Elder, but no better

William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham was hailed by Victorian schoolboys as the man who made England great. He was the patriot leader, the minister who steered the country through the Seven Years War, climaxing in the Year of Victories of 1759. General Wolfe heroically captured Quebec, British troops helped Frederick the Great of Prussia smash the French at the battle of Minden, and the British navy decisively defeated the French at Quiberon Bay. England emerged as the greatest power not just in Europe but in the world, and Pitt was the hero.

In fact, Pitt’s reputation was wildly inflated. The war was fought by soldiers making decisions on the spot — it had to be, as letters took several weeks to reach England. Pitt neither planned nor financed the war. Most of his strategic initiatives failed. Back in London, he made the speeches and took the credit. He was, as Edward Pearce argues in this revisionist biography, the show business man of war. As historians have recognised for some time, Pitt’s bubble is overdue for pricking.

Pitt was the grandson of the India merchant ‘Diamond’ Pitt — so-called because he bought a diamond the size of a hen’s egg at a rip-off price in India and sold it at a 450 per cent profit to the King of France. William Pitt drifted into parliament aged 25, sitting for the family borough of Old Sarum, which had all of five voters. He made a reputation as a critic of prime minister Walpole’s corrupt political system but, as Pearce points out, this was a matter of expediency rather than conviction. He belonged to the clique or faction which revolved around the Grenville family, and because they were in opposition, they needed a cry. Pitt was their leading orator, but his speeches, says Pearce, were heavy and dull.