User:Lord Cornwallis/Canning-Castlereagh duel

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George Canning by Thomas Lawrence, 1822. The Foreign Secretary had secretly plotted to have his colleague dismissed from the cabinet.

Lord Castlereagh by Thomas Lawrence, 1809. The Secretary of War challenged his colleague to a duel when he discovered about attempts to remove him.

The Canning–Castlereagh duel took place on 21 September 1809 on Putney Heath outside London between the politicians George Canning and Lord Castlereagh who had recently been cabinet colleagues. On discovering that Canning had secretly been pushing to have him dismissed from his post as War Secretary Castlereagh resigned and challenged him to a duel. Both men fired two pistol shots and Canning was wounded in the thigh. Although he soon recovered the duel was taken to spell the disgrace of both men, ending their political careers. Nonetheless both subsequently went on to serve as Foreign Secretary and Canning was briefly Prime Minister in 1827.

Background

Political rivals

Both men were of Irish background - the London-born Canning had Irish parents while Castlereagh was born in Dublin and grew up at Mount Stewart in County Down. Both were young supporters of the Prime Minister William Pitt with Castlereagh first joining the cabinet in 1798 as Irish Secretary. While Canning was initially personally closer to Pitt, after Castlereaghs move from Ireland to London in 1801, he became more intimate with the Prime Minister serving as his Secretary of War before his death in 1806.

After Pitt's death his Tory followers went into opposition to the Ministry of All the Talents, a Whig government that fell in March 1807. The Tories returned to office under the figurehead leadership of Duke of Portland, but the dominant members of the new administration were Canning, Spencer Perceval, Lord Liverpool and Castlereagh.

With Portland made Prime Minister, Castlereagh returned as Secretary of War while Canning took over the Foreign Office. Rating his colleagues around this time as potential future rivals for the premiership, Canning ranked him very low beyond most other prominent Tories.^[1]

Walcheren campaign

The main issue facing the incoming government was the ongoing Napoleonic Wars against France and from 1808 British troops were deployed to the Iberian Peninsular. In early 1809 the government received intelligence that the French were constructing a number of warships with which they could potentially invade Britain in Antwerp. Napoleon was determined to rebuild his fleet following it's defeat at Trafalgar in 1805. A military operation could prevent this as well as provide support for Austria which had recently entered the war against France.

Despite the growing commitment to the army of Sir Arthur Wellesley fighting the Peninsular War, a large force was prepared for a strike against Antwerp by Castlereagh. It was to be a rapid operation, using both army and naval forces.

From the start the campaign went badly. It took much longer than expected to land on Walcheren island, the planned staging point for the thrust against Antwerp. The Siege of Vlissingen dragged on and troops began to fall sick from the malarial terrain of what was dubbed Walcheren Fever.

Indescion and disputes among the commanders and French reinforcements arriving following their crushing victory over Austria at Wagram. The decision was made to withdraw to England without any serious attempt ever being made against Antwerp. Thousands of troops arrived home, many very ill.

Not even the victory at the Battle of Talavera, for which Sir Arthur Wellesley was granted the title of Lord Wellington, could lift the sense of mismanagement of the war effort. As the Secretary of War, Castlereagh was the public face of the failed campaign along with it's commander Lord Chatham.

Canning's manoeuvres

Despite endorsing the Walcheren campaign, Canning had long been unhappy with the conduct of the War Office

Had been manoeuvring against his colleague since before the Walcheren campaign began.

He first approached Portland in the spring and the discussions dragged on for for months. His motives for this have been subject of debate. He has been defended as being driven by the need to improve Britain's war effort rather than personal motives or advancing his career.^[2] Critics have

Planning to remove Portland and bring in a reformed government with his close ally the Marquess of Wellesley, elder brother of the Peninsular commander, as it's head. Equally, he even suggested at one point that if needed he might himself become Prime Minister.

Canning threatened to resign and in June issued an ultimatum. It was agreed that Castlereagh had to be either dismissed or moved, but that no action should be taken before the Antwerp expedition sailed.^[3]

Canning assumed that Castlereagh had been told already and when he discovered in July that he has not been he considered it "as an act of injustice" against him. ^[4]Portland's incapacity through bad health led to more delays in informing Castlereagh.

By early September it was an open secret amongst the entire cabinet with only Castlereagh completely ignorant of the plot. Finally a frustrated Canning resigned in early September around the same time that Portland stepped down as Prime Minster.

Duel

Challenge

On 19 September he issued a written challenge to Canning which the latter accepted.^[5] This was a gap of nine days between Castlereagh discovering the scheme against him to challenging Canning. Likely he was brooding over his perceived betrayal by Canning and other colleagues and came to see that a duel was the only way to salvage his sense of honour.^[6] A major issue for him was not the plan to dismiss him but the fact that it had been concealed from him while he was overseeing major military operations abroad.

Castlereagh enlisted his cousin Lord Yarmouth to act as his second. Canning hoped to persuade Henry Wellesley to act for him, was turned down and Canning's friend Charles Ellis took over the duty. Both Wellesley and Ellis visited Yarmouth in an unsuccessful effort to resolve the dispute without a duel.^[7]

Putney Heath

Putney Heath to the southwest of the capital was a common site for duels and Yarmouth owned a cottage on it close to where the duel would take place. By coincidence it was very near to the house where William Pitt, Castlereagh and Canning's mentor, had died three years earlier.^[8]

Castlereagh and Yarmouth set off from St James's at 5am on the morning of 21 September. During the journey a seemingly relaxed Castlereagh talked about the latest operas and humming tunes from it. Meanwhile Canning and Ellis travelled down from Brompton. Well before 7am both parties had reached Putney.^[9]

Ellis made one final attempt to persuade Yarmouth to avert the duel, but Castlereagh dismissed this. Duelling pistols had been brought and were now loaded. The two duellists stood back-to-back, each walked ten paces and the turned and fired.^[10]

Questions remain about the sequence and accuracy of the shots due to conflicting reports including the possibility that Canning's first shot may have passed through Castlereagh's coat although this is unlikely.^[11] However neither man was injured. When the seconds enquired if honour had now been satisfied, Castlereagh denied it has and a second shot was now required.

Castlereagh helped assist in carrying Canning to a nearby house for medical treatment.^[12]

Aftermath

Reaction

News of the duel rapidly spread with The Morning Chronicle and The Times among others carrying reports of it.^[13] Canning made a comparatively quick recovery from his wound and later quipped "

Operator".^[14] Weeks later at an audience to formally resign as Foreign Secretary, George III insisted on hearing about the duel and Canning's injury, and was sympathetic. Wider opinion was much harsher against both participants who were seen to have instantly wrecked their once promising political careers. A cartoon by George Cruickshank entitled "Killing No Murder" mocked the two combatants.^[15]

Castlereagh's younger brother Charles Stewart, an army officer serving under Wellington in Portugal, was particularly incensed when he heard of Canning's behaviour. Wellington was more reserved about the duel, despite his friendship with Castlereagh, which he considered harmful to the government's stability and wider British war effort.^[16] However he continued to be close to Castlereagh, while his later relations with Canning were heavily strained. In London the new Prime Minister Spencer Perceval reshuffled the cabinet to compensate for the loss of two leading ministers.

Subsequent careers

Now on the backbenches Castlereagh remained a strong supporter of the campaign in the Peninsular by Wellington in the face of opposition Whig attacks. He returned to office when Perceval appointed him as Foreign Secretary in March 1812. He continued in the post under Lord Liverpool after Perceval' s assassination in May 1812, playing a key role forming the Coalition of European Powers that defeated Napoleon 1814 and in the subsequent congresses of the victorious allies.

Canning's rehabilitation was slower, he was Ambassador in Lisbon from 1814 to 1815 before rejoining the cabinet as President of the Board of Control in 1816, and serving alongside Castlereagh. After the latter's suicide in 1822 he replaced him as Foreign Secretary before succeeding Liverpool as Prime Minister in April 1827. He lasted in the post for just 119 days before dying at Chiswick House on 8 August. Historians have often bracketed the two men together due to their influential periods directing British foreign policy while the rights and wrongs of their duel have also been debated.^[17]

It was not the last duel involving leading politicians. In 1829 the Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister, fought a bloodless duel in Battersea.^[18]

References

^ Bew p.217
^ Hunt p.114
^ Hunt p.115-17
^ Hunt p.117
^ Hunt p.130-32
^ Hunt p.128 & 146
^ Hunt p.132-33
^ Bew p.261
^ Hunt p.135
^ Bew p.261-62
^ Hunt p.137-38
^ Bew p.262
^ Hunt p.139
^ Hinde p.227
^ Hunt p.142
^ Bew p.265-66
^ Hunt p.150 & 173
^ Muir p.342

Bibliography

Bew, John. Castlereagh: Biography of a Statesman. Quercus, 2011.
Dixon, Peter. George Canning, Politician and Statesman. Mason, 1974.
Hinde, Wendy. George Canning. 1973.
Hunt, Giles. The Duel: Castlereagh, Canning and Deadly Cabinet Rivalry. I.B. Taurus, 2008.
Muir, Rory. Wellington: Waterloo and the Fortunes of Peace 1814–1852. Yale University Press, 2015.
Wolfe, Eugene L. Dangerous Seats: Parliamentary Violence in the United Kingdom. Amberley Publishing Limited, 2019.

Category:1800s in London Category:1809 in England Category:Dueling Category:Political violence in Great Britain

[1] Bew p.217

[2] Hunt p.114

[3] Hunt p.115-17

[4] Hunt p.117

[5] Hunt p.130-32

[6] Hunt p.128 & 146

[7] Hunt p.132-33

[8] Bew p.261

[9] Hunt p.135

[10] Bew p.261-62

[11] Hunt p.137-38

[12] Bew p.262

[13] Hunt p.139

[14] Hinde p.227

[15] Hunt p.142

[16] Bew p.265-66

[17] Hunt p.150 & 173

[18] Muir p.342

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