Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, KG, GCH, PC (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), known until 1821 by his courtesy title of Viscount Castlereagh, was an Anglo-Irish politician born in Dublin who represented the United Kingdom at the Congress of Vienna. He was also intimately involved in securing the passage of the controversial Irish Act of Union. He was the son of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, a landowner who was created an earl and subsequently a marquess by King George III of the United Kingdom. He received his early education at The Royal School, Armagh, and later attended St. John's College, Cambridge for a single year. Additionally, the elder Robert Stewart was also known as The Viscount Castlereagh for about one year.

Robert Stewart acquired the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh in 1796 when his father was created Earl of Londonderry, and is generally known to history by that title. He became briefly 2nd Marquess of Londonderry in the Peerage of Ireland on the death of his father in 1821.

Early Career and Ireland

In 1790, Stewart took the seat of County Down and entered the Irish House of Commons as a Whig on a platform supporting electoral reform and Catholic emancipation. He was, however, enrolled in the militia shortly thereafter as an officer, a matter of course for a young aristocrat, and got to see very little of the Commons. In 1794, he won the English seat of Tregony on a similar platform. In 1795, he crossed the floor to join the Tories, but his initial principles of reform and emancipation continued to hold a place in his political thought.

In 1794, Stewart married Emily Hobart-Maxwell, a woman noted in contemporary accounts for her attractiveness and eccentricity. The two remained devoted to each other to the end, and had no children of their own.

By 1797, he had risen to the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. In this capacity, he played a key role in quashing the Irish Rebellion of 1798, offering clemency to commoners who had supported the rebellion, and focusing instead on pursuing rebel leaders. In 1800, he began lobbying in the Irish and British Parliaments for an official union between the two, convinced that it was the best way to soothe the long-standing sectarian divides in Ireland. After an outstanding display of machiavellian tactical prowess, he got his wish and the Irish Act of Union succeeded in passing both parliaments.

During his campaign for the Act of Union, he had promised electoral sufferage for Irish Catholics, a move that was opposed by much of the British establishment, including George III. When it came to light in that the king had approached Henry Addington, an opponent of emancipation, about becoming Prime Minister to replace the pro-emancipation Pitt, both Castlereagh and Pitt resigned in protest.

Diplomatist

After a few years, tensions between Tories supporting emancipation and those opposing it had cooled, and Castlereagh returned to the cabinet as President of the Board of Control. In 1804, after much urging by Castlereagh, Pitt returned as Prime Minister, and Castlereagh was promoted to Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. After Pitt's death in 1806, Castlereagh resigned amidst the chaos of the Ministry of All the Talents. After that cabinet collapsed, Castlereagh again became Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the Duke of Portland's administration in 1807. In that role he became involved in disputes with Foreign Secretary George Canning over the failure of the Walcheren Expedition, and the two fought a duel late in 1809. This forced both of their resignations from the government.

Three years later, in 1812, Castlereagh returned to the government, this time as Foreign Secretary, a role in which he served for the next ten years. He also became leader of the House of Commons in the wake of Spencer Perceval's assassination in 1812. In his role of Foreign Secretary he was instrumental in negotiating what has become known as a quadruple alliance between the United Kingdom, Austria, Russia and Prussia at Chaumont in March 1814, in the negotiation of the Treaty of Paris that brought peace with France, and at the Congress of Vienna. At the Congress of Vienna, Castlereagh designed and proposed a form of collective and collaborative security for Europe, then called a Congress system. According to the Congress system the main signatory powers were to meet periodically (every two years or so) and collectively manage European Affairs. The following ten years saw five European Congresses where disputes were resolved with a diminishing degree of effectiveness. Finally, by 1822, the whole system had collapsed because of the unreconcilable differences of opinion between the United Kingdom, Austria and Russia, and because of the lack of support for the Congress system in British public opinion.

In the years 1812 to 1822, Castlereagh continued competently to manage Britain's foreign policy, generally pursuing a policy of continental engagement uncharacteristic of British foreign policy in the nineteenth century.

Castlereagh was not known to be an effective public speaker and his diplomatic presentation style was at times abstruse. He did however enjoy a great reputation for integrity, consistency and good will, which was perhaps unmatched by any diplomat of his time. His views on foreign policy were, unfortunately, ahead of his time and his country's insular world view.

Decline and Death

Despite his many achievements, Castlereagh was extremely unpopular within the country as a result of his supposed reactionism abroad, and his association with the repressive measures of the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth. He attracted this last criticism because, as the Leader of the House of Commons, he was often called upon to defend his colleagues' policies in that most public of British forums. If he wanted to remain in cabinet, he had to defend the almost universally despised measures taken by Sidmouth and the others. For these reasons, Castlereagh is immortalised next to others in Lord Liverpool's Cabinet in Shelley's poem The Masque of Anarchy, a poem heavily critical of, and inspired by the Peterloo massacre:

I met Murder on the way –

He had a face like Castlereagh –

Very smooth he looked, yet grim;

Seven bloodhounds followed him

All were fat; and well they might

Be in admirable plight,

For one by one, and two by two,

He tossed them human hearts to chew

Which from his wide cloak he drew.

After the death of his father in 1821 he became Lord Londonderry. That same year, he appeared to be suffering from a form of paranoia. On 9 August 1822 he had an audience with King George IV in which he revealed to the King that he was being blackmailed. He said, "I am accused of the same crime as the Bishop of Clogher." Percy Jocelyn, the Bishop of Clogher until that July, had been caught in the back room of a public house with his trousers down, accompanied by a young soldier. The King is said to have advised Londonderry to "consult a physician". Londonderry returned to his country seat at Loring Hall in Water Lane North Cray in Kent, and on 12 August committed suicide by cutting his throat with a letter opener.

An inquest concluded that the act had been committed whilst insane, avoiding the harsh strictures of the felo de se verdict that would have seen the suicide victim buried with a stake in his heart at a crossroads – an action that last occurred in 1823 before the law was amended in the same year. Some radicals, notably William Cobbett, construed this to be indicative of a "cover-up" within the ministry and a damning indictment of the elitism and privilege of the unreformed electoral system. His funeral on 20 August was greeted with jeering and insults along the processional route, although not to the level of unanimity projected in the radical press. A final cheer was raised as the coffin entered into Westminster Abbey, departing from the public eye for the last time. Lord Londonderry was buried in the Abbey in the shadow of his mentor, William Pitt the Younger; a funeral monument was not erected until 1850 by his half-brother and successor, Charles Vane.

Sometime after Castlereagh's death, Lord Byron wrote a sarcastic quip about his grave:

Posterity will ne'er survey

A nobler grave than this:

Here lie the bones of Castlereagh:

Stop, traveller, and piss.

And yet, some of Castlereagh's political opponents were gracious in their epigrams. Henry Brougham, Whig politician and later Lord Chancellor, wrote:

Put all their other men together in one scale, and poor Castlereagh in the other -- single he plainly weighed them down...One can't help feeling a little for him, after being pitted against him for several years, pretty regularly. It is like losing a connection suddenly. Also he was a gentleman, and the only one amongst them.

A blue plaque is displayed at the entrance to this listed mansion in commemoration of its most famous resident, who occupied the property from 1811.

Titles

Castlereagh's titles from birth to death:

Robert Stewart, Esquire (1769-1789)
The Honourable Robert Stewart (1789-1796)
Viscount Castlereagh (1796-1798)
The Right Honourable Viscount Castlereagh (1798-1821)
The Most Honourable The Marquess of Londonderry (1821-1822)

Trivia

Castlereagh spoke three languages: English, his mother tongue, French, the language of his trade, and Latin, which he learned at Cambridge.

References

Harold Nicolson, 'The Congress of Vienna' (1946)
H. Montgomery Hyde, 'The Strange Death of Lord Castlereagh'
John Derry, 'Castlereagh' (London 1976)
Wendy Hinde, 'Castlereagh' (London 1981)
Henry Kissinger, 'A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812-22'
Charles Webster
Robert Stewart, 'The Lightning Rod for Lord Liverpool's Government: Lord Castlereagh and HIs Critics, 1812 to 1822' (Unpublished M.A. Thesis, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario 1993)

External link

Spartacus page

Robert Stewart, 2. Marquess of Londonderry | Viscount Castlereagh | Visconte di Castlereagh