| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
| Periods in Office: | April, 1783 - December, 1783 March, 1807 - October, 1809 |
| PM Predecessor: | The Earl of Shelburne The Lord Grenville |
| PM Successors: | William Pitt the Younger Spencer Perceval |
| Date of Birth: | 14 April 1738 |
| Place of Birth: | Nottinghamshire |
| Political Party: | ToryThe term Tory derives from the Tory Party the ancestor of the modern UK Conservative Party. To this day it is often used as a shortened alternative for Conservative. A similar usage for Tory exists in Canada to describe the Conservative Party. It was also |
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, ( April 14April 14 is the 104th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (105th in leap years). There are 261 days remaining. Events 43 BC Battle of Forum Gallorum. Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces, 1738 - October 30October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 62 days remaining. Events 1470 Henry VI of England returns to the throne after Earl of Warwick defeats Yorkists in battle. 1831 In Southampton County, Virginia,, 1809) was a BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly statesman and Prime MinisterIn the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. According to custom, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (which he or she heads) are re. He was known before 1762Events Neolin begins to preach. January 4 Britain declares war on Spain & Naples July 17 Catherine II becomes empress of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia. Empress Go-Sakuramachi ascends to the throne of Japan British East India Company seizes by the courtesy title Marquess of Titchfield.
Lord Titchfield, the eldest son of the 2nd Duke of Portland, studied at Oxford and was elected to Parliament in 1761 before entering the Lords when he succeeded his father as Duke of Portland the next year. Associated with the aristocratic Whig party of Lord Rockingham, Portland served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household in Rockingham's first Government (1765-1766), and then as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Rockingham's second ministry (April-August 1782), but resigned from Lord Shelburne's ministry along with other supporters of Charles James Fox following Rockingham's death.
In April 1783, Portland was brought forward as titular head of a coalition government whose real leaders were Charles James Fox and Lord North. He served as First Lord of the Treasury in this ministry until its fall in December of the same year.
Along with many other conservative Whigs (such as Edmund Burke), Portland was deeply uncomfortable with the French Revolution, and ultimately broke with Fox over this issue, joining Pitt's government as Home Secretary in 1794. He continued to serve in the cabinet until Pitt's death in 1806 - from 1801 to 1805 as Lord President of the Council, and then as a Minister without Portfolio.
When Pitt's supporters returned to power after the collapse of the Ministry of all the Talents in March, 1807, Portland was, once again, an acceptable figurehead for a fractious group of ministers who included George Canning, Lord Castlereagh, Lord Hawkesbury, and Spencer Perceval.
Portland's second government saw England's complete isolation on the continent, but also the beginning of recovery, with the start of the Peninsular War. In late 1809, with Portland's health poor and the ministry rocked by the scandalous duel between Canning and Castlereagh, Portland resigned, dying shortly thereafter.