Prime Factors - Ranking UK Prime Ministers

10.2 - Augustus Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (Part 2)

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10.2 - Augustus Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (Part 2)

Episode Transcript

Abram: Welcome to Prime Factors. This week, Augustus Fitzroy Part 2.

Parliament: Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

Abram: Hello and welcome back to Prime Factors. I'm Abram and I'm here with my dad. We are reviewing all the British Prime Ministers from Robert Walpole to Keir Starmer. This is episode 10.2, Augustus Fitzroy Part 2.

Joe: Is Manatee joining us again this week?

Abram: Yes.

Manatee (Voiced by Abram): Hello!

Abram: Manatee is here to remind you that Intelligent Speech 2026 is coming up in a few weeks. If you sign up using the coupon code FACTOR, spelled F-A-C-T-O-R, any proceeds we get will be donated to my choice charity, Save the Manatee Club.

Joe: Yay! The Intelligent Speech theme this year is Companions and Rivals. And if all goes to plan, I will be presenting on the special relationship between Lord North, our next Prime Minister, and King George III.

Abram: That sounds like a lot of fun. Don't forget that you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and at primefactorspodcast.com. We're also on Facebook and BlueSky. If you enjoy listening, please like, subscribe, comment, and review.

Joe: Are you ready, Abram, to finish up Grafton? I suspect that he's going to be a very interesting ratings discussion.

Abram: I'm ready.

Joe: Okay.

Abram: Are you ready?

Joe: Yes.

Picture This

Joe: Wilkes and Liberty. It's May 1768, and the budding promise of a spring turning to summer makes it an excellent time to get out, enjoy the fresh air, and throw stones at the establishment. From the muddy tracks of Southwark to the wide avenues of Whitehall, men and women march in the streets, overturn carts, and attack the carriages of the nobles. It's been only a few days since the redcoats had fired on a mob outside of John Wilkes's prison, sparking what historians now call the Massacre of St. George's Fields. We zoom in on one carriage. It does not bear the livery of the Duke of Grafton, but behind curtained windows, the Duke peers out nervously as the driver delivers him to St. James's Palace. There's a thud as a protestor pounds on the side of the carriage.

Abram: Stop, stop, stop!

Joe: What's wrong?

Abram: We've done this one already with John Stuart and I think Thomas Pelham-Holles.

Joe: Well, mob violence was pretty common in London at the time. People that have little faith in the political process will often turn to violence.

Abram: Yeah, but our listeners should expect better of us.

Joe: Fine. All right, how about this? We fast-forward a few months to fall. The leaves around Euston Hall in Suffolk are just beginning to change color. A small carriage pulls up to the red-bricked manor, Grafton's estate near the Newmarket races and one of his favorite places to be. The figure that departs the carriage isn't anyone we've talked about before. His name is the Reverend Dr. John Young, a prominent Anglican priest and friend of the Whig establishment.

Abram: Was he actually young?

Joe: I don't know.

Abram: Well then his name should be Old.

Joe: Possibly. His name is the Reverend Dr. John Young, a prominent Anglican priest and a friend of the Whig establishment. This is not his first time visiting Euston Hall, but the nervousness in his step reveals that today is different. He removes his tricorn hat as he steps to the door. He's led inside to a dressing room to prepare for dinner. He nervously checks his reflection in the looking glass one last time. His shoe buckles are polished with shine, his cravat is straight, his clerical bob-wig is freshly powdered. He really looks the part of a future bishop, but now he just has to act like one. And why was he so nervous about this anyway? Grafton's an old friend. Dr. Young is visiting Euston Hall to discuss a bishopric that had recently opened up, and it would be a major promotion for him. Grafton is one of the key men making recommendations to the King, and he is expected to respond appropriately, to put himself forward for the position without seeming like he wants it too much. And as a man of God, he needs to seem humble. He is humble, he reminds himself. But to be a bishop, that would be a dream come true.

Abram: That's definitely an ego he has there.

Joe: He runs through the words he will say to the young Duke at dinner. Stay polite, he reminds himself. Don't seem too eager. It's a little test, a social dance that, if he performs it well, could earn him that promotion.

Abram: Knock, knock.

Joe: Who's there?

Abram: The priest.

Joe: The priest who?

Abram: The priest from the story.

Joe: Okay, let me continue. A few moments later, a footman delivers him to the dining room. This isn't a state event, just a small dinner between acquaintances. So the footman takes Dr. Young not to the main formal dining room, but a little dining room near the Duke's less formal living space.

Abram: So there's a big dining room and a small dining room?

Joe: Yeah, there's a big dining room for like the fancy state dinners. But they also have a smaller room where they would dine by themselves with the family.

Abram: They must like dining if they have two dining rooms.

Joe: They're very rich. I'm sure they have six others somewhere else.

Abram: That's a lot.

Joe: The Duke and Duchess have invited him for dinner several times over the years, and it's always a pleasure to share their company. The footman leads the doctor through the door and makes the formal introductions. The doctor opens his mouth to greet the Duke and Duchess, but his throat suddenly goes dry. There, in the seat at the head of the table reserved for the Duchess, a different woman sits. She's dressed in a fine white gown and pearls, her fragrant perfume pungent even across the room.

Abram: How could that be?

Joe: No! The woman is beautiful, but she's not the Duchess. And Dr. Young knows this woman by reputation, if not by sight. It's that harlot. Nancy Parsons.

Abram: Dun dun dun!

Joe: Duke Grafton is allowing this woman, this mistress, to act as hostess in his house! Dr. Young turns, his mouth open wide, still not able to formulate words. As the woman just smiles wide, the Duke begins to realize the issue. He stands up and gestures to a chair nearby. "Come, come, Jack. I had no time to inform you. I will explain afterwards." Dr. Young blanches. Is this the test? Grafton knows why he's here. Does he have to submit to this indignity as a show of loyalty? His right hand nervously seeks a small prayer book that he keeps in his pocket. Grafton is asking him to accept this. This is profane. Unclean before God. To win a bishop's robe by abandoning his morals? That's blasphemy! The doctor finally speaks. "I'm sorry, Your Grace. I am a man of God. I cannot take supper with her." Not even waiting to be dismissed, Dr. Young turns and lets himself out. He does not pause to change out of his dining clothes for the carriage ride home. Dr. Young had failed the political test. He's not going to get that bishopric. But his heart knows that he has passed the more important test. God will judge the sinners. And as for Augustus Fitzroy, his parading of his mistress will indeed lead to his coming judgment.

The Story So Far

Joe: So what do you remember about Augustus Fitzroy?

Abram: I forgot.

Joe: We recorded like 3 days ago. You can't have forgotten. All right. Augustus Fitzroy, the Duke of Grafton, was born into a scandalous family and lived a scandalous life.

Abram: Oh yeah.

Joe: He's directly descended from King Charles II.

Abram: And so he is the evil guy. Yeah, evil family members, a lot of them.

Joe: Right. And his grandfather was a prominent Whig politician during the reigns of George I and II.

Abram: The sad one, the bad one.

Joe: Right. Thanks to the death of his father, uncle, and grandfather in that order, Grafton found himself a duke with a tremendous fortune, a hunting lodge, a mansion near the Newmarket races, and command of the Suffolk militia. He also had a famous mistress, Nancy Parsons, called by some the most beautiful woman in England. He might have been content to be rich and only loosely involved in politics until Prime Minister Bute fired him as Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk. Of course, you know this means war.

Abram: Oh yeah.

Joe: Grafton leveraged his grandfather's political connections to become Northern Secretary under Prime Minister Rockingham. But William Pitt was his gold standard, and when it became clear that Rockingham wasn't going to bring Pitt into the ministry, Grafton resigned. The Rockingham ministry crumbled within weeks, and Grafton got his wish. William Pitt was appointed as the next Prime Minister and made him the First Lord of the Treasury in an unusual administration where Pitt, now Earl Chatham, would lead as Lord Privy Seal. Grafton, a politician with remarkably little experience, was now the number two man in the government. Unfortunately, Pitt became ill, and the playboy who didn't really want to be a politician found himself accidentally in charge of the government. And that is where we left off last time.

Charting A Disaster

Joe: When we talk about a Prime Minister, we usually do it the normal way, right? We start at the beginning. Things happen. And then they resign. But with Grafton, we have a challenge. His brief premiership is so twisted by scandals and emergencies all happening at once that telling the story in order just makes for a jumbled mess.

Abram: But we'd open some doors, like Benjamin Harrison.

Joe: Something like that. We're not going to start when he becomes Prime Minister either, but rather where we left off last time, October 1767. This is the point where Grafton is unambiguously in charge, but still a year before he officially becomes Prime Minister. And for this episode, Abram, I plan to follow three threads to their conclusion. First, the return of John Wilkes and the loss of confidence by the British public. This is Grafton underestimating a hero and the people that love him, leading ultimately to blood in the streets. Second, we'll talk about Grafton's personal life and scandals, and how those are magnified in public by his detractors. And especially the anonymous writer Junius. More than any PM we have discussed so far, he is a celebrity, and it's fitting that the gossip rags of the time rip him apart with any sign of weakness.

Abram: Celebrity Prime Minister.

Joe: And finally, we're going to look at the rise of the Bedford faction and his own weakening control.

Abram: Do they like sleep bake?

Joe: Yes. And his own weakening control over the government. This ultimately leads to Pitt turning against him and the loss of Corsica to the French, and everything falls apart.

Abram: I miss you, Corsica.

Joe: So these things overlap and magnify each other. Maybe he could have survived one of them. Like, what if Wilkes had happened but not Junius or Corsica? But in the interest of telling a story that is easy to follow—

Abram: They all happened in two years.

Joe: Yes, I'm going to try to keep them as separate as I can. But they all happened in two years. Are you ready?

Abram: Let's start with the election of 1768. Fred won!

Thread #1: Like a Bad Penny

Joe: Do you remember John Wilkes?

Abram: No.

Joe: Abram, Abram, Abram! You have a memory like no one would believe, and yet you don't remember our own episodes.

Abram: Rob and Jamie don't either.

Joe: True. All right, we've seen John Wilkes's saga play out over the last several Prime Ministers. He was an MP during Bute's administration. He produced the North Briton newspaper, which mocked Bute and his Scottish upbringing. His issue number 45, where he directly attacked the King's advisors, well, that was a bridge too far. The North Briton was raided, lots of people were arrested, and Wilkes briefly went to prison. Do you remember that part?

Abram: Yes.

Joe: All right. While Whig politicians like William Pitt defended Wilkes on free speech grounds, he was a very difficult person to like. And when a copy of a scandalously sex-filled poem was read out that he wrote in the House of Lords, Wilkes was drummed out of Parliament and ended up fleeing to France as an outlaw. Do you remember that part?

Abram: Say, Glenn.

Joe: Great. When the election of March 1768 came around, however, John Wilkes had a plan. He ran for a seat in Parliament for Middlesex. Apparently, it had not been considered that an outlaw would run for Parliament, let alone win. And John Wilkes won. He returned to England, and instead of coming to the House of Commons, he turned himself in to the authorities and was sent to the King's Bench Prison. This caused an explosion of popular anger. The people had just voted him in as their MP. How dare they put their representative in prison? Angry crowds began to gather around London and especially outside the prison where Wilkes was held. By May, almost two months after the election, the crowds around the prison in a place called St. George's Fields numbered about 15,000 protestors. Well, they were angry, but they also were not saints. They cried out, "Wilkes and Liberty!" But also, "No King!" They would harass the guards that were there to keep the peace, and as the mood worsened, more and more troops were brought in to protect the prison. On May 10th, 1768, the government had enough. They read the Riot Act to the protestors, essentially telling them that they had an hour to disband or else. And they responded in a way that is very familiar to middle schoolers, Abram, I think. They said, "Or else what?" Or else what? The "what" was open fire. The result was inevitable. It was also sad. Several people died.

Abram: Didn't Wilkes die?

Joe: No, Wilkes is in prison. This is people outside the prison.

Abram: No, but did they go into the prison and kill Wilkes?

Joe: They did not manage to get into the prison, no. Well, the protestors would have freed Wilkes. The guards were guarding the prison. So—

Abram: In order to stop their goals, would have killed Wilkes.

Joe: No, they would not have killed someone in their prison. That doesn't make sense. All right. In any event, we're not here to talk about Wilkes. We're here to talk about Augustus Fitzroy. And instead of saying things to calm the protestors, Grafton publicly thanked the soldiers for their service and their "firmness," actual quote, when dealing with the protestors. And this was understood as the government signing off on the killing of civilians by the military in London. It was not a good look. And this is where the first part of our Picture This takes place, in the tense days after the massacre, when rioters assaulted carriages of the wealthy, scrawling the number 45 on walls and doors and generally making life uncomfortable for those in power.

Abram: Why 45?

Joe: Well, the North Briton issue number 45 was the one that got Wilkes thrown into prison, but it's also a reference to a big event that happened in 1745.

Abram: Jacobite?

Joe: Yep. The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.

Abram: Is that like the last Jacobite thing?

Joe: I want to say yes. I can't think of any others. So there are no actual stories of Grafton's carriage being assaulted specifically, although many others were. And Grafton may have actually been in Newmarket at the time during the worst part of the unrest. I don't know. He liked horse races. There's so many other stories. Like, this is as big to I guess the British as the Boston Massacre might be to us. There's a lot of stories. There's a famous one where troops are chasing a protestor into a barn and they find someone that looks kind of similar in the barn and then they shoot him, but it's actually somebody else. Like, it's— there's a lot of big stories here. But for our purpose, the situation cools over the next couple of months. And after about a year, Parliament officially kicks Wilkes out of his seat so that somebody eligible could be voted in. You can't attend Parliament from prison, so they called another election. Wilkes ran in that election and he won.

Abram: Huh? Isn't he in prison?

Joe: He is. He can apparently still apply to run, and he did.

Abram: How?

Joe: Well—

Abram: This is impossible.

Joe: But guess what Parliament does?

Abram: Nothing.

Joe: They kick him out again, and then they have another election.

Abram: And then he wins.

Joe: And he wins again.

Abram: What?

Joe: And then they kick him out again.

Abram: Then?

Joe: And they have another election.

Abram: And he wins?

Joe: And he wins. This actually happens a couple of times, but Grafton eventually has a plan. They run someone else against Wilkes. I think it's the third time round, the fourth time round. That somebody was Colonel Henry Luttrell. And Luttrell loses tremendously. It was 79 to 21%. Right. It was a landslide victory. But Parliament simply says, well, Wilkes wasn't qualified to run. All those votes are voided. The only votes that count are the ones for Luttrell, and he wins the House seat.

Abram: That's really funny.

Joe: I think it's a little bit more than funny. The people howled in the streets, Abram, but there was—

Abram: Oh, wait, are you just saying people, a bunch of werewolves came into the middle of streets and started werewolfing?

Joe: No.

Abram: Aw, but they're old.

Joe: So the point is they could do nothing. There was a military that seemed ready to attack civilians, a government that didn't even respect their elections, and the Grafton administration, I mean, they were almost authoritarian. Not since Robert Walpole and his contested election committee had there been such a naked power grab that was so unpopular with the actual people. There would be consequences, but we're going to pick up the next chapter of John Wilkes's story during Lord North's episodes. But for our part here, Grafton had lost support of the common man. He underscored the corruption inherent in the parliamentary system. He pushed away Whig loyalists who were uncomfortable that the man in charge could decide who had seats in Parliament and who didn't. But even as he was pushing away the common people, Grafton was also working to alienate the royal family.

Thread #2: The Nancy Parsons Project

Joe: As we discussed last episode, Grafton's marriage had fallen apart. His wife, the Duchess, now lives with her parents, and he has taken on a very expensive companion. Nancy Parsons, otherwise known as Ann Parsons, otherwise known as Nancy Horton, and many other names. The daughter of a tailor who was something of a courtesan to the rich and famous. Maybe a prostitute, maybe something slightly different. It's hard for me to understand. But just being with Nancy Parsons was a scandal, but one that polite society mostly chose to ignore. Grafton, however, seemed insistent that she not be ignored. By 1768, decorum and good sense were being thrown out the window. He was actively including this woman in his social life, taking her to the races, parading her around town, and generally acting as if they were a couple.

Abram: Why does that sound like the horse races?

Joe: They didn't have video games yet.

Abram: Oh.

Joe: But they were not a couple. I don't know what was in Grafton's head at this point. Why was he doing these things? Was he in love with her, or was it more like showing off a beautiful woman as if she was like an expensive coat?

Abram: Either way, it wasn't good.

Joe: My theory? Simple. Love makes you do crazy things. I don't think anybody can do anything this stupid without being in love. But we just don't know. And the clearest, the most public indication of this infatuation, I think, comes in April 1768. Nancy Parsons had been sent on a nice long vacation to, as it turns out, Nice.

Abram: We went from Nice to Venice.

Joe: Anyway, the point is, Nice was very nice and she enjoyed it there. And of course, she had gone on Grafton's dime. He even sent some of his own servants to accompany her. While he remained in London to do the King's business. And when she returned, he acted like a lovesick puppy and arranged a special date. That brings us to Saturday, April 16th. Their special date was a showing, possibly the opening, of an Italian opera called La Schiava, or The Slave, at the King's Theater in Haymarket.

Abram: Is this famous?

Joe: It is not a famous play. I was able to find a copy of it. It's in Italian, so I didn't understand it, but I ran some through Google Translate and I looked at summaries. It's a comedy about a love triangle with a low-class slave woman who proves at the end of the play or the end of the opera that she was actually an upper-class person all along.

Abram: Huh? I'm confused.

Joe: Yeah, it's—

Abram: It's okay, Manatee, I'm confused too.

Joe: I mean, it's a case of mistaken identity. And especially in the very class-conscious sort of 18th century, those kind of plays were pretty popular. Shakespeare also did kind of the same trick. Anyway, the topic of the play was fitting, but I don't find any sources that even speculate that it was a deliberate selection. I'm thinking that it might have been an opening because it wasn't just regular people in attendance. The King and the Queen would be there as well as many of the other leading men and families of the realm, right? Because the King would be there, lots of nobles were expected to attend. And Grafton, of course, decided to bring his mistress.

Abram: Oh, that's some good—

Joe: Could it have been a deliberate snub against authority? Was he just an idiot? I don't know.

Abram: The King is literally there. Couldn't the King just notice and, hey, you're cheating. Goodbye.

Joe: Well, let me run through this with you. It was scandalous for him to take his mistress out in polite company. Strike one. It was more scandalous that his actual wife, the Duchess of Grafton, was also at the same opera that day, sitting just a few feet away.

Abram: That's worse.

Joe: It was even more scandalous that they were doing that all in front of the King and the Queen. The Duke's box was in, like, line of sight to the King. And not only did Grafton stay with Miss Parsons the whole time, but he then walked her to her carriage at the end.

Abram: What? This is evil!

Joe: Through throngs of noblemen and commoners that had been in the audience. Everybody could see them.

Abram: That isn't good. I think he's going to get a lot of minus points.

Joe: I mean, it was an insult beyond all insults, right? The King was steaming, but there was nothing he could do immediately.

Abram: Grafton. Can't he just fire Grafton?

Joe: Well, he needed him to run the government, and if there had been a better person available at the time, I am positive that he would have fired him already.

Abram: Wait, can't the King just become, like—

Joe: Not in the—

Abram: But the King has control of everything.

Joe: Not in the parliamentary system as it had developed by the 1760s.

Abram: Unlike the 1720s.

Joe: Yeah. Thomas Whatley, an opposition MP, summed it up. He said, quote, "A minister, a married man, the Duchess there in the pit, talking to Nancy Parsons only, waiting upon her out, those are the changes rung by everybody. Libertine men are as much offended as prudish women, and it is impossible that he should think of remaining a minister when he thus defies all decency."

Abram: There goes his rating. It's going down the drain.

Joe: Yeah, well, they wanted blood.

Abram: Dad, I need to do something.

Joe: Where are you going?

Abram: This is what's going to happen to his rating. Hello, rating. Bye, rating. So that's what's going to happen to the rating.

Joe: We'll see. Let's keep going. Our Picture This at the top of the episode, the second part, is of a different event around the same time, which just reinforces the idea that Grafton was trying to normalize his relationship with Miss Parsons. He was exposing her to people, maybe to get a reaction, but maybe to try to make it seem normal. And of course, in Dr. Young's case, he was so scandalized that he stormed out.

Abram: Bye!

Joe: This scandal also brings us to Grafton's largest adversary, his one true nemesis other than his own stupidity, Junius.

Abram: Is that person Roman?

Joe: It is a— anonymous name based on a Roman person. But the idea is that we don't know who this person was, and maybe it's Junius, but I'm going to say Junius anyway. Starting in January 1769, Junius wrote a series of letters for a newspaper called the Public Advertiser, where he savaged the Grafton administration from every angle. The letters were well-written. With a firm understanding of the law. They were strong on Whig principles and politics. And with the common men and women now beyond angry at Grafton for the Wilkes incident and more, these letters were very widely read. And for people that couldn't read, the letters were even read out in pubs and in the public squares. Well, one historian I found said at least 10,000 people were hearing or reading every letter. Some of the letters attacked Grafton's personal life and lack of morals, especially the opera incident. "To a mind like yours, my Lord, such an outrage to your wife, such a triumph over decency, such an insult to the company, must have afforded you the highest gratification when all of the ordinary resources of pleasure had been exhausted." Others attacked him for the Wilkes affair, painting him as an authoritarian. Others attacked his nepotism and his cronyism, the rise of well-connected families instead of competent administrators. And given, of course, that Grafton had had his role handed to him despite his lack of experience or indeed interest, well, that complaint fits perfectly. Attempts have been made to stop the letters or to find out who was writing them, but to this day we don't know. They tried to jail the publisher, but that failed. In what is considered a major win for free speech in Britain. And another podcast, a better podcast maybe, would spend more time with Junius. He's witty, intelligent, fun to read.

Abram: Except we are not a better podcast.

Joe: Nope. He completely turned the political establishment at its time on its head. And because he's anonymous, historians don't even know who he was. They puzzle over clues.

Abram: Was he Horace Walpole?

Joe: He was not Horace Walpole, probably.

Abram: How do we know?

Joe: We don't. Horace Walpole seems fitting, but there were other people at the time too. Who was he? Why was he so well-read and well-spoken? Let's just remember there's a guy, a mysterious guy, savaging Grafton in the background at all times, turning commoners and nobles against him, and using language that was appealing to the Whig intelligentsia. So we're going to close out this section with a prime example of a problem that we will be more upset about. But I think they at the time were not as upset, which is Grafton's divorce. It was no secret, of course, that he was cheating on his wife all day, every day. He was parading his mistress around London. But in the social climate of the time, she was still expected to bear it, right? No matter what he did. No matter who he shared a bed with or took to the opera, she was still a Duchess and she was expected to act like it. She could never have a boyfriend. She could never love anyone again. But if he had caught her eye at the opera that night, he might have noticed that she was pregnant.

Abram: Oh, no.

Joe: If he didn't find out then, he discovered soon after, and the child could not have been his.

Abram: Good.

Joe: And that was a huge deal. More even than the social implications of a woman having another partner, it was a legal problem. She was still a Duchess. If she had a son and it could not be proven that she cheated, then that son would have a claim on the Grafton titles, on the land. If his elder siblings died first, he would be the next Duke. So it was vitally important that she be named and shamed so that this child would not be seen as his. The affair was easily proven, and Grafton asked for a divorce. Process here is more complicated than I'm letting on, but because he was a duke and the world worked differently, the divorce had to be approved by the House of Lords. I read the divorce papers, Abram. They are vile. They only mention her affair, as if Grafton was the aggrieved party, despite him living openly with a mistress and having multiple other affairs. It's a tight little packet of misogyny. The divorce was approved March 23rd, 1769. Almost immediately after, both Grafton and his ex-wife remarried. She married her lover at the time, the Earl Ossory, and her children with him were recognized. And while she would never be allowed in certain polite company again, she did retain some wealth and nobility. Grafton also remarried. But not— and you might be surprised about this— not to Nancy Parsons.

Abram: What?

Joe: So to understand that, we're going to have to go to our next thread. But Grafton's new wife will be Elizabeth Wrottesley, the niece by marriage of the Duke of Bedford, whose faction is increasingly powerful in the government. If anything, this underscores just how tenuous his political position had become. So we're going to step back and look at how the Bedford faction was not only able to take over the government, but also drive Grafton into this strategic marriage.

Abram: So what's the next part?

Thread #3: Surrendering to Bedford (and to France)

Joe: Rewind, rewind, rewind. In the power vacuum that followed Pitt's illness, one faction stepped up to pass legislation first: the Bedford faction, otherwise known as the Bloomsbury Gang. This was a group that was already embedded in the government. They were well organized. Having avoided the limelight in kind of the tumultuous politics of the decade. I mean, don't forget, we've had how many Prime Ministers since 1760? It's been a lot.

Abram: Oh yeah.

Joe: This was their time to shine. Now, this group might feel like it came out of nowhere, especially, Abram, if you've only been listening to our podcast.

Abram: But if you've been listening to Prime Time, then it'll make a lot more sense.

Joe: Actually, I don't think they've mentioned him either.

Abram: What? I'm confused.

Joe: So I've had the Duke of Bedford in my notes since Henry Pelham's episode, but not once did he rise up enough to end in our finished scripts. He was Pelham's Southern Secretary, then took the elder statesman Lord Privy Seal role during Newcastle, Bute, and Grenville. He's always been important, but always a little bit below our radar. And after Grenville, Bedford stopped taking a direct role in government. But he built a strategy around placing his men, his people in less senior positions up and down the government. He also brought MPs into his fold, right? He was essentially building a power base without anyone noticing, and he was really good at it. As the situation worsened for Grafton, as he lost friends, as he annoyed people, as he upset the common man on the street, he needed an ally that could shore up his majorities and keep things stable while he dealt with everything else. There was still too much bad blood with Rockingham, but siding with Bedford might be a pill he was willing to swallow. He'd still be in charge, right? Even with their help? Right?

Abram: No, I assume.

Joe: Well, some sources report that Pitt was the one that encouraged him to seek out Bedford, but I'm not even certain I buy that. There's some debate how lucid Pitt had been in their last meeting. Plus, Pitt and Bedford had been enemies for a long time. Certainly what's about to happen is going to support the idea that they were not Pitt's recommendation. Things started small. A Bedford man, Lord Gower, was made Lord President of the Council in December 1767. But that was just the beginning. And the big way that this expressed itself was in the Corsican crisis of 1768. Abram, you know this already. You know all geography ever. Where is Corsica?

Abram: South of France.

Joe: South of France and north of?

Abram: Sardinia.

Joe: And to me, it always looks like it should be a part of Italy, even though it's part of France.

Abram: Yes.

Joe: But in the 1700s, this was not the case. Corsica was a part of the Republic of Genoa.

Abram: And if you listen to our Italy special, it goes over a little bit more of history of this sort of region. I think the first one mainly.

Joe: We have two really great Italy episodes.

Abram: And hopefully we're going to have like five eventually.

Joe: Going to start with three. Let's stick with three for now.

Abram: One more is planned for like a few months from now. And I bet we're going to do one or two more after that. But it hasn't been decided yet.

Joe: No, indeed it has not. Although our Italy episodes are pretty much the most popular thing we have for no reason that I understand. Apparently our listeners are tired of Prime Ministers and want us to talk about Italy. I don't get it. Anyway, Corsica was a part of the Republic of Genoa, but in 1755, revolutionaries led by General Pasquale Paoli, and I know that I'm butchering that name, took over the island and established their own republic that was very British-leaning. Well, they were not British, but they were trying to appeal to British and Whig sensibilities. Genoa tried to reclaim the island, but in a secret treaty in 1764, and then again I think in 1768, Genoa essentially sold the island to France for the low, low price of "if you can conquer them, take it." France invaded in 1768, capturing the port cities on the coasts, but was unable to conquer the interior of the island where the rebels still controlled. Britain did not want Corsica to become French and give them another strategic beachhead in the Mediterranean. Britain wanted an ally in the region that would at worst keep their enemies out, but at best be British in all but name. Grafton agreed with this. He assigned his Southern Secretary, Earl Shelburne—

Abram: Should we put a pin in him?

Joe: Well, I think you know him by a slightly different name. He's called William Petty.

Abram: Oh, he needs a pin. Ow! There, we've pinned him.

Joe: Point is, Grafton asked Shelburne to handle the situation, and the plan was simple: you arm the rebels secretly, and you make a show of force with the British Navy. France could not afford a repeat of the Seven Years' War. Neither could Britain. It wasn't a bluff, exactly, but Shelburne felt confident that the situation wasn't going to escalate. The Bedford faction disagreed. They vetoed the plan and they had enough support in the government to do it. And even worse for Grafton, they were able to use this as a pretext for firing Shelburne and bringing their own man, the Viscount Weymouth, in as Southern Secretary instead. They were going to control foreign policy now. I hope that's okay.

Abram: I hope so.

Joe: Lacking the British support they needed, Corsica fell to France a short time later and has been French ever since. Oh. And it's less than a year after that when a man from a very minor Tuscan noble family is born in what is now French Corsica. Do you have any idea who that might be?

Abram: Napoleon?

Joe: Napoleon Bonaparte. Can you imagine how different the world would be if Napoleon was born to an Italian Corsica or a British Corsica instead of French?

Abram: I'm a British general.

Joe: So Shelburne's firing was the end of things for William Pitt, still in his sickbed at Hayes. He's been officially Prime Minister this whole time, but he felt well enough that day to write a resignation letter. And most sources, including the History of Parliament, place that moment, October 14th, 1768, as the start of Augustus Fitzroy's time as Prime Minister. Ironically, I actually think that's completely wrong. Uh, the opposite is true. This is almost Grafton's lowest point as the Bedford faction is increasingly controlling the government.

Abram: Bedford, Bedford, Bedford.

Joe: And as you know, he even married into the Bedford family.

Abram: Yeah.

Joe: So for all that the Bedford faction wanted to avoid war with France, they had a very different approach to the American colonies. There, they stressed the primacy of Parliament and the King and their authority to levy taxes and tariffs. Grafton tried to repeal the Townshend Acts, which we talked about last time, but he failed to get even a majority in his own cabinet. They agreed to cut most of Townshend's tariffs, but one must remain to show the colonists that Parliament would not give up its authority.

Abram: Which one?

Joe: Tea.

Abram: Oh, tea overboard, tea overboard.

Joe: So by this point, every other thread that we've discussed has come together. The Wilkes riots have happened, the Junius letters, the opera scandal, the divorce, the fall of Corsica. Grafton, to his credit, had managed to keep his government running through all that. But the man that had put Grafton in power was also the one to take him from it. By January 1770, Pitt was healthy enough to return to the House of Lords. He no longer recognized the ministry that was once his, and he spoke out about it vehemently. He accused Grafton of incompetence and of handing the reins of government over to their enemies. Pitt then played his strongest card. He demanded that the ministers loyal to him resign. Camden and Granby did. We saw them in our Picture This last time. Grafton tried to replace the departing ministers, but he was leading an increasingly unpopular government. He managed to convince one guy, Charles Yorke, to come in as Lord Chancellor, but he died on the third day in office.

Abram: What?

Joe: Some sources say he died of stress. Some sources say he died of suicide. Some sources say he just died. We don't know.

Abram: That's really suspicious.

Joe: But it's a bad omen at the very least, and nobody else wanted to join his sinking ship. On January 27th, 1770, Grafton resigned. He didn't want to be Prime Minister anyway.

Abram: Hmm. However, he lived much longer, I've heard.

His Next Chapter

Joe: As usual, we won't go into tremendous detail with Grafton's time after being Prime Minister. We will be seeing him again. There's at least a few points I want to share before we get to the rating. Grafton's second wife seems to calm him a lot. There's no public cheating scandals, at least that I've been able to find, and they have a lot of kids together. Grafton also turned increasingly to religion, eventually being a large voice in the growing Unitarian movement and authoring several influential books. He remained in politics, and he gradually became that elder statesman that he aspired to be. He's going to be Lord Privy Seal, the same role that Pitt held, in three future administrations: North, Rockingham's second term, and Shelburne's. During the American Revolution, Grafton returned to his militia roots, and he led the Suffolk militia once again, resigning in 1780 due to ill health. He largely left national politics in 1783 after the Shelburne administration. He retained his Lord Lieutenancy until 1790. He was never heavily involved in the House of Lords, but he remained eligible to sit and vote until his death. The last such vote I can find is in 1807. It's a minor vote. He died March 14, 1811, at age 75.

Abram: He died on Pi Day.

Joe: Oh, he did die on Pi Day. Should we show them your trick, or should we wait for actual Pi Day?

Abram: Let's show them my trick.

Joe: Okay, hold on. I have in my hand a dollar. Okay, Abram, go!

Abram: 3.1415926535897932. 3, 8, 4, 6, 2, 6, 4, 3, 3, 8, 3, then I think 2, 7, 9, 5, 0.

Joe: You could end it there. That's fine.

Abram: Yeah.

Joe: Abram, how do you remember that but not who John Wilkes is?

Abram: I don't know, but at least I got paid. I've gotten paid.

Joe: All right, let's go.

Abram: But unfortunately, we do have something we have to tell Manatee. He can't participate in rating.

Joe: Yeah, we can only have two scores. Sorry, Manatee.

Abram: You can watch. Don't worry. This is what happens when our guest star gets involved in the rating.

Joe: Okay, Abram, I need you to say the word "rating."

Rating

Joe: Okay, first topic in our rating system is accomplishments. And we can each rate him up to 20 points apiece.

Abram: He didn't really do anything.

Joe: Yeah, so—

Abram: All those things they did were disaccomplishments.

Joe: So the country did not get lit on fire, mostly, although there were massive riots in London, so maybe that's not the case. He was a successful leader of the Suffolk militia before he was Prime Minister. When he was Southern Secretary, he did some, a couple small things.

Abram: But I'm giving him like a 4.

Joe: I was gonna go 3 or 2.

Abram: I actually am changing it to a 2.

Joe: 2. I'm gonna go 2 as well. I feel like that's low, but I can't really think of anything he actually did. So now we have disaccomplishments. We can give him up to -10.

Abram: So this is what he undid, not his bad personality.

Joe: Right. So what did he undo? Well, he—

Abram: Pretty much the country fell apart under.

Joe: I think the country kind of fell apart. We had rioting. We had the loss of Corsica, which wasn't British but was British-aligned. We had a loss of parliamentary mandate because of the Wilkes stuff.

Abram: I think a lot. This isn't as bad as his bad personality, but I'm going with -7.

Joe: Yeah, actually, 7 seems perfect to me.

Abram: It isn't horrible, but like, it's pretty bad.

Joe: I'm going with 7 because of something we didn't mention, which is that he is responsible for Townshend, and that Townshend's acts were another big strike against, uh, the American Independence Movement.

Abram: So bad personality is even worse.

Joe: I mean, oh my God.

Abram: I think minus 10 almost.

Joe: I think I'm going minus 9 because he didn't murder anyone.

Abram: So I'm going to go with minus 9 because—

Joe: I mean, you can go 10 if you want.

Abram: I'm actually going to go minus 8.

Joe: You're going minus 8. I'm going minus 9. He is just like— I mean, yeah, it's icky. And he rubbed people's face in it. All right, but how interesting is he? Maybe, maybe his score is gonna be saved here.

Abram: I don't think so. This is 10. I, I don't think it would make a horrible story, but I'd say if someone made a movie about it, it'd be like 2 stars. So like 4, because they'd be able to put like it in, but I don't think it would work that well. So I'm gonna go 4 because it could happen.

Joe: I just— yeah, I mean, 4 is what I gave Devonshire, and I think that he's about as interesting as Devonshire. That makes sense.

Abram: Yes.

Joe: Now we're going to take a look at how he looks, and I'm going to tell you what I said. Actually, I prefer this picture.

Abram: Looks like he's on a hunting trip.

Joe: I mean, this is definitely a portrait taken of him in a hunting outfit while hunting. His Wikipedia portrait is a little bit more serene.

Abram: Yeah, but look at his eyes.

Joe: So on BlueSky, I said he's really punchable.

Abram: Look, his face is literally green.

Joe: Well, that's probably just the pigment.

Abram: So it's okay. He looks— I don't like his hair. His hair looks stupid, but okay.

Joe: So I guess the question is, is he like a 6 or a 5?

Abram: 5. I am giving him a 5. It's okay.

Joe: I am giving him—

Abram: And we divide by 2 because why not?

Joe: Yeah, rating system devised by a 10-year-old. These things happen. All right, lifespan. Uh, he's getting bonus points for doing nothing by just not dying. He gets 7.5 points. And now we have a big question of his term. So do we only give him credit for when he was officially Prime Minister, do we give him full credit or half credit during the period where Pitt was technically in charge but sick?

Abram: Wasn't when Pitt was technically in charge, wasn't it like another, another guy? And then he died like shortly before Pitt resigned.

Joe: That was Townshend. He was never really in charge. Like, Grafton should have been in charge then, if anyone.

Abram: I'm only going to do it for the time he was actually in charge.

Joe: Okay, so you would state then that he should get— and I'm not sure that I agree with that, but it's both of our podcasts.

Abram: October 14th, 1768 to January 28th, 1770.

Joe: Yeah, but how long is that?

Abram: You can type incredibly fast.

Joe: Yeah, well, you also type very fast.

Abram: And I did a key.

Joe: So the official parliamentary list has him being Prime Minister for 1 year and 107 days. So we would give him a score of 1. Are you comfortable with that?

Abram: Yeah.

Joe: All right. Let's add this.

Abram: I'm, I want to add mine.

Joe: Okay. You can add it up.

Abram: So in positive points, he gets 5, 9, 13. So he gets 26.5 in positive points. That is in good, except he gets— he gets -5.

Joe: What?

Abram: Yeah, we did double-check that.

Joe: We did not design this system to have negative points. Our spreadsheet says he comes out at -4.5 points.

Abram: Oh boy. Oh, how did you not expect this? He's horrible, man.

Joe: I feel so bad for him now.

Abram: Why?

Joe: I had no idea our rating system could go negative. Yeah, like, I mean, I guess it was possible. So Abram has just worked out that the lowest possible score our scoring system allows for is -29.6. And so he has gotten -4.5, which when you look at it that way, isn't so bad, right?

Abram: Well, he could get like 25 points worse.

Joe: So, Abram, I think we got to pause here for a second because we have a super important question to ask.

Abram: Cone or ice cream cone? I think he's an ice cream cone.

Joe: Yeah, there's no way.

Abram: He got negative points. I didn't think that was possible.

Joe: So we're sorry, Augustus Fitzroy, the Duke of Grafton.

Abram: You're an ice cream cone.

Joe: You are an ice cream cone.

Abram: Bye.

Joe: And that is all I think we can possibly say.

Abram: But you have to do the outro. Thank you for listening to Augustus Fitzroy Part 2. This is Abram. I've been here with my dad and Manatee. Don't forget to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and at www.augustusfitzroy.com. Www.primefactorspodcast.com. We're also on Facebook and BlueSky. If you enjoy listening, like, subscribe, comment, and review.

Joe: All right, I think all that's left to say is good night, Abram.

Abram: Good 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

Bibliography

Joe: We are back to basics for this episode after a very complex Grafton Part 1. My key sources this time are actually the same as last. The Royal Fitzroys by Bernard Falk, written in 1950. Just like before, this is a dynasty biography and focuses more on the family as a whole than Augustus Fitzroy, the Third Duke, in specific. But I think it offers a great view of his life, and some of the funnier stories that I pulled out come straight from that. The Autobiography and Political Correspondence of Augustus Henry, Third Duke of Grafton, edited by William R. Anson in 1898. Once again, I didn't use any of his actual biography pieces here, although now I understand why he might have felt he needed to write an autobiography later in life. As usual, we had a myriad of smaller sources. Still no newer biography. Given his rating, I am concerned about biased sources, but he really does seem to just be awful. Our amazing editor is Palle Bo, and there is no one I can recommend more for podcast editing and production. You can find him at radioguru.co.uk. Thank you for listening. I've started buying books for Lord North, and there might be a special collaboration episode coming up if we can get our calendars to align just right. That's all for me. See you next time.

RadioGuru: Produced by radioguru.co.uk.

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