Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (13 March 1764 – 17 July 1845) was a British Whig politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. His government enacted the Reform Acts of 1832, which expanded the electorate in the United Kingdom, and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which abolished slavery in the British Empire.
Born into a prominent family in Northumberland, Grey was educated at Eton College and the University of Cambridge. While travelling in Europe on a Grand Tour, his uncle secured his election as member of parliament (MP) for Northumberland in a 1786 by-election. Grey joined Whig circles in London and was a long-time leader of the reform movement. He briefly served as First Lord of the Admiralty and as foreign secretary in the Ministry of All the Talents from 1806 to 1807 and then served in opposition as a member of the House of Lords for nearly 24 years.
He was asked to form a ministry by William IV in 1830, following the resignation of Wellington. As prime minister, Grey oversaw the passage of the Reform Act 1832, which redistributed parliamentary seats and standardised and extended the franchise in England and Wales. It was accompanied by the Scottish Reform Act and the Irish Reform Act of the same year. Grey's government also enacted the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which outlawed the practice of slavery in the British Empire. Grey resigned as prime minister in 1834 following cabinet disagreements over policy in Ireland, and he subsequently retired from politics.
After an affair with the married Duchess of Devonshire, which resulted in a daughter who was brought up by Grey's parents, Grey married Mary Ponsonby and had fifteen children. His name is associated with Earl Grey tea although it is unlikely he had any connection with it.
Grey was born at Fallodon on 13 March 1764 into a landowning Northumberland family. He was the second, but eldest surviving, son of Charles Grey and Elizabeth Grey of County Durham. His father was a soldier who attained the rank of general and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Grey in 1801 and Earl Grey in 1806.
At the age of six, Grey was sent to a school in Marylebone, where he spent a miserable three years. He then went to Eton College, where he met future political allies, including Samuel Whitbread, and William Henry Lambton. He did not remember his time at Eton with great affection, and did not send his own sons there. George Heath, a master (and later headmaster) at Eton, recalled how Grey "was as he now is, able in his exercises, impetuous, overbearing &c...". In 1781, Grey went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, which was more congenial to him. He did not take a degree, which was not uncommon in those days. At university, he acquired the skills in oratory that would distinguish him in Parliament. Grey's education was completed by a Grand Tour, in which he travelled to southern France, Switzerland and Italy.
Member of Parliament, 1786–1806
During his childhood and youth, Grey had spent time with his unmarried uncle, Sir Henry Grey, at Howick Hall. In 1801, Grey and his family would take up residence at Howick Hall, and he inherited the estate when his uncle died in 1808. Sir Henry, a baronet and former MP, managed to get his nephew elected in the Northumberland by-election of 1786. Grey returned from his Grand Tour and took up his seat in the House of Commons in January 1787, aged 22. While his father and uncle were supporters of the government of William Pitt, and he had been returned as the member for Northumberland without expressing any political allegiance, Grey soon entered Whig circles in London and became a follower of Charles Fox. He frequented the prince regent at Carlton House, was a member of the Whig club Brooks's, and embarked on an affair with the Duchess of Devonshire. His maiden speech in the House of Commons in February 1787 was an attack on Pitt's Commercial Treaty with France. The speech was greeted with applause; Henry Addington wrote: "I do not go too far in declaring that in the advantage of figure, voice, elocution, and manner, he is not surpassed by any member of the House" and lamented the fact that the speech had firmly placed Grey in the ranks of the opposition.
In April 1792, Grey was one of the founders of the Society of the Friends of the People, a group of 147 people including 28 MPs and three peers that campaigned for parliamentary reform. As a member of the committee who ran the society, Grey was careful to advocate moderation in calls for reform in order to distance themselves from the actions of French revolutionaries and to protect themselves from accusations of insurrection. The society’s manifesto said that its aim was to "reinstate the constitution upon its true principles" and indicated that Grey would move for reform in the next parliamentary session. On 6 May 1793, Grey duly moved that a petition of the society, which outlined the abuses of the electoral system and called for parliament "to regulate the right of voting upon a uniform and equitable principle", should be put before a parliamentary committee. Following a debate, the motion was defeated by 282 votes to 41, in spite of a supporting speech by Fox. Grey, together with Fox and their supporters, also mounted challenges to the government's repressive measures against radicals, which culminated in the 1794 Treason Trials, and called for peace with France. In the 1796 general election Grey was returned unopposed.
In May 1797, a second motion for electoral reform was lost by 256 votes to 91. During the debate, both Grey and Fox indicated that, if the motion was not carried, they and their supporters would secede from parliament and only attend to vote on important measures. The secession, which Grey came to regret, lasted about three years, leaving Grey free to return to Howick, where he and his wife lived as guests of his uncle. In the 1799 session, he returned to parliament for the debates concerning Ireland, his marriage to Mary Ponsonby, who was from an Irish liberal family, having given his a particular interest in Irish affairs. By November 1800 he was participating more fully in debates in parliament, and was joined by Fox in March 1801.
In 1801, Grey's father accepted a peerage from the new prime minister Henry Addington and became Baron Grey, much to the dismay of Grey, as he had hoped to have a long career in the House of Commons rather than having to move to the House of Lords on inheriting the peerage. That same year, Grey's uncle offered Howick as a permanent residence to Grey and his growing family. Grey became increasingly attached to Howick and notoriously reluctant to make the journey to London to attend to political affairs. When Pitt returned to power in 1804, he made approaches to Lord Grenville, who was by this time aligned with the Whigs, and Grey, who was now in support of the war against Napoleon following the breakdown of the peace of Amiens, to join a coalition government. Both refused to join the cabinet without Fox, and King George III was adamant that Fox could not be included, so the approaches came to nothing.
Ministry of All the Talents, 1806–1807
The death of Pitt in January 1806 led to the formation of a new coalition of Whigs and Tories, led by Grenville and including Fox and Addington. It was dubbed the "ministry of all the talents" by George Canning, who was not part of it. Grey was appointed Lord of the Admiralty, where he drew up proposals for increased pay for seamen and officers in the navy, as well as improvements at Greenwich Hospital and increases in navy pensions. In April 1806, Grey's father was granted an earldom and Grey took the title Lord Howick. As it was a courtesy title, he was able to remain in the House of Commons. On the death of Fox in September 1806, Grey became foreign secretary, leader of the House of Commons and leader of the Whigs. Almost as soon as Grey became foreign secretary, the already faltering peace negotiations with Napoleon collapsed.