William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville

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The Rt Hon. The Lord Grenville

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 11 February 1806 – 31 March 1807
Preceded by	William Pitt the Younger
Succeeded by	The Duke of Portland

Born	25 October 1759 Wotton House, Buckinghamshire
Died	12 January 1834 Burnham, Buckinghamshire
Political party	Whig

William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville PC (October 25, 1759 – January 12, 1834), was a British Whig statesman and Prime Minister.

The son of Prime Minister George Grenville, Grenville studied at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn, and entered the Commons in 1782 and soon became a close ally of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, serving in the government as Paymaster of the Forces from 1784 to 1789. In 1789 he served briefly as Speaker of the British House of Commons before, he entered the Cabinet as Home Secretary. He became Leader of the House of Lords when he was raised to the peerage the next year as Baron Grenville. The next year, in 1791, he succeeded the Duke of Leeds as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Grenville's decade as Foreign Secretary was a dramatic one, seeing the Wars of the French Revolution. During the war, Grenville was the leader of the party that focused on the fighting on the continent as the key to victory, opposing the faction of Henry Dundas which favored war at sea and in the colonies. Grenville left office with Pitt in 1801 over the issue of Catholic Emancipation.

In his years out of office, Grenville became close to the opposition Whigs leader Charles James Fox, and when Pitt returned to office in 1804, Grenville did not take part. Following Pitt's death in 1806, Grenville became the head of the "Ministry of all The Talents", a coalition between Grenville's supporters, the Foxite Whigs, and the supporters of former Prime Minister Lord Sidmouth, with Grenville as First Lord of the Treasury and Fox as Foreign Secretary as joint leaders. Grenville's younger brother, Thomas Grenville, served briefly as First Lord of the Admiralty. The Ministry ultimately accomplished little, failing either to make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation (the later attempt resulting in the ministry's dismissal in March, 1807). It did have one significant achievement, however, in the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

In the years after the fall of the ministry, Grenville continued in opposition, maintaining his alliance with Lord Grey and the Whigs, criticizing the Peninsular War and, with Grey, refusing to join Lord Liverpool's government in 1812. In the post-war years, Grenville gradually moved back closer to the Tories, but never again returned to the cabinet. His political career was ended by a stroke in 1823. Grenville also served as Chancellor of Oxford University from 1810 until his death in 1834.

[edit] The Ministry of All the Talents, February 1806 - March 1807

Arms of William Wyndham Grenville

Changes

September, 1806 - On Fox's death, Lord Howick succeeds him as Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. Thomas Grenville succeeds Howick at the Admiralty. Lord Fitzwilliam becomes Minister without Portfolio, and Lord Sidmouth succeeds him as Lord President. Lord Holland succeeds Sidmouth as Lord Privy Seal.

Political offices
Preceded by Richard FitzPatrick	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1782–1783	Succeeded by William Windham
Preceded by Edmund Burke	Paymaster of the Forces 1784–1789	Succeeded by The Lord Mulgrave and The Marquess of Graham
Preceded by Charles Wolfran Cornwall	Speaker of the House of Commons 1789	Succeeded by Henry Addington
Preceded by Lord Sydney	Home Secretary 1789–1791	Succeeded by Henry Dundas
Preceded by Lord Sydney	President of the Board of Control 1790–1793	Succeeded by Henry Dundas
Preceded by The Duke of Leeds	Leader of the House of Lords 1790–1801	Succeeded by Unknown
Preceded by The Duke of Leeds	Foreign Secretary 1791–1801	Succeeded by The Lord Hawkesbury
Preceded by William Pitt the Younger	Prime Minister 1806–1807	Succeeded by The Duke of Portland
Preceded by The Lord Hawkesbury	Leader of the House of Lords 1806–1807	Succeeded by The Lord Hawkesbury
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by James Grenville Richard Aldworth-Neville	Member of Parliament for Buckingham 1782–1784 with James Grenville	Succeeded by James Grenville Charles Edmund Nugent
Preceded by The Earl Verney Thomas Grenville	Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire 1784–1790 with Sir John Aubrey, 6th Bt. 1784–1790, The Earl Verney 1790	Succeeded by The Earl Verney James Grenville
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Grenville 1790–1834	Succeeded by Extinct