William Wyndham Grenville
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The Right Honourable The Lord Grenville PC FRS PC |
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| Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
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In office 11 February 1806 – 31 March 1807 |
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| Monarch | George III |
| Preceded by | William Pitt the Younger |
| Succeeded by | The Duke of Portland |
| Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
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In office 8 June 1791 – 20 February 1801 |
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| Prime Minister | William Pitt the Younger |
| Preceded by | Marquess of Camarthen |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Hawkesbury |
| Home Secretary | |
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In office 5 June 1789 – 8 June 1791 |
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| Prime Minister | William Pitt the Younger |
| Preceded by | The Lord Sydney |
| Succeeded by | Henry Dundas |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
25 October 1759 Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Died | 12 January 1834 (aged 74) Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Political party |
Pittite Tory (until 1801) Whig (from c. 1801) |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Pitt (m. 1792) |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Signature |  |
William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, PC, FRS, PC (25 October 1759 – 12 January 1834) was a British Whig statesman. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807 as head of the Ministry of All the Talents.
Grenville was the son of Whig Prime Minister George Grenville. His mother Elizabeth was daughter of the Tory statesman Sir William Wyndham Bart. He had two elder brothers Thomas and George - he was thus uncle to the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos.
He was also related to the Pitt family by marriage; William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham had married his father's sister Hester, and thus the younger Grenville was the first cousin of William Pitt the Younger.
Grenville was educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn.
Grenville entered the House of Commons in 1782. He soon became a close ally of the Prime Minister, his cousin William Pitt the Younger, and served in the government as Paymaster of the Forces from 1784 to 1789. In 1789 he served briefly as Speaker of the 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, of Wotton under Bernewood in the County of Buckingham. The next year, in 1791, he succeeded the Duke of Leeds as Foreign Secretary. 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 favoured war at sea and in the colonies. Grenville left office with Pitt in 1801 over the issue of Catholic Emancipation. He did part-time military service at home as Major in the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry cavalry in 1794 and as Lieutenant-Colonel in the South Buckinghamshire volunteer regiment in 1806.
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