The Prime Ministers of George IV's Regency (1811-20) and reign (1820-30)
Prime Ministers of George IV - Left to right: Lord Liverpool, George Canning, Viscount Goderich, Duke of Wellington 2
As Prince of Wales, George IV was a strong supporter of the Whig party and had many friends amongst their ranks including Charles James Fox and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Fox’s support of the French Revolution forced the Prince to distance himself from the Whigs and after Fox’s death in 1806, George’s loyalty to the Whig cause disappeared completely.
By the time he was made Regent in 1811, George was happy to keep his father’s Tory Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval. When he became King, the situation did not change. George IV had four Prime Ministers during his ten-year reign—all Tories.
Read about the Whigs and the Tories here.
Prime Ministers during the Regency (1811-1820)
Spencer Perceval
Tory – 1809-1812
Spencer Perceval, from The Life and Administration of the Right Hon Spencer Perceval by Charles Williams (1813)
Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool
Tory – 1812-1827
Lord Liverpool, from the European Magazine and London Review (1818)
George IV’s Prime Ministers (1820-1830)
Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool
Tory – 1812-1827
Lord Liverpool (details as above)
George Canning
Tory – 1827
George Canning from The Creevey Papers by Thomas Creevey (1912)
Frederick John Robinson, 1st Earl of Ripon (Viscount Goderich)
Tory – 1827-8
Frederick John Robinson, 1st Earl of Ripon, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, oil on canvas (c1824) © NPG 4875 1
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Tory – 1828-30
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington by Robert Home oil on canvas (1804) © NPG 1471 1
Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew, who co-writes this blog.
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Notes
(1) These pictures are © National Portrait Gallery and are displayed under a Creative Commons licence.
(2) Source details of pictures in collage: Lord Liverpool, from the European Magazine and London Review (1818); George Canning and Viscount Goderich from The Georgian Era by Clarke (1832); Duke of Wellington from Life of the Field Marshal, his Grace the Duke of Wellington by James Edward Alexander (1840).
Sources used include:
