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See also: English statesman, commonly known by his earlier title as See also: Lord See also: Carteret, See also: born on the 22nd of See also: April 1690, was the son of See also: George, 1st Lord Carteret, by his See also: marriage with See also: Grace Granville, daughter of See also: Sir See also: John Granville, 1st
See also: earl of See also: Bath, and See also: great See also: grandson of the Elizabethan See also: admiral, Sir See also: Richard See also: Grenville, famous for his See also: death in the " Revenge." The See also: family of Carteret was settled in the Channel Islands, and was of Norman descent
.
John Carteret was educated at See also: Westminster, and at Christ See also: Church,
See also: Oxford
.
See also: Swift says that " with a singularity scarce to be justified he carried away more See also: Greek, Latin and philosophy than properly became a See also: person of his See also: rank." Throughout See also: life Carteret not only showed a keen love of the See also: classics, but a taste for, and a knowledge of, See also: modern See also: languages and literatures
.
He was almost the only Englishman of his See also: time who knew See also: German
.
See also: Harte, the author of the Life of Gustavus See also: Adolphus, acknowledged the aid which Carteret had given him
.
On the
17th of See also: October 1710 he married at Longleat Lady Frances Worsley, See also: grand-daughter of the first Viscount See also: Weymouth
.
He took his seat in the Lords on the 25th of May 1711
.
Though his family, on both sides, had been devoted to the See also: house of See also: Stuart, Carteret was a steady adherent of the Hanoverian dynasty
.
He was a friend of the Whig leaders Stanhope and See also: Sunderland, took a share in defeating the Jacobite conspiracy of Bolingbroke on the death of See also: Queen See also: Anne, and supported the passing of the Septennial See also: Act
.
Carteret's interests were however in See also: foreign, and not in domestic policy
.
His serious See also: work in public life began with his See also: appointment, early in 1719, as ambassador to Sweden
.
During this and the following See also: year he was employed in saving Sweden from the attacks of See also: Peter the Great, and in arranging the pacification of the See also: north
.
His efforts were finally successful . During this See also: period of See also: diplomatic work he acquired an exceptional knowledge of the affairs of See also: Europe, and in particular of See also: Germany, and displayed great tact and temper in dealing with the See also: Swedish senate, with Queen Ulrica, with the See also: king of
See also: Denmark and See also: Frederick See also: William I. of Prussia
.
But he was not qualified to hold his own in the intrigues of
See also: court and parliament in See also: London
.
Named secretary of See also: state for the See also: southern department on his return home, he soon became helplessly in conflict with the intrigues of See also: Townshend and Sir Robert Walpole
.
To Walpole, who looked upon every able colleague, or subordinate, as an enemy to be removed, Carteret was exceptionally odious
.
His capacity to speak German with the king would alone have made Sir Robert detest him
.
When, therefore, the violent agitation in See also: Ireland against See also: Wood's halfpence (see SWIFT, JONATHAN) made it necessary to replace the duke of Grafton as lord See also: lieutenant, Carteret was sent to See also: Dublin
.
He landed in Dublin on the 23rd of October 1724, and remained there till 1730
.
In the first months of his tenure of office he had to See also: deal with the furious opposition to Wood's halfpence, and to counteract the effect of Swift's Draper's Letters
.
The lord lieutenant had a strong See also: personal liking for Swift, who was also a friend of Lady Carteret's family
.
It is highly doubtful whether Carteret could have reconciled his duty to the See also: crown with his private friendships, if See also: government had persisted in endeavouring to force the detested coinage on the Irish See also: people
.
Wood's patent was however withdrawn, and Ireland settled down
.
Carteret was a profuse and popular lord lieutenant who pleased both the " English See also: interest " and the native Irish
.
He was at all times addicted to lavish hospitality, and according to the testimony of contemporaries was too fond of See also: burgundy
.
When he returned to London in 1730, Walpole was firmly established as master of the House of See also: Commons, and as the trusted See also: minister of King George II
.
He had the full confidence of Queen See also: Caroline, whom he prejudiced against Carteret
.
Till the fall of Walpole in 1742, Carteret could take no share in public affairs except as a See also: leader of opposition of the Lords
.
His brilliant parts were somewhat obscured by his rather erratic conduct, and a certain contempt, partly aristocratic and partly intellectual, for See also: commonplace men and ways
.
He endeavoured to please Queen Caroline, who loved literature, and he has the See also: credit, on See also: good grounds, of having paid the expenses of the first handsome edition of See also: Don Quixote to please her
.
But he reluctantly, and most unwisely, allowed himself to be entangled in the scandalous family See also: quarrel between Frederick, See also: prince of See also: Wales, and his parents
.
Queen Caroline was provoked into classing him and Bolingbroke, as " the two most worthless men of parts in the country." Carteret took the popular See also: side in the outcry against Walpole for not making war on See also: Spain
.
When the War of the See also: Austrian Succession approached, his sympathies were entirely with Maria Theresa—mainly on the ground that the fall of the house of See also: Austria would dangerously increase the power of See also: France, even if she gained no accession of territory
.
These views made him welcome to George II., who gladly accepted him as secretary of state in 1742
.
In 1743 he accompanied the king of Germany, and was See also: present at the See also: battle of See also: Dettingen on the 27th of See also: June
.
He held the secretaryship till See also: November 1744
.
He succeeded in promoting an agreement between Maria See also: Theresa and Frederick
.
He under-
363
stood the relations of the See also: European states, and the interests of Great Britain among them
.
But the defects which had rendered him unable to baffle the intrigues of Walpole made him equally unable to contend with the Pelhams
.
His support of the king's policy was denounced as subservience to See also: Hanover
.
Pitt called him " an execrable, a See also: sole minister who had renounced the See also: British nation." A few years later Pitt adopted an identical policy, and professed that whatever he knew he had learnt from Carteret
.
On the 18th of October 1744 Carteret became Earl Granville on the death of his See also: mother
.
His first wife died in June 1743 at See also: Aschaffenburg, and in April 1744 he married Lady See also: Sophia Fermor, daughter of Lord Pomfret—a fashionable beauty and " reigning See also: toast " of London society, who was younger than his daughters
.
" The nuptials of our great Quixote and the See also: fair Sophia," and Granville's ostentatious performance of the See also: part of See also: lover, were ridiculed by Horace Walpole
.
The countess Granville died on the 7th of October 1745, leaving one daughter Sophia, who married Lord Shelburne, 1st See also: marquis of Lansdowne
.
This marriage may have done something to increase Granville's reputation for eccentricity
.
In See also: February 1746 he allowed himself to be entrapped by the intrigues of the Pelhams into accepting the secretaryship, but resigned in See also: forty-eight See also: hours
.
In June 1751 he became president of the council, and was still liked and trusted by the king, but his share in government did not go beyond giving advice, and endeavouring to forward ministerial arrangements . In 1756 he was asked bySee also: Newcastle to become See also: prime minister as the alternative to Pitt, but Granville, who perfectly understood why the offer was made, declined and supported Pitt
.
When in October 1761 Pitt, who had information of the See also: signing of the " Family Compact " wished to declare war on Spain, and declared his intention to resign unless his advice was accepted, Granville replied that " the opinion of the majority (of the See also: Cabinet) must decide." He spoke in complimentary terms of Pitt, but resisted his claim to be considered as a " sole minister " or, in the modern phrase, " a prime minister." Whether he used the words attributed to him in the See also: Annual See also: Register for 1761 is more.than doubtful, but the minutes of council show that they express his meaning
.
Granville remained in office as president till his death
.
His last act was to listen while on his death-See also: bed to the See also: reading of the preliminaries of the treaty of See also: Paris
.
He was so weak that the under-secretary, Robert Wood, author of an essay on The See also: Original See also: Genius of See also: Homer, would have postponed the business, but Granville said that it " could not See also: pro-long his life to neglect his duty," and quoted the speech of See also: Sarpedon from Iliad xii
.
322-328, repeating the last word (lo/.t&) " with a See also: calm and determined resignation." He died in his house in Arlington Street, London, on the 22nd of See also: January 1763
.
The title of Granville descended to his son Robert, who died without issue in 1776, when the earldom of this creation became See also: extinct
.
A somewhat See also: partisan life of Granville was published in 1887, by Archibald Ballantyne, under the title of Lord Carteret, a See also: Political Biography
.
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