|
Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (15 June 1645 – 15 September 1712) was a leading British politician of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was a Privy Councillor and Secretary of State for the Northern Department before attaining real power as First Lord of the Treasury. He was instrumental in negotiating and passing the Acts of Union 1707 with Scotland, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain. He had many other roles, including that of Governor of Scilly. ==Family and early career== He came from an ancient Cornish family, being the son of Francis Godolphin (1605–1667) and nephew of the poet Sidney Godolphin. At the Restoration he was introduced into the royal household by King Charles II of England, whose favourite he had become, and he also entered the House of Commons as member for Helston, in Cornwall. Although he very seldom addressed the House, and, when he did so, only in the briefest manner, he "gradually acquired a reputation as its chief if not its only financial authority". In 1668 he was a successful intermediary between the King and his sister Henrietta Anne (wife of the Duke of Orléans), in order to secure an agreement with King Louis XIV of France, where Charles would reject his Dutch allies in return for French money.〔Roy A. Sundstrom, ‘(Godolphin, Sidney, first earl of Godolphin (1645–1712) )’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009, accessed 25 Jan 2011.〕 On 12 September Godolphin was appointed Groom of the Bedchamber along with a pension of £500 per annum. In 1669 he was awarded a 31-year lease on all tin mines in Rialton and Retraigh in Cornwall.〔 Charles appointed Godolphin envoy-extraordinary to Louis XIV in 1672 in order to reassure the French King of Charles's allegiance before Louis attacked the Dutch. Godolphin was with Louis in the field during the Franco-Dutch War but was unimpressed with Louis's capabilities as a military commander.〔 In March 1679 he was appointed a member of the Privy Council, and in the September following he was promoted, along with Viscount Hyde (afterwards Earl of Rochester) and the Earl of Sunderland, to the chief management of affairs. 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「Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|