Lord North
Lord North was prime minister for twelve years and lost the American colonies. Born in London in 1732, the eldest son of the Earl of Guilford, he was educated at Eton and Oxford, entered the Commons at twenty-two, and had a genuine talent for parliamentary management, debate and public finance, along with a bulging-eyed appearance he mocked himself. He became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1767 and prime minister in 1770 at thirty-seven, and held the confidence of George III completely. He inherited the dispute over colonial taxation. He repealed the Townshend duties except the one on tea, which was kept as a matter of principle — a decision that preserved the grievance without raising money. After the destruction of the tea at Boston in 1773 he passed the Coercive Acts, closing the port, altering the Massachusetts charter and quartering troops, which united the colonies against Britain. He conducted the war for eight years and did not believe in it. He offered concessions in 1775 and 1778 that would have satisfied the colonists earlier, and repeatedly asked the king to let him resign, saying he was unfit to direct a war. George III refused for years. He did reduce the debt and reform the customs, and after the war supported Catholic relief. News of Yorktown reached him in November 1781; he is reported to have taken it as he would a ball in the breast and repeated that it was all over. He resigned in March 1782, allied with Charles James Fox in a coalition widely regarded as cynical, and went blind. He died in 1792.
- Lived: 1732 CE – 1792 CE
- Nationality: British
- Roles: prime_minister, politician
