Charles Townshend

Charles Townshend ( born August 29, 1725 in Raynham Hall, Norfolk, † September 4, 1767 ) was a British aristocrat and politician.

Charles Townshend was born as the second son of Charles Townshend, 3rd Viscount Townshend and his wife Audrey at the family seat Raynham Hall. Audrey Townshend was famous for her candor and wit, qualities which she passed on to her son. Townshend graduated from in 1745 to study at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, together with a small group of other British, the well-known personalities were later, including the politicians Dowdeswell, Wilkes and the Rev. Alexander Carlyle, who some of their local experiences, wrote in his autobiography.

From 1747 to 1756 Townshend represented as an MP the constituency in the Parliament of Great Yarmouth Great Britain, then to 1761 for Saltash and then Harwich in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He attracted public attention for the first time in 1753, when he fought against the Marriage Act of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, which marriages were put on a more rigorous legal basis. His fierce opposition to this law that was adopted is explained by the fact that he had been instructed, as a younger son to marry a rich heiress. In fact, he married in 1755 Caroline Campbell ( † 1794), the eldest daughter of John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, and widow of Francis, Lord Dalkeith, son of Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch. The couple had two sons and a daughter; the sons remained without issue.

Political career

In April 1759 Townshend, who had been since 1749 a member of the Board of Trade, was Lord of the Admiralty. However, in 1755 he was forced to resign from the post after he had criticized the policy of the Admiralty sharp. But already in the following year he received the lucrative post of Treasurer of the Chamber. However, when one of his partisans, Sir William Burrell, wanted to install on the Board of Admiralty and this was rejected, he resigned again. Under Prime Minister William Pitt, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1766. Since Pitt shortly thereafter became seriously ill, Townshend was the strong man in the government. He was generally regarded as a brilliant and eloquent Financial politician who but ultimately lacked political instinct.

As Chancellor of the Exchequer to Townshend continued to ensure that the control should be maintained on property at the same level ( four shillings to the pound ) against the aspirations of this tax in order to reduce a shilling, but could not prevail. This process meant a sensitive political defeat for Pitt, who increasingly dislike Townshend developed, which also does not always followed instructions from Pitt. Since, however, Townshend had great political influence, Pitt refrained from deposing him. Townshend tried to compensate for the deficit in the treasury due to reduced tax revenues through new sources of income in America So he invented new taxes on various goods such as glass, paper and tea if they have been exported to America, collectively, the Townshend Acts. For additional taxes should be taken ₤ 40,000. The consequences of these tax laws and the opposition in the colonies, however, were ultimately responsible for the Boston Tea Party and the Revolutionary War.

A little later, Charles Townshend died unexpectedly.

In 1753 the place was named Townshend in Vermont after him.