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LEEDS, THOMAS OSBORNE

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 368 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEEDS, See also:THOMAS See also:OSBORNE , 1st See also:DUKE of (1631--1712), See also:English statesman, commonly known also by his earlier See also:title of EARI, OF See also:DANBY, son of See also:Sir See also:Edward Osborne, See also:Bart., of Kiveton, See also:Yorkshire, was See also:born in 1631. He was See also:great-See also:grandson of Sir Edward Osborne (d. 1591), See also:lord See also:mayor of See also:London, who, according to the accepted See also:account, while apprentice to Sir See also:William See also:Hewett, clothworker and lord mayor in 1559, made the fortunes of the See also:family by leaping from London See also:Bridge into the See also:river and rescuing See also:Anne (d. 1585), the daughter of his employer, whom he afterwards married.' Thomas Osborne, the future lord treasurer, succeeded to the baronetcy and estates in Yorkshire on his See also:father's See also:death in 1647, and after unsuccessfully courting his See also:cousin Dorothy Osborne, married See also:Lady See also:Bridget Bertie, daughter of the See also:earl of See also:Lindsey. He was introduced to public See also:life and to See also:court by his See also:neighbour in Yorkshire, See also:George, and duke of See also:Buckingham, was elected M.P. for See also:York in 1665, and gained the " first step in his future rise " by joining Buckingham in his attack on See also:Clarendon in 1667. In 1668 he was appointed See also:joint treasurer of the See also:navy with Sir Thomas See also:Lyttelton, and subsequently See also:sole treasurer. He succeeded Sir William See also:Coventry as See also:commissioner for the See also:state See also:treasury in 166g, and in 1673 was appointed a commissioner for the See also:admiralty. He was created See also:Viscount Osborne in the Scottish See also:peerage on the and of See also:February 1673, and a privy councillor on the 3rd of May. On the 19th of See also:June, on the resignation of Lord See also:Clifford, he was appointed lord treasurer and made See also:Baron Osborne of Kiveton and Viscount See also:Latimer in the peerage of See also:England, while on the 27th of June 1674 he was created earl of Danby, when he surrendered his Scottish peerage of Osborne to his second son Peregrine Osborne. He was appointed the same See also:year lord-See also:lieutenant of the See also:West See also:Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1677 received the Garter. Danby was a statesman of very different calibre from the ' See also:Chronicles of London Bridge, by R. See also:Thomson (1827), 313, quoting See also:Stow.leaders of the See also:Cabal See also:ministry, Buckingham and See also:Arlington.

His See also:

principal aim was no doubt the See also:maintenance and increase of his own See also:influence and party, but his ambition corresponded with definite See also:political views. A member of the old See also:cavalier party, a confidential friend and correspondent of the despotic See also:Lauder-See also:dale, he desired to strengthen the executive and the royal authority. At the same See also:time he was a keen See also:partisan of the established See also:church, an enemy of both See also:Roman Catholics and dissenters, and an opponent of all See also:toleration. In 1673 he opposed the See also:Indulgence, supported the Test See also:Act, and spoke against the proposal for giving See also:relief to the dissenters. In June 1675 he signed the See also:paper of See also:advice See also:drawn up by the bishops for the See also:king, urging the rigid enforcement of the See also:laws against the Roman Catholics, their See also:complete banishment from the court, and the suppression of conventicles,2 and a See also:bill introduced by him imposing See also:special taxes on recusants and subjecting Roman See also:Catholic priests to imprisonment for life was only thrown out as too lenient because it secured offenders from the See also:charge of See also:treason. The same year he introduced a Test See also:Oath by which all holding See also:office or seats in either See also:House of See also:Parliament were to declare resistance to the royal See also:power a See also:crime, and promise to abstain from all attempts to alter the See also:government of either church or state; but this extreme measure of See also:retrograde toryism was successfully opposed by wiser statesmen. The king himself as a Roman Catholic secretly opposed and also doubted the See also:wisdom and practicability of this " thorough "policy of repression. Danby therefore ordered a return from every See also:diocese of the See also:numbers of dissenters, both Romanist and See also:Protestant, in See also:order by a See also:proof of their insignificance to remove the royal scruples.' In See also:December 1676 he issued a See also:proclamation for the suppression of See also:coffee-houses because of the " See also:defamation of His See also:Majesty's Government " which took See also:place in them, but this was soon withdrawn. In 1677, to secure Protestantism in See also:case of a Roman Catholic See also:succession, he introduced a bill by which ecclesiastical patronage and the care of the royal See also:children were entrusted to the bishops; but this measure, like the other, was thrown out. In See also:foreign affairs Danby showed a stronger grasp of essentials. He desired to increase English See also:trade, See also:credit and power abroad. He was a determined enemy both to Roman influence and to See also:French ascendancy.

He terminated the See also:

war with See also:Holland in 1674, and from that time maintained a friendly See also:correspondence with William; while in 1677, after two years of tedious negotiations, he overcame all obstacles, and in spite of See also:James's opposition, and without the knowledge of See also:Louis XIV., effected the See also:marriage between William and See also:Mary that was the germ of the Revolution and the Act of See also:Settlement. This See also:national policy, however, could only he pursued, and the See also:minister could only maintain himself in power, by acquiescence in the king's See also:personal relations with the king of See also:France settled by the disgraceful Treaty of See also:Dover in 1670, which included See also:Charles's See also:acceptance of a See also:pension, and See also:bound him to a policy exactly opposite to Danby's, one furthering French and Roman ascendancy. Though not a number of the Cabal ministry, and in spite of his own denial, Danby must, it would seem, have known of these relations after becoming lord treasurer. In any case, in 1676, together with See also:Lauderdale alone, he consented to a treaty between Charles and Louis according to which the foreign policy of both See also:kings was to be conducted in See also:union, and Charles received an See also:annual See also:subsidy of £100,000. In 1678 Charles, taking See also:advantage of the growing hostility to France in the nation and parliament, raised his See also:price, and Danby by his directions demanded through See also:Ralph See also:Montagu (afterwards duke of Montagu) six million livres a year (L300,000) for three years. Simultaneously Danby guided through parliament a bill for raising See also:money for a war against France; a See also:league was concluded with Holland, and troops were actually sent there. That Danby, in spite of these compromising transactions, remained in intention faithful to the national interests, appears clearly from the hostility with which he was still regarded by France. In 1676 he is described 2 Cal. of St Pap. Dom. (1673-1675), Q. 449. 3 See also:Letter of See also:Morley, See also:Bishop of See also:Winchester, to Danby (June to, 1676).

(Hist. See also:

MSS. See also:Conn xi. See also:Rep. pt. vii. 14.) by See also:Ruvigny to Louis XIV. as intensely antagonistic to France and French interests, and as doing his utmost to prevent the treaty of that year.' In 1678, on the rupture of relations between Charles and Louis, a splendid opportunity was afforded Louis of paying off old scores by disclosing Danby's participation in the king's demands for French See also:gold. Every circumstance now conspired to effect his fall. Although both abroad and at See also:home his policy had generally embodied the wishes of the ascendant party in the state, Danby had never obtained the confidence of the nation. His See also:character inspired no respect, and he could not reckon during the whole of his See also:long career on the support of a single individual. Charles is said to have told him when he made him treasurer that he had only two See also:friends in the See also:world, himself and his own merit.' He was described to See also:Pepys on his acquiring office as " one of a broken sort of See also:people that have not much to lose and therefore will venture all," and as " a See also:beggar having £11oo or £1200 a year, but owes above £ro,000." His office brought him in £20,000 a year,' and he was known to be making large profits by the See also:sale of offices; he maintained his power by corruption and by jealously excluding from office men of high See also:standing and ability. See also:Burnet described him as " the most hated minister that had ever been about the king." Worse men had been less detested, but Danby had none of the amiable virtues which often See also:counter-act the odium incurred by serious faults. See also:Evelyn, who knew him intimately from his youth, describes him as " a See also:man of excellent natural parts but nothing of generous or grateful." See also:Shaftesbury, doubtless no friendly See also:witness, speaks of him as an inveterate liar, "proud, ambitious, revengeful, false, prodigal and covetous to the highest degree,"' and Burnet supports his unfavourable See also:judgment to a great extent. His corruption, his mean submission to a See also:tyrant wife, his greed, his See also:pale See also:face and lean See also:person, which had succeeded to the handsome features and comeliness of earlier days,' were the subject of ridicule, from the witty sneers of See also:Halifax to the coarse jests of the See also:anonymous writers of innumerable lampoons.

By his championship of the national policy he had raised up formidable foes abroad without securing a single friend or supporter at home,' and his fidelity to the national interests was now, through a very mean and ignoble act of personal spite, to be the occasion of his downfall. Danby in appointing a new secretary of state had preferred Sir W. See also:

Temple, a strong adherent of the See also:anti-French policy, to Montagu. The latter, after a See also:quarrel with the duchess of See also:Cleveland, was dismissed from the king's employment. He immediately went over to the opposition, and in See also:concert with Louis XIV. and Barillon, the French See also:ambassador, by whom he was supplied with a large sum of money, arranged a See also:plan for effecting Danby's ruin. He obtained a seat in parliament; and in spite of Danby's endeavour to seize his papers by an order in See also:council, on the loth of December 1678 caused two of the incriminating letters written by Danby to him to be read aloud to the House of See also:Commons by the See also:Speaker. The House immediately resolved on Danby's See also:impeachment. At the See also:foot of each of the letters appeared the king's postscripts, " I approve of this letter. C.R.," in his own See also:handwriting; but they were not read by the Speaker, and were entirely neglected in the proceedings against the minister, thus emphasizing the constitutional principle that obedience to the orders of the See also:sovereign can be no See also:bar to an impeachment. He was charged with having encroached to himself royal See also:powers by treating matters of See also:peace and war without the knowledge of the council, with having promoted the raising of a standing See also:army on pretence of a war with France, with having obstructed the assembling of parlia- ' See also:Memoirs of Great See also:Britain and See also:Ireland, by Sir J. Dalrymple 1773), i. app. 104.

Letters to Sir See also:

Joseph See also:Williamson (See also:Camden See also:Soc., 1874), i. 64. ' Halifax See also:note-See also:book in See also:Devonshire House collection, quoted in Foxcrott's Life of Halifax, ii. 63, note. ' Life of Shaftesbury, by W. D. See also:Christie (1871), ii. 312. Macky's Memoirs, 46; Pepys's See also:Diary, viii. 143. e See the description of his position at this time by Sir W. Temple In Lives of Illustrious Persons (1714), 40.ment, with corruption and See also:embezzlement in the treasury.

Danby, while communicating the "Popish See also:

Plot" to the parliament, had from the first expressed his disbelief in the so-called revelations of See also:Titus See also:Oates, and his backwardness in the See also:matter now furnished an additional charge of having "traitorously concealed the plot." He was voted guilty by the Commons; but while the Lords were disputing whether the accused peer should have See also:bail, and whether the charges amounted to more than a See also:misdemeanour, parliament was prorogued on the 3oth of December and dissolved three See also:weeks later. In See also:March 1679 a new parliament hostile to Danby was returned, and he was forced to resign the treasurership; but he received a See also:pardon from the king under the Great See also:Seal, and a See also:warrant for a marquessate.7 His proposed See also:advancement in See also:rank was severely reflected upon in the Lords, Halifax declaring it in the king's presence the recompense of treason, " not to be See also:borne "; and in the Commons his retirement from office by no means appeased his antagonists. The proceedings against him were revived, a See also:committee of privileges deciding on the 19th of March 1679 that the See also:dissolution of parliament was no See also:abatement of an impeachmel. A See also:motion was passed for his committal by the Lords, who, as in Clarendon's case, voted his banishment. This was, however, rejected by the Commons, who now passed an act of See also:attainder. Danby had removed to the See also:country, but returned on the 21st of See also:April to avoid the threatened passing by the Lords of the attainder, and was sent to the See also:Tower. In his written See also:defence he now pleaded the king's pardon, but on the 5th of May 1679 it was pronounced illegal by the Commons. This See also:declaration was again repeated by the Commons in 1689 on the occasion of another attack made upon Danby in that year, and was finally embodied in the Act of Settlement in 1701. The Commons now demanded judgment against the prisoner from the Lords. Further proceedings, however, were stopped by the dissolution of parliament again in See also:July; but for nearly five years Danby remained a prisoner in the Tower. A number of See also:pamphlets asserting the complicity of the fallen minister in the Popish Plot, and even accusing him of the See also:murder of Sir See also:Edmund See also:Berry See also:Godfrey, were published in 1679 and 168o; they were answered by Danby's secretary, Edward See also:Christian, in Reflections; and in May 1681 Danby was actually indicted by the See also:Grand See also:Jury of See also:Middlesex for Godfrey's murder on the See also:accusation of Edward FitzHarris. His See also:petition to the king for a trial by his peers on this See also:indictment was refused, and an See also:attempt to prosecute the publishers of the false See also:evidence in the king's See also:bench was unsuccessful.

For some time all appeals to the king, to parliament, and to the courts of See also:

justice were unavailing; but on the 12th of February 1684 his application to See also:Chief Justice See also:Jeffreys was at last successful, and he was set at See also:liberty on finding bail to the amount of £40,000, tc appear in the House of Lords in the following session. He visited the king at court the same See also:day; but took no See also:part in public affairs for the See also:rest of the reign. After James's See also:accession Danby was discharged from his bail by the Lords on the 19th of May 1685, and the order declaring a dissolution of parliament to be no abatement of an impeachment was reversed. He again took his seat in the Lords as a See also:leader of the moderate Tory party. Though a strong Tory and supporter of the hereditary principle, James's attacks on Protestantism soon drove him into opposition. He was visited by Dykvelt, William of See also:Orange's See also:agent; and in June 1687 he wrote to William assuring him of his support. On the 3oth of June 1688 he was one of the seven leaders of the Revolution who signed the invitation to William. In See also:November he occupied York in the See also:prince's See also:interest, returning to London to meet William on the 26th of December. He appears to have thought that William would not claim the See also:crown,' and at first supported the theory that the See also:throne having been vacated by James's See also:flight the succession See also:fell as of right to Mary; but as this met with little support, and was rejected both by William and by Mary herself, he voted against the regency and joined with 7 Add. MSS. 28094, f. 47.

See also:

Boyer's See also:Annals (1722), 433. Halifax and the Commons in declaring the prince and princess joint sovereigns. Danby had rendered extremely important services to William's cause. On the loth of April 1689 he was created See also:marquess of See also:Carmarthen and was made lord-lieutenant of the three See also:ridings of Yorkshire. He was, however, still greatly disliked by the Whigs, and William, instead of reinstating him in the lord treasurership, only appointed him See also:president of the council in February 1689. He ciid not conceal his vexation and disappointment, which were increased by the See also:appointment of Halifax to the office of lord privy seal. The antagonism between the " See also:black " and the " See also:white marquess " (the latter being the See also:nickname given to Carmarthen in allusion to his sickly See also:appearance), which had been forgotten in their See also:common hatred to the French policy and to See also:Rome, revived in all its bitterness. He retired to the country and was seldom See also:present at the council. In June and July new motions were made in parliament for his removal; but notwithstanding his great unpopularity, on the retirement of Halifax in 16go he again acquired the chief power in the state, which he retained till 1695 by See also:bribery in parliament and by the support of the king and See also:queen, In 169o, duringt.William's See also:absence in Ireland, he was appointed Mary's chief adviser. In 1691, desiring to See also:compromise Halifax, he discredited himself by the patronage of an informer named See also:Fuller, soon proved an impostor. He was absent in 1692 when the Place Bill was thrown out. In 1693 he presided in great state as lord high steward at the trial of Lord See also:Mohun; and on the 4th of May 1694 he was created duke of Leeds).

The same year he supported the Triennial Bill, but opposed the new treason bill as weakening the hands of the executive. Meanwhile fresh attacks had been made upon him. He was accused unjustly of Jacobitism. In April 1695 he was impeached once more by the Commons for having received a bribe of 5000 guineas to procure the new See also:

charter for the See also:East See also:India See also:Company. In his defence, whilst denying that he had received the money and appealing to his past services, he did not attempt to conceal the fact that according to his experience bribery was an acknowledged and universal See also:custom in public business, and that he himself had been instrumental in obtaining money for others. Meanwhile his servant, who was said to have been the intermediary between the duke and the Company in the transaction, fled the country; and no evidence being obtainable to convict, the proceedings fell to the ground. In May 1695 he had been ordered to discontinue his attendance at the council. He returned in See also:October, but was not included among the lords justices appointed regents during William's absence in this year. In November he was created D.C.L. by the university of See also:Oxford; in December he became a commissioner of trade, and in December 1696 See also:governor of the Royal See also:Fishery Company. He opposed the See also:prosecution of Sir See also:John See also:Fenwick, but supported the See also:action taken by members of both Houses in defence of William's rights in the same year. On the 23rd of April 1688 he entertained the See also:tsar, See also:Peter the Great, at See also:Wimbledon. He had for some time lost the real direction of affairs, and in May 16gg he was compelled to retire from office and from the lord-lieutenancy of Yorkshire.

In Queen Anne's reign, in his old See also:

age, he is described as " a See also:gentleman of admirable natural parts, great knowledge and experience in the affairs of his own country, but of no reputation with any party. He See also:bath not been regarded, although he took his place at the council See also:board." s The See also:veteran statesman, how-ever, by no means acquiesced in his enforced retirement, and continued to take an active part in politics. As a zealous churchman and Protestant he still possessed a following. In 1705 he supported a motion that the church was in danger, and in 1710 in See also:Sacheverell's case spoke in defence of hereditary right.' In November of this year he obtained a renewal of his pension of ;3500 a year from the See also:post office which he was holding in ' The title was taken, not from Leeds in Yorkshire, but from Leeds in See also:Kent, 4,1 M. from See also:Maidstone, which in the 17th See also:century was a more important place than its Yorkshire namesake. 2 Memoirs of Sir John Macky (Roxhurghe See also:Club, 1895), 46. ' Boyer's .4 nnals, 219, 433. 1694,' and in 1711 at the age of eighty was a competitor for the office of lord privy seal.' His long and eventful career, however, terminated soon afterwards by his death on the 26th of July 1712. In 1710 the duke had published Copies and Extracts of some letters written to and from the Earl of Danby . . . in the years 1676, 1697 and 1678, in defence of his conduct, and this was accompanied by Memoirs See also:relating to the Impeachment of Thomas, Earl of Danby. The See also:original letters, however, of Danby to Montagu have now been published (by the See also:Historical MSS. See also:Commission from the MSS. of J. See also:Eliot See also:Hodgkin), and are seen to have been considerably garbled by Danby for the purposes of publication, several passages being obliterated and others altered by his own See also:hand.

See the lives, by See also:

Sidney See also:Lee in the See also:Diet. Nat. See also:Biography (1895) by T. P. See also:Courtenay in See also:Lardner's See also:Encyclopaedia, " Eminent See also:British Statesmen," vol. v. (185o); in See also:Lodge's Portraits, vii.; and Lives and Characters of Illustrious Persons, by J. le Neve (1714). Further material for his biography exists in Add. MSS., 26040- 95 (56 vols., containing his papers); in the Duke of Leeds MSS. at See also:Hornby See also:Castle, calendered in Hist. MSS. See also:Comm. 11th Rep. pt. vii. pp. 1-43; MSS. of Earl of See also:Lindsay and J.

Eliot Hodgkin ; and Calendars of State Papers Dom. See also Add. MSS. 1864-1899, See also:

Index and See also:Calendar; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. pt. ii., House of Lords MSS.; Gen. See also:Cat. British Museum for various pamphlets. (P. C. Y.) Later See also:Dukes of Leeds.

The duke's only surviving son, Peregrine (1659-1729), who became 2nd duke of Leeds on his father's death, had been a member of the House of Lords as Baron Osborne since 169o, but he is better known as a See also:

naval officer; in this service he attained the rank of a See also:vice-See also:admiral. He died on the 25th of June 1729, when his son Peregrine See also:Hyde (1691—1731) became 3rd duke. The 4th duke was the latter's son Thomas (1713—1789), who was succeeded by his son See also:Francis. Francis Osborne, 5th duke of Leeds (1751-1799), was born on the 29th of See also:January 1751 and was educated at See also:Westminster school and at See also:Christ Church, Oxford, He was a member of parliament in 1774 and 1775; in 1776 he became a peer as Baron Osborne, and in 1777 lord See also:chamberlain of the queen's See also:household. In the House of Lords he was prominent as a determined foe of the See also:prime minister, Lord See also:North, who, after he had resigned his position as chamberlain, deprived him of the office of lord-lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1780. He regained this, however, two years later. See also:Early in 1783 the marquess of Carmarthen, as he was called, was selected as ambassador to France, but he did not take up this appointment, becoming instead secretary for foreign affairs under William See also:Pitt in December of the same year. As secretary he was little more than a See also:cipher, and he See also:left office in April 1791. Subsequently he took some slight part in politics, and he died in London on the 31st of January 1799. His Political Memoranda were edited by Oscar See also:Browning for the Camden Society in 1884, and there are eight volumes of his See also:official correspondence in the British Museum. His first wife was Amelia (1754—1784), daughter of See also:Robert See also:Darcy, 4th earl of See also:Holdernesse, who became Baroness Conyers in her own right in 1778. Their See also:elder son, George William See also:Frederick (1775—1838), succeeded his father as duke of Leeds and his See also:mother as Baron Conyers.

These titles were, however, separated when his son, Francis See also:

Godolphin Darcy, the 7th Duke (1798—1859 ), died without sons in May 1859. The See also:barony passed to his See also:nephew, See also:Sackville George See also:Lane-See also:Fox (1827-1888), failing into See also:abeyance on his death in See also:August 1888, and the dukedom passed to his cousin, George Godolphin Osborne (1802-1872), a son of Francis Godolphin Osborne (1777—1850), who was created Baron Godolphin in 1832. In 1895 George's grandson George Godolphin Osborne (b. 1862) became loth duke of Leeds. The name of Godolphin, which is borne by many of the Osbornes, was introduced into the family through the marriage of the 4th duke with Mary (d. 1764), daughter and co-heiress of Francis Godolphin, 2nd earl of Godolphin, and grand-daughter of the great duke of See also:Marlborough.

End of Article: LEEDS, THOMAS OSBORNE

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