William Wyndham Grenville (25 October 1759, Wotton House, Buckinghamshire – 12 January 1834, Burnham, Buckinghamshire), 1st Baron Grenville, Member of the Privy Council, was a British Whig statesman and Prime Minister (11 February 1806 – 31 March 1807) of King George III.
Grenville studied at Eton, Christ Church (Oxford) and Lincoln's Inn. Son of Whig Prime Minister George Grenville and Elizabeth Wyndham, daughter of Tory statesman Sir William Wyndham, he entered the House of Commons in 1782, where his older brother, Thomas, also sat as an MP. P>
Grenville soon became a close ally of the Prime Minister, his cousin William Pitt the Younger, and entered the government as Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1782 to 1783, Paymaster of the Forces of 1784 to 1789 and Vice-President of the Board of Trade from 1786 to 1789. In 1789, he was briefly Speaker of the House of Commons, before joining the Cabinet as Minister of the Interior (“Home Secretary”). He became Leader of the House of Lords (1790-1801), when he was raised to the peerage the following year with the title of Baron Grenville, and Chairman of the Board of Control from 1790 1793. In 1791, he succeeded the Duke of Leeds as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and then became Auditor of the Exchequer from 1794 to 1834. The decade that Grenville spent in the Foreign Affairs is a dramatic period, which sees the development of the French Revolutionary Wars. During the war, Grenville was the leader of the party which defended the idea of military intervention on the continent as the key to victory, against the faction of Henry Dundas, which favored maritime and colonial warfare. Grenville left office when Pitt left in 1801 over the issue of Catholic emancipation.
Over the next few years Grenville grew close to Whig opposition leader Charles James Fox, and when Pitt returned to government in 1804, Grenville was not among them. After Pitt's death in 1806, Grenville took over the leadership of the "Ministry of All Talents", a coalition comprising Grenville's supporters, "Foxite" Whigs (supporters of Fox) and supporters of former Prime Minister Lord Sidmouth . Grenville, as First Lord in the Treasury, and Fox, in Foreign Affairs, are the two leaders. Grenville's cousin, William Windham, was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and his younger brother, Thomas Grenville, briefly First Lord of the Admiralty. Overthrown after a year, this Ministry will, in the end, have accomplished little, failing as well to make peace with France as to accomplish the emancipation of the Catholics (this question leads to the dismissal of the government in March 1807) . It enjoyed significant success, however, with the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.
In the years following the fall of the ministry, Grenville remained in opposition, maintaining his alliance with Lord Gray and the Whigs, criticizing intervention in Spain and, with Grey, refusing to join Lord Liverpool's government in 1812. the post-war years, Grenville gradually approaches the Tories, but without ever joining the government. His political career ended following an attack in 1823.
Grenville also served as Chancellor of Oxford University from 1809 until his death in 1834. Created for him (1790), the title of Baron Grenville became extinct on his death in 1834.
The Ministry of All Talents, February 1806 - March 1807
Lord Grenville - First Lord in the Treasury and Leader of the House of Lords (1806-1807)
Charles James Fox - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the House of Commons
Lord Erskine - Lord Chancellor
Lord Fitzwilliam - Lord President of the Council
Lord Sidmouth - Lord Privy Seal
Lord Spencer - Secretary of State for Home Affairs
William Windham - Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
Lord Howick - First Lord of the Admiralty
Lord Henry Petty - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Lord Moira - Master-General of Artillery
Lord Ellenborough - President of the High Court of England and Wales
Changes
In September 1806, on Fox's death, Lord Howick succeeded him in Foreign Affairs and as Leader of the House of Commons, while Thomas Grenville succeeded Howick in the Admiralty. Lord Fitzwilliam becomes Minister without Portfolio, and Lord Sidmouth succeeds him as Lord President, while Lord Holland succeeds Sidmouth as Lord Privy Seal.