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Tom Wharton and the Whig Junto: Party Leadership in Late Stuart England*
Author(s) -
HOLMES GEOFFREY
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
parliamentary history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.14
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1750-0206
pISSN - 0264-2824
DOI - 10.1111/j.1750-0206.2008.00067.x
Subject(s) - swift , queen (butterfly) , reputation , politics , character (mathematics) , electoral politics , history , law , sociology , classics , political science , democracy , hymenoptera , botany , geometry , mathematics , computer science , biology , programming language
This previously unpublished lecture by Geoffrey Holmes looks at the parliamentary career of Thomas, 6th Baron Wharton, 1st earl and 1st marquess of Wharton, a leading member of the whig junto in the reigns of William III and Queen Anne. It examines his ‘unsavoury’ character and how his reputation as a libertine and swordsman may have helped his role as a party leader. It also examines his historical reputation, partly through the works of Jonathan Swift, Richard Steele and Lord Macauly and attempts to restore his position as a much‐maligned major figure in Augustan parliamentary and electoral politics.