Robert Harley: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 12:47, 15 January 2023

5 December 1661 - 21 May 1724. First Earl of Oxford. British statesman who led the Tory ministry from 1710 to 1714. Robert Harley was married twice and had four children from his first marriage to Elizabeth Foley. They were named Edward, Robert, Elizabeth, and Abigail (Speck).

Harley grew up in a Puritan-Parliamentarian family (Morrill). His father, Sir Edward Harley, known as a prominent Presbyterian, was an active supporter of the parliamentary side during the Civil War. In 1671 Harley's father sent him to a school run by Samuel Birch at Shilton in Oxfordshire. After that, he continued his education in a school in London founded by Monsieur Foubert (Speck). Robert Harley was sceptical towards the pretensions of all governments, so he was politically involved and was even elected to parliament in 1689. Harley and Paul Foley became the leaders of a coalition of Whigs and moderate Tories, political groups who were against the government of King William III. Often Harley provoked the king with demands such as a smaller army or a reduced royal budget. From 1701 to 1705 Harley was Speaker of the House of Commons and he also served as secretary of state from 1704 to 1708 (Morrill). During this time, Harley (together with John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough and Sidney Godolphin (Bennett 726) played an important role during the reign of Queen Anne, as he headed the war of the Spanish Succession against the French (Morrill).

Sources

Bennett, Gareth Vaughan. "Robert Harley, the Godolphin ministry, and the bishoprics crisis of 1707." The English Historical Review vol. 82, no. 325, 1967, pp. 726–746. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/561098.pdf. Accessed 14 January 2023.
"Harley, Robert, first earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1661–1724)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published by W. A. Speck, September 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-12344#odnb-9780198614128-e-12344-div1-d41985e1050. Accessed 14 January 2023.
"Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford." Encyclopædia Britannica, published by John S. Morrill, July 1998, www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Harley-1st-earl-of-Oxford. Accessed 14 January 2023.

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-'''Robert Harley''' Harley, Robert, first earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1661–1724), politician, was born on 5 December 1661 in Bow Street, London, and baptized on the following day at St Paul's, Covent Garden. He was the eldest son of Sir Edward Harley (1624–1700) of Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire, and his second wife, Abigail, née Stephens.
+December 1661 - 21 May 1724. First Earl of Oxford. British statesman who led the Tory ministry from 1710 to 1714. Robert Harley was married twice and had four children from his first marriage to [[Elizabeth Foley]]. They were named Edward, Robert, Elizabeth, and Abigail (Speck).
-== '''Early life and marriage''' ==
+Harley grew up in a Puritan-Parliamentarian family (Morrill). His father, Sir [[Edward Harley]], known as a prominent Presbyterian, was an active supporter of the parliamentary side during the Civil War. In 1671 Harley's father sent him to a school run by [[Samuel Birch]] at Shilton in Oxfordshire. After that, he continued his education in a school in London founded by [[Monsieur Foubert]] (Speck).
-Harley's father was a prominent Presbyterian who had played a conspicuous part on the parliamentary side in the civil war. Although he conformed to the Anglican church at the Restoration he sent Robert in 1671 to be educated at a school run by Samuel Birch, a dissenter, at Shilton in Oxfordshire. This upbringing led to some distrust later when Harley associated with high-church tories. Thus in 1710 the dean of Christ Church called him the 'spawn of a Presbyterian' (Feiling, 421). After Shilton he attended a school in London established by a Huguenot, Monsieur Foubert, but left it after a year, aged nineteen, apparently appalled at the moral danger he was exposed to there. In 1682 he was admitted as a member of the Inner Temple. On 14 May 1685 he married Elizabeth Foley (d. 1691) of Witley Court, Gloucestershire, the daughter of a whig ally of Robert's father. They had four children: Edward Harley (1689–1741), who succeeded him as second earl of Oxford; Robert, who died in infancy in 1690; Elizabeth, who married Peregrine Hyde Osborne, second marquess of Carmarthen, in 1712 and died in November 1713; and Abigail, who married George Henry Hay, second earl of Kinnoull, who died on 15 July 1750. Harley's second wife, Sarah Middleton, whom he married on 18 September 1694, died on 17 June 1737. This marriage was childless.
+Robert Harley was sceptical towards the pretensions of all governments, so he was politically involved and was even elected to parliament in 1689. Harley and [[Paul Foley]] became the leaders of a coalition of [[Whigs]] and moderate [[Tories]], political groups who were against the government of King [[William III]]. Often Harley provoked the king with demands such as a smaller army or a reduced royal budget. From 1701 to 1705 Harley was Speaker of the House of Commons and he also served as secretary of state from 1704 to 1708 (Morrill). During this time, Harley (together with [[John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough]] and [[Sidney Godolphin]] (Bennett 726) played an important role during the reign of [[Queen Anne]], as he headed the war of the Spanish Succession against the French (Morrill).
+=='''Sources'''==
+* Bennett, Gareth Vaughan. "Robert Harley, the Godolphin ministry, and the bishoprics crisis of 1707." ''The English Historical Review'' vol. 82, no. 325, 1967, pp. 726–746. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/561098.pdf. Accessed 14 January 2023.
+* "Harley, Robert, first earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1661–1724)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', published by W. A. Speck, September 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-12344#odnb-9780198614128-e-12344-div1-d41985e1050. Accessed 14 January 2023.
+* "Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford." ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', published by John S. Morrill, July 1998, www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Harley-1st-earl-of-Oxford. Accessed 14 January 2023.