Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt

The Right Honourable The Earl Harcourt FRS PC
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
In office 29 October 1772 – 7 December 1776
Monarch	George III
Preceded by	The Viscount Townshend
Succeeded by	The Earl of Buckinghamshire

Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, PC FRS (1714 – 16 September 1777), known as 2nd Viscount Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, between 1727 and 1749, was a British diplomat and general who became Viceroy of Ireland.

Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, was educated at Westminster School. He succeeded his grandfather Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt in 1727. In 1745, having raised a regiment for service during the Jacobite Rebellion, the 76th Foot (Lord Harcourts Regiment), he received a commission as a Colonel in the army, The regiment was disbanded on 10 June 1746.

In 1749 he was created Earl Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt. He was appointed governor to the prince of Wales, afterwards George III, in 1751; and after the accession of the latter to the throne, in 1761, he was appointed as special ambassador to Mecklenburg-Strelitz, to negotiate a marriage between King George and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Princess Charlotte), whom he conducted to England.

He held a number of appointments at court and in the diplomatic service. He was the British ambassador to Paris from 1768 to 1772. He was promoted to the rank of general in 1772; and in October of the same year he succeeded Lord Townshend as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, an office which he held until 1777. His proposal to impose a tax of 10% on the rents of absentee landlords had to be abandoned owing to opposition in England; but he succeeded in conciliating the leaders of Opposition in Ireland, and he persuaded Henry Flood to accept office in the government. Resigning in January 1777, he retired to Nuneham Park, where he died on 16 September, apparently by drowning in a well while trying to rescue his dog.

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