Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

The Most Honourable Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, (June 18, 1769 – August 12, 1822), known until 1821 by his courtesy title of Viscount Castlereagh, was an Anglo-Irish politician born in Dublin who represented the United Kingdom at the Congress of Vienna. He was also intimately involved in securing the controversial passage of the Irish Act of Union. He was the son of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, a landowner who was created an earl and subsequently a marquess by King George III of the United Kingdom. He received his early education at The Royal School, Armagh. Additionally, the elder Robert Stewart was also known as The Viscount Castlereagh for about one year.

Decline and Death

Despite his many achievements, Castlereagh was extremely unpopular within the country as a result of his supposed reactionism abroad, and his support at home for the repressive measures of Home Secretary Lord Sidmouth. He also attracted criticism because, as the Government's leader of the House of Commons, he was often called upon to defend his colleagues' policies in that most public of British forums. For these reasons, Castlereagh is (among others from Lord Liverpool's cabinet) immortalised in Shelley's poem The Mask of Anarchy, a poem heavily critical of, and inspired by the Peterloo massacre:

Related Topics:
Home Secretary - Lord Sidmouth - Lord Liverpool's - Shelley's - Peterloo massacre

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:I met Murder on the way –

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:He had a face like Castlereagh –

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:Very smooth he looked, yet grim;

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:Seven bloodhounds followed him

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:All were fat; and well they might

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:Be in admirable plight,

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:For one by one, and two by two,

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:He tossed them human hearts to chew

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:Which from his wide cloak he drew.

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Sometime after Castlereagh's death, Lord Byron wrote a damning sarcastic quip about his grave:

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:Posterity will ne'er survey

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:A nobler grave than this:

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:Here lie the bones of Castlereagh:

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:Stop, traveller, and piss.

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And yet, some of Castlereagh's political opponents were gracious in their epigrams. Henry Brougham, Whig politician and later a cabinent minister, wrote:

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:Put all their other men together in one scale, and poor Castlereagh in the other -- single he plainly weighed them down...One can't help feeling a little for him, after being pitted against him for several years, pretty regularly. It is like losing a connection suddenly. Also he was a gentleman, and the only one amongst them.

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In the year before his death, Lord Londonderry (as he became in 1821 after the death of his father) appeared to be suffering from a form of paranoia. On 9 August 1822 he had an audience with King George IV in which he revealed to the King that he was being blackmailed. He said, "I am accused of the same crime as the Bishop of Clogher.". Percy Jocelyn, the Bishop of Clogher until that July, had been caught in the back room of a public house with his trousers down, accompanied by a young soldier. The King is said to have advised Londonderry to "consult a physician". Londonderry returned to his country seat at Loring Hall in Water Lane North Cray in Kent, and on 12 August committed suicide by cutting his throat with a letter opener.

Related Topics:
Paranoia - 9 August - 1822 - George IV - Percy Jocelyn - Bishop of Clogher - Public house - Loring Hall - North Cray - 12 August - Suicide - Letter opener

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An inquest concluded that the act had been committed whilst insane, avoiding the harsh strictures of the felo de se verdict that would have seen the suicide victim buried with a stake in his heart at a crossroads – an action that last occurred in 1823 before the law was amended in the same year. Some radicals, notably William Cobbett, construed this to be indicative of a "cover-up" within the ministry and a damning indictment of the elitism and privilege of the unreformed electoral system. His funeral on 20 August was greeted with jeering and insults along the processional route, although not to the level of unanimity projected in the radical press. A final cheer was raised as the coffin entered into Westminster Abbey, departing from the public eye for the last time. Lord Londonderry was buried in the Abbey in the shadow of his mentor, William Pitt the Younger; a funeral monument was not erected until 1850 by his half-brother and successor, Charles Vane.

Related Topics:
Felo de se - William Cobbett - 20 August - William Pitt the Younger

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A blue plaque is displayed at the entrance to this listed mansion in commemoration of its most famous resident, who occupied the property from 1811.

Related Topics:
Blue plaque - 1811

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See Peerage of Ireland

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