#我在头条搞创作第二期 #
Hello everyone, I am learning from history.
The latest news, Truss Elizabeth, who has just been British prime minister for just over a month, announced her resignation, and her 45-day term also broke the record for the shortest time since the establishment of the British prime ministership.
In this issue, we briefly take stock of the historical British prime ministers.
1. Establishment
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (PM), abbreviated as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The establishment of the British Prime Minister dates back to 1714, when the 54-year-old George I succeeded to the throne after the death of Queen Anne.
George I was the first king of the Hanover royal family, because he was German, his mother tongue was German, he basically did not understand English, he did not know England yet, and he did not want to know Britain ...
After he became King of England, the cabinet could only meet in Latin or French, which was a particular headache for both sides.
The Prime Minister's Office is located: 10 Downing Street
Later, in order to avoid the embarrassing situation of the meeting, George I appointed Whig leader Robert Walpole as the head of the cabinet, the "Chief Chancellor of the Exchequer", who attended cabinet meetings in his place.
So from the time of George I, the British monarch did not attend cabinet meetings, and the meetings originally chaired by the king were changed to trusted ministers appointed by the king, which also became the beginning of the British prime minister system.
It was not until 1783, during the British Pett Cabinet, that the status and name of the prime minister were officially determined.
In 1878, when the then British Prime Minister Disraeli signed the Treaty of Berlin, the name of the British Prime Minister appeared for the first time in official documents.
2. The longest-serving prime minister
Caption: Robert Walpole
Whig leader Robert Walpole ( August 26 , 1676 – 18 March 1745 ) was recognized as the first Prime Minister in British history (although there was no such term as Prime Minister at the time), but because of his strong influence on British politics, he became de facto at the helm of Britain at the time, and was known as the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
And Robert Walpole is also the longest-serving of the 78 prime ministers in the United Kingdom since he had a prime minister.
Walpole was born into the nobility of the family, his father was a member of the Whig Party, and a cavalry colonel; Walpole Jr. attended Eton College from an early age, and later to Cambridge, where he was a local councillor after graduation.
In 1705, Walpole was appointed to the Council of Admiralty to manage naval affairs, and in 1708, he became Secretary of State for the War;
During the War of the Spanish Succession, the commander of the British army, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, was very optimistic about him, and he became an important adviser to the commander of the British army.
Caption: King George I of England
After George I succeeded to the throne, Walpole, a member of the Whigs, was appointed Privy Council Counsellor in 1714 and appointed to the Cabinet as Comptroller of the Army;
In April 1721 , he was further appointed First Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House of Commons. It is generally believed that Walpole began his career as prime minister;
In 1742, Walpole, who had served both King George I and George II for twenty years, finally ushered in his Waterloo, and he was voted no confidence by a majority in a dispute over whether the by-election of parliamentarians had been wrongly manipulated, so Walpole decided to resign from the government.
On 6 February 1742 , George II made him Earl of Orford in compensation and granted him an annuity of four thousand pounds to become a member of the House of Lords. Five days later, Walpole handed over the seal and officially resigned.
Walpole's resignation also set a precedent for British prime ministers: whenever the cabinet loses the support of the House of Commons, the cabinet and its prime minister must resign.
Caption: Eton College
3. Interesting facts of the British Prime Minister
The vast majority of British prime ministers are from aristocratic origins, and 1/3 of prime ministers graduated from Eton College (more than 20 prime ministers graduated from it).
Together, Oxford (24 prime ministers) and Cambridge (15 prime ministers) have produced more than three-quarters of Britain's prime ministers.
Of the 78 British prime ministers, only 6 have no university education, including:
The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon in the Waterloo War, was the 21st Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
But after graduating from Eton, he went to study military affairs at the French military academy in Pinherol, where the two-year curriculum consisted mostly of dancing and horseback riding, and the purpose of education was to train students how to become a standard gentleman.
He began his career in the army after graduation, participated in 60 battles in his lifetime, served twice as commander-in-chief of the British Army, defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, and was the only person in world history to receive the rank of Marshal of the Eight Nations.
Another famous prime minister, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War II, also did not get a university education, he was a scum in high school at Harrow College, and after graduation, his family had to pay him to go to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to mix diplomas.
After graduation, Churchill became a correspondent with the army, writing articles in Cuba, India and other places, and also served as a correspondent in the Boer War, but was captured by the Boers.
Churchill escaped from prison and gained great fame in Britain, which allowed him to enter politics.
4. Female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
There are only 3 female prime ministers in the history of British prime ministers, namely Margaret Thatcher of the Iron Lady, Theresa May, and Truss Elizabeth.
Among them, Margaret Thatcher served as prime minister from 1979 to 1990, serving for 11 years and 209 days, which is regarded as a famous British prime minister;
Theresa May became prime minister after Brexit, but 3 years and 11 days later, Theresa May admitted that she had mishandled Brexit and ceded the position of prime minister to Johnson.
The third female prime minister is Truss Elizabeth, who resigned after only 45 days as prime minister on September 6, 2022, making her shortest term as prime minister in British history.