Charles James Fox

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Image:Charlesjamesfox.jpg Image:CharlesJamesFox-BloomsburySquare.jpg Charles James Fox (24 January, 1749 – 13 September, 1806) was a prominent British Whig politician. He is noted as an anti-slavery campaigner, a supporter of American independence from Britain, and as a supporter of the French Revolution. He held several senior government offices, including being Britain's first Foreign Secretary.

Fox was the third son of Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, one of the older generation of self-aggrandizing Whigs. His mother was Lady Caroline Lennox, daughter of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond. Fox was educated at Eton and Hertford College, Oxford. He was over-indulged by his father and quickly entered into an extravagant and dissolute lifestyle - in 1774 he was £140,000 in debt. Fox was also a leader of fashion early on, and after a tour of Europe brought back to London the extravagant male fashions then popular at the French court - frilly lace, brocade, cosmetics, red heels etc. This was the costume of the 'Macaroni's', and at nineteen Fox was the acknowledged leader of this group.

In 1768, Fox became MP for Midhurst although he was legally too young. He supported Grafton and his attacks on the radical John Wilkes. A staunch supporter of Britain's North American colonies, the town of Foxborough in Massachusetts was named in his honour. Fox was made a junior Lord of the Admiralty by Lord North in 1770, but he resigned in January 1772 in order to vote against the Royal Marriages Act, although he was reappointed to a government post at the Treasury in December. He was finally dismissed by North in February 1774, following pressure from George III.

Out of government, Fox became more radical, progressing from his friendship of Edmund Burke to becoming a leader of the Rockinghamite Whigs. Fox won the seat of Westminster in 1781 and showed his support for Parliamentary reform. When Rockingham then became Prime Minister in 1782, Fox was made the first Foreign Secretary. When Rockingham died (July 1 1782), Fox unwisely resigned over the appointment of Lord Shelburne as Prime Minister. In February 1783 Fox formed an alliance of convenience with North, known as the Fox-North Coalition, to regain power.

Fox and North came to power in April 1783 despite the King's resistance; although the Duke of Portland actually headed the government, the two men were both secretaries of state. The ambitions of both Fox and North were blunted by the active efforts of the King and they angered him further with their open support of the Prince Regent. They were both driven from office by the efforts of the King's supporters following the failure of Fox's East India Bill in December. The 1784 general election was a sad defeat for the opposition. In his own constituency of Westminster the contest was fierce with Fox facing defeat and a massive campaign in his favour was run by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. In the end Fox was re-elected by a very slender margin, but legal challenges prevented a final declaration of the result for over a year. In the meantime, Fox sat for the pocket borough of Orkney.

He remained a force in the Whigs, and his support of the French Revolution (1789) led to a split in the Whigs between the supporters of the revolution and the others who joined William Pitt the Younger, leaving the opposition as no more than sixty MPs. Fox had become convinced that the King and the establishment were more of a threat to the constitution than radical politics and protested against the curtailment of liberties associated with the war against France. In 1792 Fox saw through the only piece of substantial legislation in his career, the Libel Act, which restored to juries the right to decide what was libel and whether a defendant was guilty. Fox married his mistress, Elizabeth Armistead, in 1795 but did not make this fact public until 1802.

Fox and much of the opposition deliberately withdrew from Parliament from 1797. He returned following the Treaty of Amiens of 1802 and having assisted in the replacement of Henry Addington, when Pitt was succeeded by Grenville he was made Foreign Secretary in the "Ministry of all the Talents".

Fox died in Chiswick, while still in office. He never achieved his wish of being laid to rest in Chertsey where he had lived, because the nation demanded that he be buried in Westminster Abbey.

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