close to Pitt on this front and that magnetic force attracted a lot of allies to his ideas, even as it repelled others.

Pitt basically ran the political side of the war at this point. That included tying as many French forces down in Germany as possible while using British naval superiority to dominate the seas. A lot of this was taking out the French trading posts in Africa, which doubled down British commitment to the slave trade. The British were able to take Caribbean islands while holding back a French attempt to take Madras. Then came the British routing of French forces in Quebec in 1760, which led to the end of the war and just about the end of French colonialism in North America.

Pitt actually opposed the treaty of 1763 that ended the war. He believed one more year of war would cripple French power permanently. The national debt had doubled during the war, making Pitt’s position an unpopular one. Possibly the rise of Napoleon would prove Pitt right, though I don’t think another year of war would have ended all French power in Europe.

Later, Pitt would become critical of the taxes Parliament placed upon the American colonies, giving him an outsized reputation in the U.S. as it considered its revolutionary heritage. In fact, he in general opposed taxes on the people, whether at home or in the colonies. Paying for all this was not his concern. He would become Prime Minister from 1766-68.

But by this time, his gout and other health issues were so bad that he was largely out of touch, including on the taxes imposed on the colonies in 1767 that so angered the colonists again. He resigned in 1768 and was in and out of politics after that, making his last major statement in 1778, urging the government to make peace with the rebellious colonists. It’s super interesting to me that this architect of 18th century global British power was like, the colonists are right about almost everything. He certainly had no problem alienating people at home, that’s for sure! But Pitt died 1778, at the of 69.

What made Pitt different than previous English leaders is that his popularity really was generated from the people at large. He had such a significant habit of infuriating the royals (King George III hated him too) and other members of the political and financial elite and yet he could not be gotten rid of. It helped that he was right about a lot of stuff. Whether his positions on taxation were remotely responsible or not from a financial perspective, they sure helped solidify that popularity with the people, who largely did not want to pay for the wars of the rich.

I thought Pitt the Younger was buried there too, but turns out he’s a different part of Westminister. Oh well, just have to go back to London someday I guess.

There’s not exactly anyone like Pitt in the U.S. to compare him with, but if you want this series to visit the colonial leaders with whom he sympathized, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. George Mason is in Lorton, Virginia and Patrick Henry is in Aspen, Virginia. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.