He also served as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House of Commons, and is generally regarded as the de facto first prime minister of Great Britain.

W. A. Speck wrote that Walpole's uninterrupted run of 20 years as prime minister "is rightly regarded as one of the major feats of British political history.

Explanations are usually offered in terms of his expert handling of the political system after 1720, [and] his unique blending of the surviving powers of the crown with the increasing influence of the Commons".

Historian F. O'Gorman says his leadership in Parliament reflected his "reasonable and persuasive oratory, his ability to move both the emotions as well as the minds of men, and, above all, his extraordinary self-confidence".

[3] Hoppit says Walpole's policies sought moderation, he worked for peace, lower taxes and growing exports, and allowed a little more tolerance for Protestant Dissenters.

He mostly avoided controversy and high-intensity disputes as his middle way attracted moderates from both the Whig and Tory camps; his appointment to Chancellor of the Exchequer after the South Sea Bubble stock-market crisis drew attention to perceived protection of political allies by Walpole.

One of 19 children, he was the third son and fifth child of Robert Walpole, a member of the local gentry and a Whig politician who represented the borough of Castle Rising in the House of Commons.

However, Walpole had bought at the bottom and sold at the top, adding greatly to his inherited wealth and allowing him to create Houghton Hall as seen today.

[15] Despite his personal clout, however, Walpole could not stop Lord Godolphin and the Whigs from pressing for the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, a minister who preached anti-Whig sermons.

The trial was extremely unpopular with much of the country, causing the Sacheverell riots, and was followed by the downfall of the Duke of Marlborough and the Whig Party in the general election of 1710.

The new ministry, under the leadership of the Tory Robert Harley, removed Walpole from his office of Secretary at War but he remained Treasurer of the Navy until 2 January 1711.

Walpole's fellow members, appointed by the Prince of Wales (later George II), included William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, Secretary at War; General Lumley; General Erle; and Sir Philip Meadowes, Controller of the Army and Knight Marshal of the King's Palace,[20][21][c] whose daughter, Mary Meadows,[22][23] was maid-of-honour to Walpole's friend, Queen Caroline.

[citation needed] Walpole reversed his earlier support for the impeachment of Robert Harley, the former first minister, and joined with the Tory opposition in securing an acquittal in July 1717.

[32] This defeat led Stanhope and Sunderland to reconcile with their opponents;[36] Walpole returned as Paymaster of the Forces[32] and Townshend was appointed Lord President of the Council.

By accepting the position of Paymaster, however, Walpole lost the favour of the Prince of Wales (the future King George II), who still harboured disdain for his father's Government.

[32] The Government had established a plan whereby the South Sea Company would assume the national debt of Great Britain in exchange for lucrative bonds.

[51][page needed] Townshend, working with the king, helped keep Great Britain at peace, especially by negotiating a treaty with France and Prussia in 1725.

[52] Great Britain, free from Jacobite threats, from war, and from financial crises, grew prosperous, and Robert Walpole acquired the favour of George I.

[48] In 1725 he persuaded the king to revive the Knighthood of the Bath and was himself invested with the order,[53][52] and in 1726 was made a Knight of the Garter,[54] earning him the nickname "Sir Bluestring".

Walpole's domination over the House of Commons was highlighted by the ease with which he secured the rejection of Sir John Barnard's plan to reduce the interest on the national debt.

[69] While the "country party" attacked Walpole relentlessly, he subsidised writers and lesser-known journalists such as William Arnall and Bishop Benjamin Hoadly as well as two men he named to the role of poet laureate, Laurence Eusden and Colley Cibber.

Though her death did not end his personal influence with George II, who had grown loyal to the Prime Minister during the preceding years, Walpole's domination of government continued to decline.

Several young politicians including William Pitt the Elder and George Grenville formed a faction known as the "Patriot Boys" and joined the Prince of Wales in opposition.

After his resignation, his main political roles were to support the government by means of advice, to dole out some patronage and to speak on the ministry's behalf in the Lords.

Frederick, Prince of Wales, usually hostile to Walpole, warmly received him at his court the next day, most likely because his father's throne, and the future of the whole Hanoverian dynasty, was at risk from the Stuart Pretender.

Walpole died in London on 18 March 1745 from a bladder stone, aged 68 years, and was buried at the Church of St Martin at Tours on the Haughton estate.

A careless, coarse, and over familiar style of discourse, without sufficient regard to persons or occasions, and an almost total want of political decorum, were the errours [sic] by which he was most hurt in the public opinion: and those through which his enemies obtained the greatest advantage over him.

The prudence, steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible lenity in his character and his politics, preserved the crown to this royal family; and with it, their laws and liberties to this country.

[84]Lord Chesterfield expressed scepticism as to whether "an impartial Character of Sr Robert Walpole, will or can be transmitted to Posterity, for he governed this Kingdom so long that the various passions of Mankind mingled, and in a manner incorporated themselves, with every thing that was said or writt concerning him.

For he laughed at and ridiculed all notions of publick virtue, and the love of one's country, calling them the chimerical school boy flights of classical learning; declaring himself at the same time, no Saint, no Spartan, no reformer.