Henry Addington

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Right Honourable The Viscount Sidmouth PC
Portrait of Henry Addington by William Beechey, c. 1803
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 17 March 1801 – 10 May 1804
Monarch	George III
Preceded by	William Pitt the Younger
Succeeded by	William Pitt the Younger
Ministerial offices Home Secretary In office 11 June 1812 – 17 January 1822 Prime Minister The Earl of Liverpool Preceded by Richard Ryder Succeeded by Robert Peel Lord President of the Council In office 8 April 1812 – 11 June 1812 Prime Minister Spencer Perceval The Earl of Liverpool Preceded by The Earl Camden Succeeded by The Earl of Harrowby In office 8 October 1806 – 26 March 1807 Prime Minister The Lord Grenville Preceded by The Earl Fitzwilliam Succeeded by The Earl Camden In office 14 January 1805 – 10 July 1805 Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger Preceded by The Duke of Portland Succeeded by The Earl Camden Lord Privy Seal In office 5 February 1806 – 15 October 1806 Prime Minister The Lord Grenville Preceded by The Earl of Westmorland Succeeded by The Lord Holland Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 14 March 1801 – 10 May 1804 Prime Minister Himself Preceded by William Pitt the Younger Succeeded by William Pitt the Younger Leader of the House of Commons In office 17 March 1801 – 10 May 1804 Prime Minister Himself Preceded by William Pitt the Younger Succeeded by William Pitt the Younger
Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom[a]
In office 1 January 1801 – 10 February 1801
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	William Pitt
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Sir John Mitford
Speaker of the House of Commons of Great Britain
In office 8 June 1789 – 31 January 1800
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	William Pitt
Preceded by	William Grenville
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Member of Parliament for Devizes
In office 1784–1805
Preceded by	Henry Jones
Succeeded by	Thomas Grimston Estcourt
Personal details
Born	(1757-05-30)30 May 1757 Holborn, Middlesex, England
Died	15 February 1844(1844-02-15) (aged 86) White Lodge, Surrey, England
Resting place	St Mary the Virgin, Mortlake
Political party	Tory (Addingtonian)
Spouses	Ursula Hammond ​ ​ (m. 1781; died 1811)​ Marianne Townsend ​ (m. 1823)​
Children	8 (by Hammond)
Parent	Anthony Addington (father)
Relatives	John Hiley Addington (brother) Henry Unwin Addington (nephew)
Education	Cheam School Reading School Winchester College
Alma mater	Brasenose College, Oxford
Cabinet	§ Cabinet
Signature
^ Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from the Act of Union in January 1801.

Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (30 May 1757 – 15 February 1844) was a British Tory statesman who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804 and as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789 to 1801.

Addington is best known for obtaining the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, an unfavourable peace with Napoleonic France which marked the end of the Second Coalition during the French Revolutionary Wars. When that treaty broke down, Addington resumed the war without allies. He conducted relatively weak defensive hostilities, ahead of what would become the War of the Third Coalition. He was forced from office in favour of William Pitt the Younger, who had preceded Addington as prime minister. Addington is also known for his reactionary crackdown on advocates of democratic reforms during a ten-year spell as Home Secretary from 1812 to 1822. He is the longest continuously serving holder of that office since it was created in 1782.

Henry Addington was the son of Anthony Addington, Pitt the Elder's physician; and Mary Addington, the daughter of the Rev. Haviland John Hiley, headmaster of Reading School. As a consequence of his father's position, Addington was a childhood friend of William Pitt the Younger. Addington studied at Reading School, Winchester, and Brasenose College, Oxford, and then studied law at Lincoln's Inn.

He married Ursula Mary Hammond in 1791; she brought an income of £1,000 a year into the marriage. The couple had eight children, of whom six survived to adulthood. Ursula Addington died in 1823. Afterwards, he married a widow, Marianne Townsend, daughter of William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell.^[1]

He was elected to the House of Commons in 1784 as one of the Members of Parliament for Devizes, and became Speaker of the House of Commons in 1789. In March 1801, William Pitt the Younger resigned from office, ostensibly over the refusal of King George III to remove some of the existing political restrictions on Roman Catholics in Ireland (Catholic Emancipation), but poor health, failure in war, economic collapse, alarming levels of social unrest due to famine, and irreconcilable divisions within the Cabinet also played a role. Both Pitt and the King insisted that Addington take over as prime minister, despite his own objections, and his failed attempts to reconcile the King and Pitt.^{[citation needed]}

Foreign policy was the centrepiece of his term in office. Some historians have been highly critical and said that it was ignorant and indifferent to Britain's greatest needs. However, Thomas Goldsmith argues that Addington and Hawkesbury conducted a logical, consistent and eurocentric balance-of-power policy, rooted in rules and assumptions governing their conduct, rather than a chaotic free-for-all approach.^[2]

Addington's domestic reforms doubled the efficiency of the income tax. In foreign affairs, he secured the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. While the treaty's terms were the bare minimum that the British government could accept, Napoleon Bonaparte would not have agreed to any terms more favourable to the British, and the British government had reached a state of financial collapse from war expenditure, the loss of Continental markets for British goods and two successive failed harvests that had led to widespread famine and social unrest, rendering peace a necessity.^{[citation needed]}

By early 1803, Britain's financial and diplomatic positions had recovered sufficiently to allow Addington to declare war on France, when it became clear that the French would not allow a settlement for the defences of Malta that would have been secure enough to fend off a French invasion that appeared imminent.^{[citation needed]}

At the time and ever since, Addington has been criticised for his lacklustre conduct of the war and his defensive posture. However, without allies, Britain's options were limited to defence. He increased the forces, provided a tax base that could finance an enlarged war and seized several French possessions. To gain allies, Addington cultivated better relations with the Russian Empire,^[3] the Austrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Prussia. These relations culminated in the Third Coalition shortly after Addington left office. Addington also strengthened British defences against a French invasion through the building of Martello towers on the south coast and the raising of more than 600,000 men at arms.^[4]

In 1802, Addington accepted an honorary position as vice-president for life on the Court of Governors of London's Foundling Hospital for abandoned babies.

Although the King stood by him, it was not enough, because Addington did not have a strong enough hold on both Houses of Parliament. By May 1804, partisan criticism of Addington's war policies provided the pretext for a parliamentary putsch by the three major factions (Grenvillites, Foxites, and Pittites), who had decided that they should replace Addington's ministry. Addington's greatest failing was his inability to manage a parliamentary majority by cultivating the loyal support of MPs beyond his own circle and the friends of the King. That, combined with his mediocre speaking ability, left him vulnerable to Pitt's mastery of parliamentary management and his unparallelled oratory skills. Pitt's parliamentary assault against Addington in March 1804 led to the slimming of his parliamentary majority to the point that defeat in the House of Commons was imminent.^[5]

Addington remained an important political figure because he had gained a large following of MPs who supported him loyally in the Commons. He was reconciled with Pitt in December 1804, with the help of Lord Hawkesbury as an intermediary. As a result, Pitt arranged for him to join the Cabinet as Lord President of the Council in January 1805. Pitt insisted for Addington to accept a peerage to avoid the inconvenience of them sitting together in the Commons. Addington was created Viscount Sidmouth, of Sidmouth in the County of Devon on 12 January 1805.^[6]

In return for the support of the government by Addington's loyal supporters, Pitt agreed to include Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, Addington's colleague, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with a promise to elevate him to the first vacancy of a more senior position in the Cabinet. However, when Melville resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty in July 1805, Pitt broke his promise by having Sir Charles Middleton appointed instead of Buckinghamshire. As a result of the betrayal, Addington and Buckinghamshire resigned and took all of their supporters into opposition. Addington was appointed Lord Privy Seal in 1806 in the Ministry of All the Talents that succeeded Pitt. Later that year he returned to the position of Lord President to 1807. His resignation precipitated the fall of the Talents Ministry. Addington was opposed to a limited measure of Catholic Emancipation, which the Cabinet was considering despite the opposition of King George III.^{[citation needed]}

He returned to government again as Lord President in March 1812, and, in June of the same year, became Home Secretary. As Home Secretary, Addington countered revolutionary opposition, being responsible for the temporary suspension of habeas corpus in 1817 and the passage of the Six Acts in 1819. His tenure also saw the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. He left office in 1822, succeeded as Home Secretary by Sir Robert Peel.

Addington remained in the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio for the next two years, opposing, along with Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, other members of Cabinet, and King George IV, British recognition of the South American republics. He remained active in the House of Lords for the next few years, making his final speech in opposition to Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and casting his final vote against the Reform Act 1832.

Addington maintained homes at Upottery, Devon and Bulmershe Court, in what is now the Reading suburb of Woodley, but moved to the White Lodge in Richmond Park when he became prime minister. However, he maintained links with Woodley and the Reading area as commander of the Woodley Yeomanry Cavalry and High Steward of Reading. He also donated to the town of Reading the four acres (1.6 ha) of land that is today the site of the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and his name is commemorated in the town's Sidmouth Street and Addington Road as well as in Sidmouth Street in Devizes and Addington Special School in Woodley, Reading.^{[citation needed]} In Devizes he paid for the new Market Cross, designed by James Wyatt, that was constructed in 1814.^[7]

As Speaker of the House of Commons, from 1795 he had a residence in the Palace of Westminster, to the north-east of the House of Commons.^[8]

Addington died in London on 15 February 1844 at the age of 86, from influenza, and was buried in the churchyard at St Mary the Virgin, Mortlake on Mortlake High Street, now in Greater London.^[9]

Coat of arms of Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth

Crest A Cat-a-mountain sejant guardant Proper bezanty the dexter forepaw resting on an inescutcheon Azure charged with a Mace erect surmounted with a Regal Crown Or within a Bordure engrailed Argent Escutcheon Per pale Ermine and Erminés a Chevron charged with five Lozenges counterchanged between three Fleurs-de-lis Or Supporters On either side a Stag the dexter Erminés the sinister Ermine both attired and gorged with a Chain pendant therefrom a Key all Or Motto Libertas sub rege pio (Liberty under a pious King)

• Media related to Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth at Wikimedia Commons
• Works by or about Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth at Wikisource
• "Archival material relating to Henry Addington". UK National Archives.
• Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth (1757–1844) at David Nash Ford's Royal Berkshire History Website
• Woodley House (Sonning) at David Nash Ford's Royal Berkshire History Website
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Mr Henry Addington