MDDM18: The Rockingham Whigs

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Who'd be the Rockingham Whigs, I wonder?-- '"
(M&D, Ch. 29, p. 294)

Sounds like some sorta expansion team, but ...

Charles Watson-Wentworth was the son of the 1st
Marquess of Rockingham, whose family was descended
from the Watsons of Rockingham Castle,
Northamptonshire, known as prominent Yorkshire
Whigs.... he ultimately emerged as a new prime
minister in July 1765, when he was appointed (13 Jul
1765) First Lord of the Treasury. This first period in
office was dominated by the Stamp Act controversy, and
came to an end when the King replaced him with the
Earl of Chatham. The 'Rockingham Whigs', in Government
and Opposition, displayed the first signs of a modern
political party, not only by promoting a political
program, but also seeking to carry it through in
office, even to the extent of overturning existing
policies of his predecessors. He opposed Lord North's
American policy, preferring to grant the colonists
their independence....

http://lego70.tripod.com/england/rockingham.htm

The Whig view of the decade of instability was written
in 1770 by Edmund Burke, MP, writer, philosopher and
secretary to Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquis
of Rockingham. Burke was the mouthpiece of the
Rockingham Whigs. In 1770, Burke published a book
called Thoughts on the Cause of the Present
Discontent, offering reasons for the instability and
insecurity. This was accepted as the truth until Sir
Lewis Namier and Herbert Butterfield investigated
Eighteenth Century political life in the 1940s. They
found Eighteenth Century politics very different from
what had been thought, and exposed Burke as a
brilliant propagandist for Rockingham.

Burke believed that  

-- the Whigs stage-managed the Glorious Revolution in
1688 to save England from a Crown dictatorship under
James II

-- the Whigs had ensured the retreat of the monarch
from active politics and into the role of a
figure-head. It was therefore right that parliament
should be the centre and seat of government

-- government had become unstable because George III
insisted on interfering unconstitutionally in politics
by using the 'King's Friends' and a secret cabinet to
influence parliament

-- England was in danger of a revival of royal
absolutism

-- the troubles in America were a result of the King's
interference and incompetence

These ideas were believed because the King was
politically active in the government of the country.
This was the first time this had happened since 1714
when George I succeeded to the Crown on the death of
Queen Anne. Also, it was the 'Age of the Enlightened
Despot' in Europe where the absolute monarchs were all
introducing changes....

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/min-inst.htm

And, hey, there's even at LEAST a book out ..

O'Gorman, Frank.  The Rise of Party in England:
   The Rockingham Whigs, 1760-1782.  Boston: George
   Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1975.

Which I wish I had at hand, but ...

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