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TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM, BART

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 603 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TEMPLE, See also:SIR See also:WILLIAM, See also:BART . (1628-1699), See also:English states-See also:man, diplomatist, and author, was See also:born in See also:London, and came of an old English See also:family, but of the younger See also:branch of it, which had for some See also:time been settled in See also:Ireland. He was the eldest son of Sir See also:John Temple (1600-1677), Irish See also:master of the rolls, whose See also:father was Sir William Temple (1555-1627), See also:provost of Trinity See also:College, See also:Dublin. His See also:mother was See also:Mary See also:Hammond. Temple received a liberal See also:education, calculated to produce that moderation of See also:judgment for which he was afterwards remark-able. He was first a See also:pupil of his See also:uncle Dr See also:Henry Hammond, the divine, after which he went to the See also:grammar-school at See also:Bishop Stortford, and then to the Puritan college of See also:Emmanuel at See also:Cambridge, where he came under the See also:influence of See also:Cudworth. At the commencement of the See also:civil troubles his father embraced the popular cause and was deprived of his See also:office. Coming to See also:England, he sat in the See also:Long See also:Parliament as member for See also:Chichester, and was one of the recalcitrant members turned out by See also:Colonel See also:Pride. Before this event happened his son had See also:left Cambridge, without taking a degree, and in 1647 started to travel abroad. In the Isle of See also:Wight, while on his way to See also:France, he See also:fell in with Dorothy See also:Osborne, and won her affections. Her father, Sir See also:Peter Osborne, was See also:governor of See also:Guernsey and a Royalist. Her family were opposed to the match, and threw difficulties in the way, which hindered its consummation for seven years.

During this See also:

period Temple travelled in France, See also:Spain, See also:Holland, and other countries, gaining knowledge of the See also:world and keeping up a See also:constant See also:correspondence with his betrothed. At length, apparently in 1654, the difficulties were surmounted and the See also:marriage took See also:place. In 1655 Temple and his wife went to Ireland. The next five years were spent in the See also:house of Sir John Temple, who had made his See also:peace with See also:Cromwell, and had resumed his See also:official position. His son took no See also:part in politics, but lived the See also:life of a student and a See also:country See also:gentleman. The See also:accession of See also:Charles II. rescued Temple, like many others, from obscurity. In 166o he sat in the See also:convention parliament at Dublin as member for See also:Carlow, and he represented the same See also:county along with his father in the See also:regular parliament that followed. After a See also:short visit to England in 1661, as See also:commissioner from the Irish parliament, he finally removed thither in 1663. There he attached himself to See also:Arlington, secretary of See also:state, and two years later received his first employment abroad. It was in See also:March 1665 that the disastrous See also:war with the See also:United See also:Netherlands began. Charles IL was anxious to obtain See also:allies, especially as See also:Louis XIV. was taking up a hostile attitude. At this juncture Christoph Bernhard See also:van See also:Galen, bishop of See also:Munster, sent an See also:envoy to England, offering to attack the Dutch if the English See also:government would See also:supply the means.

Temple was sent over to negotiate a treaty, and in this business gave See also:

evidence not only of the See also:diplomatic skill but of the See also:peculiar candour and frankness for which he was afterwards so distinguished. He was successful in making the treaty, but it was rendered ineffectual by the See also:declaration of war by France, the threats of Louis, and the See also:double-dealing of the See also:prelate, who, after receiving a See also:great part of the See also:subsidy, made a See also:separate peace with the Netherlands. As a See also:reward for his services Temple was created a'See also:baronet, and in See also:October 1665 became the English representative at the viceregal See also:court at See also:Brussels. While the war continued, Temple's duties consisted chiefly in cultivating See also:good relations with Spain, which was a neutral in the See also:quarrel between England and the Dutch, but was threatened by the claims of Louis XIV. on the See also:Spanish Netherlands. Louis's designs became apparent in the See also:spring of 1667, when he marched an See also:army into See also:Flanders. This event was one of those which led to the peace of See also:Breda, and to the subsequent negotiations, which are Temple's See also:chief See also:title to fame. The See also:French conquests were made at the expense of Spain, but were almost equally dangerous to the United Netherlands, whose See also:independence would have been forfeited had Louis succeeded in annexing Flanders. While the French were taking See also:town after town, Temple made a See also:journey into Holland and visited De Witt. The friendship established and the community of views discovered during this interview facilitated the subsequent negotiations. Temple had for some time pressed on his government the See also:necessity of stopping the French advance, and had pointed out the way to do so, but it was not till See also:December 1667 that he received instructions to See also:act as he had suggested. He at once set out for The See also:Hague, and in See also:January 1668 a treaty was made between England and the United Netherlands, which, being joined shortly afterwards by See also:Sweden, became known as the Triple See also:Alliance. It was a defensive treaty, made against the encroachments of France.

Whether we regard the skill and celerity with which the negotiations were conducted or the results of the treaty, the transaction reflects great See also:

credit on Temple. The French See also:king was checked in See also:mid-career, and, without a See also:blow being struck, was obliged to surrender almost all his conquests. See also:Pepys records public See also:opinion on the treaty by saying that it was " the only good public thing that hath been done since the king came into England." Unfortunately the policy thus indicated was but short-lived. In taking up a hostile attitude towards France Charles's See also:object had apparently been only to raise his See also:price. Louis took the hint, increased his offers, and two years later the See also:secret treaty of See also:Dover reversed the policy of the Triple Alliance. Meanwhile Temple had See also:developed the good understanding with the Dutch by contracting a commercial treaty with them '(See also:February 1668), and had acted as English plenipotentiary at See also:Aix-la-Chapelle, where peace between France and Spain was made in May 1668. Shortly afterwards he was appointed See also:ambassador at The Hague. Here he lived for two years on good terms both with De Witt and with the See also:young See also:prince of See also:Orange, afterwards William III. The treaty of Dover led to Temple's recall; but the See also:plot was not yet ripe, and Temple nominally held his See also:post for another See also:year. He perceived, however, that his See also:day was over and retired to his house at Sheen. In See also:June 1671 he received his formal dismissal. The war with the Netherlands See also:broke out next year, and was almost as discreditable to England as that of 1665.

Want of success and the growing strength of the opposition in parliament forced Charles to make peace, and Temple was brought out of his retirement to carry through the See also:

change of front. After a negotiation of three days, carried on through the See also:medium of the Spanish ambassador, the treaty of See also:Westminster was made (February 1674). As a recognition of his services Temple was now offered the See also:embassy to Spain. This he declined, as well as the offer of a far more important post, that of secretary of state, but accepted instead a renewal of his embassy to The Hague, whither he went in See also:July 1674. In the March following he was nominated ambassador to the See also:congress at See also:Nijmwegen; but, owing to the tortuousness of Charles's dealings, it was not till July 1676 that he entered that town. The negotiations dragged on for two years longer, for Charles was still receiving See also:money from France, and English See also:mediation was no more than a ruse. In the summer of 1677 Temple was summoned to England and received a second offer of the secretaryship of state, which he again declined. In the autumn of the same year he had the See also:satisfaction of removing the last difficulties which hindered the marriage of William and Mary, an event which seemed to See also:complete the See also:work of 1668 and 1674. Louis still remaining obstinate in his demands, Temple was commissioned in July 1678 to make an alliance with the states, with the object of compelling France to come to terms. This treaty was instrumental in bringing about the See also:general pacification which was concluded in January 1679. This was Temple's last See also:appearance in the See also:field of See also:diplomacy; but his public life was not yet over. A third offer of the secretaryship was made to him; but, unwilling as ever to mix himself up with See also:faction and intrigue, he again declined.

He did not, however, withdraw from politics; on the contrary, he was for a short time more prominent than ever. The state was passing through a See also:

grave crisis. See also:Political See also:passion was embittered by religious fanaticism. Parliament was agitated by the popish plot, and was pressing on the Exclusion See also:Bill. The See also:root of all the See also:mischief See also:lay in the irresponsibility of the See also:cabinet to parliament and its complete subservience to the See also:crown. To remedy this, Temple brought forward his See also:plan for a reform of the privy See also:council. This See also:body was to consist of See also:thirty members, See also:half of whom were to be the chief See also:officers of the crown, the other half being persons of importance, lords and commoners, chosen without reference to party. See also:Special care was taken to select men of See also:wealth, which Temple considered as the chief source of political influence. By the See also:advice of this council the king promised to act. The parliament, it was supposed, would See also:trust such a body, and would cease to dictate to the crown. The See also:scheme was accepted by the king, but was a failure from the outset. Intended to combine the advantages of a parliament and a council, it created a See also:board which was neither the one nor the other.

The conduct of affairs fell at once into the hands of a See also:

junta of four, of whom Temple was at first one, and the king violated his promise by dissolving parliament without asking the advice of the council. Temple retired in disgust to his See also:villa at Sheen, and appeared only occasionally at the council, where he soon ceased to exercise any influence. In 168o he was nominated ambassador to Spain, but stayed in England in See also:order to take his seat in parliament as member for the university of Cambridge. He took no part in the debates on the great question of the day, and acting on the king's advice declined to sit in the parliament of 1681. See also:Early in that year his namewas struck off the See also:list of the council, and henceforward he disappeared from public life. He continued to live at Sheen till 1686, when he handed over his See also:estate there to his son, the only survivor of seven See also:children, and retired to See also:Moor See also:Park in See also:Surrey. When William III. came to the See also:throne Temple was pressed to take office, but refused. His son became secretary at war, but committed See also:suicide immediately afterwards. Sir William, though occasionally consulted by the king, took no further part in public affairs, but occupied himself in literature, gardening and other pursuits. It should not be omitted that See also:Swift lived with him as secretary during the last ten years (with one short See also:interval) of his life. Temple died at Moor Park on the 27th of January 1699. Temple's See also:literary See also:works are mostly political, and are of consider-able importance.

Among them may be mentioned An See also:

Essay on the See also:Present State and See also:Settlement of Ireland (1668); The See also:Empire, Sweden, &c., a survey of the different Governments of See also:Europe and their relations to England (1671) ; Observations upon the United Provinces (1672) ; Essay upon the See also:Original and Nature of Government (1672) ; Essay upon the See also:Advancement of See also:Trade in Ireland (1673). Some of these were published in the first part of his Miscellanea (1679). In the same year apparently his Poems were privately printed. In 1683 he began to write his See also:Memoirs. The first part, extending from 1665 to 1671, he destroyed unpublished; the second, from 1672 to 1679, was published without his authority in 1691; the third, from 1679 to 1681, was published by Swift in 1709. In 1692 he published the second part of his Miscellanea, containing among other subjects the essay Upon the See also:Ancient and See also:Modern Learning, which is remarkable only as having given rise to the famous controversy on the " Letters of See also:Phalaris." His Introduction to the See also:History of England, a short See also:sketch of English history to 1087, was published in 1695. Several collections of his letters were published by Swift and others after his See also:death. His fame rests, however, far more on his diplomatic triumphs than on his literary work. His connexion with domestic affairs was slight and unsuccessful. He was debarred both by his virtues and his defects—by his impartiality, his honesty, and his want of ambition—from taking an active part in the disgraceful politics of his time. But in the See also:foreign relations of his country he was intimately concerned for a period of fourteen years, and in all that is praiseworthy in them he had a See also:principal See also:hand. He cannot be called great, but he will be remembered as one of the ablest negotiators that England has produced, and as a public servant who, in an unprincipled See also:age and in circumstances peculiarly open to corruption, preserved a blameless See also:record.

See Life and Works of Sir William Temple (2 vols., 1720; 2nd ed., with Life by See also:

Lady See also:Giffard, 1731) ; a more complete edition, including the Letters, was published in 4 vols. in 1814; See also:Burnet, History of his own Time; T. P. See also:Courtenay, Memoirs of the Life, &re, of Sir William Temple (2 vols., 1836); See also:Macaulay, Essay on Sir William Temple; A. F. Sieveking, Sir W. Temple and other Carolean See also:Garden Essays, (1908); and E. S. Lyttel, Sir William Temple (See also:Stanhope See also:Prize Essay, See also:Oxford, 1908). (G. W.

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