Walpole effectively created for himself the post of Prime Minister. Further, he held it for a generation. He did so as the leader of the Whig party, the men who had made the Glorious Revolution of 1688, curbing the Stuarts, eventually importing the Hanoverians and meanwhile establishing what they called ‘English liberties’. These last, despite being shaped largely to benefit the upper class, laid the foundations of Britain’s Parliamentary democracy. It was Walpole who oversaw the laying.

He was born the third but ultimately eldest surviving son, hence heir, of a Norfolk squire (see BP&B WALPOLE OF WALPOLE, B). It was no very glorious background, though Walpole Senior was one of the leading gentlemen of Norfolk. Our Walpole became in January 1700/1 MP for Castle Rising, Norfolk, but from 1702 till his retirement sat for King’s Lynn, also in Norfolk and a more prestigious constituency since it was then one of England’s chief ports.

As with many other future Prime Ministers, notably Disraeli (qv later in this series, also BP&B 1881 edn BEACONSFIELD, E; BLG 1952 DISRAELI of Hughenden; and BLG 1965 WHITELAW), his maiden speech was a failure. But from 1704, following a cleverly structured amendment he proposed to a bill settling electoral irregularities, he attracted the notice of the Whig leaders. The rise of the future Duke of Marlborough (qv BP&B) and his wife Sarah, who was an early friend to Walpole, got him made a counsellor to Prince George of Denmark, Queen Anne’s husband. His early experience under Godolphin, the leading politician of the Churchill clique but a man whose relations with his Whig allies were difficult, is said to have taught him the value of party management, perhaps his chief tactical achievement while Prime Minister.

As Secretary at War from 1708 he dealt with Queen Anne on behalf of Marlborough, who as Britain’s leading general was absent at the front during the War of the Spanish Succession. From 1710 Tories increasingly replaced Whigs in government as the Marlboroughs lost influence with Queen Anne. But Walpole was kept on in his post of Treasurer of the Navy, to which he had been appointed in January 1709/10. He was not dismissed till January 1710/11, by which time he was already opposing the Government. Thereafter he led the Whigs in the House of Commons. By ably rebutting a Tory charge of peculation against the late ministry, Walpole established a reputation for financial competence. The Tories nevertheless made him scapegoat for another case of peculation and he was imprisoned for the first few months of 1712 in the Tower of London. He is so far the only ex-gaol bird Prime Minister, though Churchill (qv later in this series, also BP&B MARLBOROUGH, D) was once a Prisoner of War.

When George I succeeded Anne, Walpole was offered nothing better than being Paymaster of the Forces and Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital. They were at least lucrative posts. Yet by the time the first Parliament of the new reign opened in March 1714/5 he was looked on in some quarters as the King’s chief minister. This despite the fact that his brother-in-law Lord Townshend (qv BP&B) was supposed to hold that position (inasmuch as anyone could be looked on as doing so, given that the Premiership was not recognised as existing). But there was no doubt that Walpole was Leader of the Commons. As such he organised the impeachment of the late Tory ministers for treasonable dealings with Jacobites.

In October 1715 Townshend got him promoted First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. When in 1716 the King kicked Townshend upstairs to the superficially more prestigious but comparatively hollow post of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Walpole remained in the Government. The King dared not sack a minister with his money skills. But Walpole had nevertheless lost ground and in 1717 resigned. The story that the King was so reluctant to see him depart he gave the seals of office back no fewer than ten times, putting them in Walpole’s hat, is now reckoned an invention, for George I’s German advisers were hostile to Walpole at this point and greatly influenced the King. In opposition Walpole did not scruple to attack the King’s ministers, though never the King himself, to whom he professed complete loyalty. It was a novel distinction then, though the norm now.

His rise to supremacy came about because of the South Sea Bubble. This involved first feverish share speculation then collapse of confidence in the South Sea Company, originally a sound and profitable business but by 1720 involved in an unworkable scheme to reduce the national debt. Contrary to legend, Walpole did not anticipate the crash. Nor did he profit from South Sea stock; overall he lost. His huge capital gains in the 1720 bull market arose from other holdings. The scheme eventually adopted for tidying up the South Sea mess was not his but based on that of his banker, Robert Jacombe. He did, however, manage to avoid being publicly identified with the South Sea disaster, unlike most of the Government. And it was he who most successfully damped down Parliament’s thirst for vengeance against the South Sea Company’s directors. As a result public confidence soon revived.

Meanwhile he had become advisor to the Princess of Wales, the future Queen Caroline, George II’s wife. Since she guided her husband, anyone who influenced her, as Walpole from now on did, would eventually wield ultimate power. His close relations with the Waleses were allegedly enhanced by his wife’s becoming the Prince’s mistress.

Mrs Walpole, as she then still was, had been a Miss Catherine Shorter, beautiful granddaughter of a former Lord Mayor of London. She had brought Walpole a dowry of £20,000 (well over £1m in early–2000s terms) but died in late summer 1737. His mistress Maria Skerrett or Skerritt was also beautiful and rather richer, being possessed of £30,000 (over £1.5m in early–2000s terms). He had lived with her while his wife was still alive at both Richmond and Houghton, his Norfolk mansion (see BP&B WALPOLE OF WALPOLE, section Seat). They married early in 1738 but she died of a miscarriage three months later. On taking an earldom after retiring from the Premiership, Walpole got Catherine, his bastard daughter by Maria, granted the rank and precedence of an earl’s daughter, so that she became ‘Lady Catherine’. It is an unparalleled piece of advancement for a non-royal by-blow.

His success over the South Sea affair led to his reappointment as First Lord of the Treasury in April 1721. With it he held the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. At first he left foreign affairs to his brother-in-law Townshend, who two months before had become Secretary of State (equivalent to today’s Foreign Secretary). Meanwhile he lowered tariffs and boosted colonial production of naval stores so as to strengthen the Royal Navy. In 1723 he refused a peerage for himself (though he got his son to take one), recognising that the House of Commons was the focus of political power.

In his early years as Prime Minister, Walpole suffered from the rivalry of his colleagues. He sacked those with any ability and from the mid–1720s promoted mediocrities. As a result talented men tended to join the opposition. From the same period he became more involved in foreign affairs. Townshend had negotiated behind his back an Anglo-Franco-Prussian alliance against Austria and Spain. Walpole eventually concluded that this was sound policy but meanwhile insisted on being consulted over such matters. It was yet another step towards the emergence of the Prime Minister as running the country both abroad and at home.

The death of George I in 1727 looked like ruining Walpole. He was personally unpopular with the new King. But he made sure that it was he who brought George II the news of his father’s death. Spencer Compton (qv), the man chosen by George II to draft the accession proclamation to the Privy Council, felt himself incapable and asked Walpole to do it instead. Walpole’s brother Horatio, the British Ambassador in Paris, meanwhile kept going the Anglo-French alliance, which was dear to George II’s heart. Queen Caroline convinced her husband that Walpole, not Compton, would best serve their interests. And Walpole himself proposed a new Civil List in which the King would get £100,000 more than his father had done (nearly £6.4m more in early–2000s terms). Twelve days after the death of George I, he was confirmed in his posts.

Read the full WALPOLE family record.

US PRESIDENTS - essays and family histories