Prime Factors - Ranking UK Prime Ministers

Descended from an illegitimate son of Charles II, the Grafton clan seemed to embrace the ignominy, leading lives rocked in equal parts by political power and scandal. Augustus Fitzroy led a comfortable life filled with horses, hunting, and... women, but when duty called, could he put aside his family's proclivities to be the leader that Britain desperately needed?

Thanks to our fantastic podcasting friends who contributed to this episode's "Picture This" segment: John and Rob from Prime Time, Rob from Totalus Rankium, and Kassidy from YouTube. A friend of the show, Adam, also provided some incidental music.

Also includes a trailer for the Alexander Standard podcast.

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The Seven Years' War bought Britain an empire but at a staggering price. The Americans cried out "No Taxation Without Representation!" even as Britain struggled to pay to maintain her new territory. Grenville and Rockingham's missteps had pushed the colonists to the brink. It would take a true man of the people, a "Great Commoner", like William Pitt to restore calm. If only his gout wasn't acting up...

Part Three in our trilogy on William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham. 

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"The Death of the Earl of Chatham" painting by John Singleton Copley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Earl_of_Chatham

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"My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and no one else can." Britain was losing the Seven Years War and the Duke of Newcastle seemed powerless to stop it. William Pitt had been drummed out of government once, but the mobs in the street still cried out his name. No one had more faith in his abilities than Pitt himself, but could the Great Commoner turn the tide and deliver the British Empire to its greatest victories?

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At Cavour's death, the dream of a united Italy was still incomplete: Rome and Venice remained outside the newly formed Italian Kingdom. Garibaldi cried out for Rome, but it would take the rise of one empire and the fall of another before the ancient Aurelian walls fell and Italy was whole once again. 

Featuring Marco Cappelli from Storia d'Italia as our special guest co-host!

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Italy was a divided nation, a pawn in the machinations of empires. Camillo Benso, the Count of Cavour, dreamed of a day when Italy could take its place among the nations of the world. As a journalist, Cavour fought for a constitution and parliament. As a statesman, he needed all his cunning (and a little luck) to make friends, scheme with emperors, and pull the disparate parts of Italy together... by force, if necessary.

Recorded on location (and vacation!) in Aosta and Venice, in Italy. Our cover art is the Cavour lego mural in his ancestral home of Santena, Italy, which we visited.

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From the depths of the Kollur Mine to the apex of the French crown, the Pitt Diamond (later known as the Regent Diamond) is either the story of a great British adventure, or a terrible Indian tragedy. We retell this story briefly in a bonus scene from William Pitt, Part 1. 

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As a boy, William Pitt grew up on stories of his merchant adventuring family. The Pitt fortune was smuggled out of the mines of India, even while his grandfather was the Governor of Madras. Pitt's father nearly lost it all betting on the Jacobites, but they survived. As the second son however, William had to find his own way as he sought fortune in the military and government. The story of one of Britain's greatest military leaders begins here.

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Who was really the first Prime Minister? Do Prime Ministers even exist? And was Robert Walpole one of those? This bonus episode (recorded at Intelligent Speech 2025) looks at the lies and half-truths behind early British Prime Ministers.

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