Chief Ministers of England

The Chief Minister of England is a retroactive and informal title given to the various personages who ruled England on behalf of monarch, with or without said monarch's permission, prior to the government of Robert Walpole in 1721. Among them are regicides, revolutionaries and loyal subjects who among other things, created Parliament, and a few became monarchs themselves.

The "Chief Ministership," being an informal office, had many titles, sometimes none at all, and while usually a single person, could be held by groups of up to three or four. It was an extremely dangerous position, and prior to 1700, a majority of its holders lost their lives at the behest of their royal masters.

In 1660, the leadership of the Commonwealth recalled Charles II and the chief minister became responsible to some extent to Parliament as leader of a ministry, although much of the time the King was his own chief minister. The Glorious Revolution of 1688–9 furthered this process and by the time of Queen Anne, monarchs had little choice as to who their ministers would be.

From 1693 onwards, the government was increasingly dominated by the Whig Junto.

The Kingdoms of England and Scotland united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.

In the immediate aftermath of the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the monarchy was unable to function as the new King was in his domains in Hanover and did not know of his accession. As a stopgap, Parliament elected Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield Regent, or "acting king" until the new monarch arrived to take his crown. Later, George, Prince of Wales reigned as regent for six months from July 1716 to January 1717 when the King went to Hanover.

In the early part of the reign of George I of Great Britain, who could not speak English, the cabinet began meeting without the monarch present.

Following the succession of George I and the resignation of the Duke of Shrewsbury in 1714, the office of Lord High Treasurer went into permanent commission, its function undertaken by a commission of Lords of the Treasury, chaired by the First Lord of the Treasury, rather than by an individual Lord High Treasurer. From 1714 to 1717 the ministry was led by Viscount Townshend, who was nominally Northern Secretary; the Earl of Halifax, the Earl of Carlisle and Sir Robert Walpole successively served alongside Townshend as nominal First Lord of the Treasury. From 1717 to 1721 Lords Stanhope (First Lord 1717–18) and Sunderland (First Lord 1718–21) led the administration jointly, with Stanhope managing foreign affairs and Sunderland managing home affairs. Stanhope died in February 1721 and Sunderland resigned in April 1721; Townshend and Walpole returned to office.

...
Wikipedia