Abstract
If ever anybody was pre-programmed to be Prime Minister, it was William Pitt the Younger.* He was born, in Kent, on 28 May 1759 — the very year in which his father gained lasting renown as a war leader in the Seven Years War. The elder Pitt (later Lord Chatham) was not, then, actually Prime Minister, but he planned and directed Britain’s military and naval operations, which saw France driven out of its possessions in both Canada and India and worsted in conflicts in West Africa and the West Indies. Although his subsequent term as Prime Minister, in 1766–68, was a disappointment, his achievements in 1759, combined with his passionate patriotism, rare incorruptibility and soaring oratory established him as Britain’s outstanding eighteenth century political leader.
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Works consulted
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© 2011 Dick Leonard
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Leonard, D. (2011). William Pitt, the Younger — Peacetime Prodigy, Less Successful in War. In: Eighteenth-Century British Premiers. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304635_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304635_15
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-230-28478-4
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