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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Government of the United Kingdom and chairs Cabinet meetings. There is no specific date when the office of Prime Minister first appeared, as the role was not created but evolved over a period of time.〔Hennessy (2001), pp. 39–40〕 The term was used in the House of Commons in 1805,〔Hansard, (29 April 1805 )〕 it was certainly in Parliamentary use by the 1880s,〔Hansard, (20 March 1885 ) and (14 April 1885 )〕 and in 1905 the post of Prime Minister was officially given recognition in the order of precedence.〔Marriott (1921), p. 85〕 Modern historians generally consider Sir Robert Walpole, who led the government of Great Britain for twenty-one years from 1721 to 1742,〔Clarke (1993), p. 266〕〔Hennessy (2001), p. 39〕 to be the first Prime Minister; he is also the longest serving Prime Minister of the country. Due to the gradual evolution of the post of Prime Minister, the title is applied to early Prime Ministers only retrospectively; this has sometimes given rise to academic dispute. William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath and James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave are both sometimes listed as Prime Ministers. Bath was invited to form a ministry following the resignation of Henry Pelham in 1746, as was Waldegrave in 1757 following the dismissal of William Pitt the Elder (the dominant figure of the first Devonshire Ministry). Neither was able to command sufficient Parliamentary support to form a government; Bath stepped down after two days, and Waldegrave after four. Modern academic consensus does not consider either man to have held the office of Prime Minister, and they are not listed. ==Before 1721== Prior to the creation of the United Kingdom, the Treasury of England was led by the Lord High Treasurer. From Tudor times the Lord High Treasurer was regarded as one of the Great Officers of State, and was often (though not always) the dominant figure in the government: Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (Lord High Treasurer 1547–1549) served as Lord Protector to his nephew Edward VI; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (Lord High Treasurer 1572–1598) served Elizabeth I as chief advisor; Burghley's son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (Lord Privy Seal and Secretary of State; Lord High Treasurer 1608–1612) succeeded his father as chief minister to Elizabeth I and then James I. From the 17th century onwards, the Treasury was often run not by a single individual (the Lord High Treasurer) but by a commission (i.e. a committee) of Lords of the Treasury, led by the First Lord of the Treasury. The last Lord High Treasurers, Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (Lord High Treasurer 1702–1710) and Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (Lord High Treasurer 1711–1714), led the government of Queen Anne. Following the succession of George I in 1714, the arrangement of a commission of Lords of the Treasury as opposed to a single Lord High Treasurer became permanent. From 1714–1717 the ministry was led by Viscount Townshend, who was nominally Northern Secretary, having three different First Lords. From 1717–1721 Lords Stanhope and Sunderland led the administration jointly, with Stanhope managing foreign affairs and Sunderland managing domestic affairs. Stanhope died in February 1721 and Sunderland resigned in April 1721; Townshend and Walpole returned to office. From this point, the First Lord was known unofficially as the "Prime Minister"; the Prime Minister still holds the office of First Lord of the Treasury. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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