Privy Council ministry
The Privy Council ministry was a short-lived reorganisation of English government to place the ministry under the control of the Privy Council[1] in April 1679, due to events in that time.
Since the Stuart Restoration of 1660, Charles II of England had been involved in a political conflict with the Parliament of England. In 1679, the career diplomat Sir William Temple first became Charles' closest advisor and was then instructed to form a new ministry, replacing Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby as the head of government. Temple's goal was to reconcile the rival political factions of the era.
A reorganised version of the Council, reduced to only 30 members, would control all government positions. Fifteen members were high-ranking government officials, clerics, and judges, while the other fifteen were among the wealthiest members of the parliamentary factions. Charles II's illegitimate son James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth was included in the new government because he was popular with the public. But the rival politicians in the council failed to co-operate with each other, and Temple himself did not exercise any actual authority over the other ministers. After the ministry collapsed, Laurence Hyde became the new chief minister.
Formation
[edit]The event followed years of widespread discontent with the government, which had been consistently autocratic and clandestine since the Restoration and was now mired in conflict between Parliament and King Charles.[2] Sir William Temple, England's foremost diplomat and greatly respected both at home and abroad, was recalled at the beginning of 1679 and became the king's closest advisor. Elections to the House of Commons returned a majority for the opponents of the government; the Earl of Danby was forced from office, and Temple led the formation of a new ministry, aiming to reconcile the conflicting factions.
Temple believed the king should not exercise absolute power, but he was also uncomfortable with the increasing prominence of Parliament.[3] He sought to create a less divisive body that could carry popular support without trying to dictate to the king. He proposed that the king should no longer be advised by any one individual or by a select committee of the Privy Council, but by a reformed council as a whole. The new council would have thirty members, rather than fifty: Fifteen would hold paid high office in government, the Church or the judiciary; fifteen would be independent, representing the parliamentary factions and chosen for their wealth (which Temple felt was the source of power).[2] The king would give full consideration to the opinions of the council, which would be free to discuss and vote on all matters. The king duly dismissed the existing council; news of this, and that the new government would include members of the country party and the king's popular, illegitimate son, Monmouth, was widely welcomed. However, Charles took against the scheme when Temple insisted on the inclusion of Viscount Halifax, whom he disliked personally. He agreed but insisted, to Temple's alarm, that the Earl of Shaftesbury, the government's most vociferous critic, should also be included. This sabotaged Temple's council, ensuring irreconcilable division.
First meeting of the council, and its collapse
[edit]The new council met on 21 April. Within hours, it had been subverted, as a group of nine conflicting members took a lead in the conduct of business. Temple reacted angrily, almost leaving the council, then consenting to form a group of four (with Halifax, Essex and Sunderland) to advise the king in secret.[1] The four worked well together, but the full council was sharply divided. Shaftesbury now effectively led the opposition from within the government itself, with the support of a majority in the Commons. In the face of the Exclusion Bill, the king prorogued and then dissolved Parliament without the council's approval. Temple withdrew from active participation, leaving Halifax, Essex and Sunderland to exercise power as a triumvirate, and a thirty-first councillor was appointed. When the king fell ill and his brother's return from the Dutch Republic caused alarm in the country, Temple expressed his concerns to the triumvirate but was no longer taken seriously. Elections for the new Parliament returned another opposition majority, and the king prorogued it before it met, again in spite of the council.[4] Shaftesbury was discharged from office, and other leading critics of the government resigned. Temple's experiment ended with the rise of Laurence Hyde, a strong supporter of the king, in November.[1]
The ministry
[edit]Ministers not in the Privy Council
[edit]| Office | Name | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Paymaster of the Forces | Sir Stephen Fox | Throughout |
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Ogg, Frederic Austin (1913). The Governments of Europe. Macmillan.
- ^ a b Ray, Perley Orman (1931). Major European Governments. Ginn and Company. OCLC 2842078.
- ^ Spencer, Henry Russell (1936). Government and Politics Abroad. H. Holt and Company.
- ^ Clarke, John Joseph (1958). Outline of Central Government: Including the Judicial System of England. Pitman.
