Back روبرت ستيوارت (حاكم) ARZ Robert Stewart, Beskont Castlereagh BR Robert Stewart (vescomte de Castlereagh) Catalan Robert Stewart, vikomt z Castlereaghu Czech Robert Stewart, Is-iarll Castlereagh CY Robert Stewart, viscount Castlereagh Danish Robert Stewart, 2. Marquess of Londonderry German Ρόμπερτ Στιούαρτ, Υποκόμης Κάσλρεϊ Greek Robert Stewart Spanish Robert Stewart, vikont Castlereagh ET
The Marquess of Londonderry | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 4 March 1812 – 12 August 1822 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | The Marquess Wellesley |
| Succeeded by | George Canning |
| Leader of the House of Commons | |
| In office 8 June 1812 – 12 August 1822 | |
| Prime Minister | The Earl of Liverpool |
| Preceded by | Spencer Perceval |
| Succeeded by | George Canning |
| Secretary of State for War and the Colonies | |
| In office 25 March 1807 – 1 November 1809 | |
| Prime Minister | The Duke of Portland |
| Preceded by | William Windham |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Liverpool |
| In office 10 July 1805 – 5 February 1806 | |
| Prime Minister | William Pitt the Younger |
| Preceded by | The Earl Camden |
| Succeeded by | William Windham |
| President of the Board of Control | |
| In office 2 July 1802 – 11 February 1806 | |
| Prime Minister |
|
| Preceded by | The Earl of Dartmouth |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Minto |
| Chief Secretary for Ireland | |
| In office 14 June 1798 – 27 April 1801 | |
| Prime Minister | William Pitt the Younger |
| Lord Lieutenant | The Marquess Cornwallis |
| Preceded by | Thomas Pelham |
| Succeeded by | Charles Abbot |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Stewart 18 June 1769 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 12 August 1822 (aged 53) Woollet Hall, Kent, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Resting place | Westminster Abbey |
| Citizenship |  Kingdom of Ireland United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | |
| Spouse | Lady Amelia Hobart |
| Parent(s) | Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry Lady Sarah Frances Seymour-Conway |
| Alma mater | St. John's College, Cambridge |
| Signature |  |
| Nickname | "Bloody Castlereagh" |
Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, KG, GCH, PC, PC (Ire) (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), usually known as Lord Castlereagh,[1] derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh[a] (UK: /ˈkɑːsəlreɪ/ KAH-səl-ray) by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was an Irish-born British statesman and politician. As secretary to the Viceroy in Ireland, he worked to suppress the Rebellion of 1798 and to secure passage in 1800 of the Irish Act of Union. As the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1812, he was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon, and was British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna. In the post-war government of Lord Liverpool, Castlereagh was seen to support harsh measures against agitation for reform, and he ended his life an isolated and unpopular figure.
Early in his career in Ireland, and following a visit to revolutionary France, Castlereagh recoiled from the democratic politics of his Presbyterian constituents in Ulster. Crossing the floor of the Irish Commons in support of the government, he took a leading role in detaining members of the republican conspiracy, the United Irishmen, his former political associates among them. After the 1798 Rebellion, as Chief Secretary for Ireland he pushed the Act of Union through the Irish Parliament. But it was without the Catholic Emancipation that both he and British Prime Minister William Pitt believed should have accompanied the creation of a United Kingdom.
From 1805 Castlereagh served under Pitt and then the Duke of Portland as Secretary of State for War. In 1809 he was obliged to resign after fighting a duel with the Foreign Secretary, George Canning. In 1812 Castlereagh returned to government serving Lord Liverpool as Foreign Secretary and as Leader of the House of Commons.
Castlereagh organised and financed the alliance that defeated Napoleon, bringing the powers together at the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814. After Napoleon's second abdication in 1815, Castlereagh worked with the European courts represented at the Congress of Vienna to frame the territorial, and broadly conservative, continental order that was to hold until mid-century. He blocked harsh terms against France believing that a treaty based on vengeance and retaliation would upset a necessary balance of powers. France restored the Bourbons kings and her frontiers were restored to 1791 lines. Her British-occupied colonies were returned. In 1820 Castlereagh enunciated a policy of non-intervention, proposing that Britain hold herself aloof from continental affairs.
After 1815, at home, Castlereagh supported repressive measures that linked him in public opinion to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Widely reviled in both Ireland and Great Britain, overworked, and personally distressed, Castlereagh died of suicide in 1822.
- ^ A practice established shortly after his death, for example in Sir C. K. Webster's 1925 work Foreign Policy of Castlereagh 1812–1815, 1815–1822 and his own half-brother's 1848–53 Mems. and Corresp. Visct. Castlereagh. It reflects his having used the name of Castlereagh so long, and the name of Londonderry so briefly, and having earned most of his reputation under the former name. Furthermore, it avoids confusion with his father, who also was Robert Stewart, Lord Londonderry. cf [1]
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