The Most Honourable The Marquess of Londonderry KG GCB GCH PC |
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Minister to Prussia | |
In office 1813–1814 |
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Monarch | George III |
Preceded by | No representation |
Succeeded by | George Henry Rose |
Ambassador to Austria | |
In office 1814–1823 |
|
Monarch |
George III George IV |
Preceded by | The Earl of Aberdeen |
Succeeded by | Hon. Sir Henry Wellesley |
Personal details | |
Born |
18 May 1778 Dublin, Ireland |
Died | 6 March 1854 Londonderry House, Park Lane, London |
(aged 75)
Nationality | Irish |
Spouse(s) | (1) Lady Catherine Bligh (d. 1812) (2) Lady Frances Vane-Tempest (d. 1865) |
Parents |
Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry Lady Frances Pratt |
Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry KG GCB GCH PC (18 May 1778 – 6 March 1854), born Charles William Stewart and raised to the peerage as Baron Stewart in 1814, was a British soldier, politician and nobleman.
Charles Stewart (as he was before 1814) was educated at Eton and was commissioned into the British army in 1794. He saw active service in Flanders and Ireland before being elected a member of the Irish House of Commons. In 1803 he was aide-de-camp to King George III and four years later became Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. He fought in the Peninsula War under both Sir John Moore and Sir Arthur Wellesley (who became the Duke of Wellington).
In 1810 Stewart was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the Prussian Court in Berlin and remained in that position until end of the war in 1814. In 1815 he was appointed British Ambassador to Vienna (a post he was to hold for nine years), and was at the Congress of Vienna with his half brother Lord Castlereagh (the senior British plenipotentiary).
Lord Stewart succeeded his half-brother as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry in 1822. The following year he was created Earl Vane and Viscount Seaham. From 1823 he was Governor of County Londonderry and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Durham in 1842. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1853, and died a year later at Londonderry House.