Historian Harry Dickinson says that he became [n]otorious for his fussiness and fretfulness, his petty jealousies, his reluctance to accept responsibility for his actions, and his inability to pursue any political objective to his own satisfaction or to the nation's profit ...

[8] Britain was very divided between Whigs who favoured the succession of George of Hanover after Queen Anne's death and Tories who supported the return of the Jacobite James Stuart, known later as the 'old pretender'.

This issue dominated British politics during the last few years of Queen Anne's reign, leading up to her death in 1714, and had a profound impact on the future career of the young Duke of Newcastle.

Newcastle vigorously sustained the Whigs at Queen Anne's death and had much influence in making the Londoners accept King George I, even organising so-called 'Newcastle mobs' to fight with rival Jacobites in the street.

Walpole was then seen as the only man to bring stability to the country and the Whigs, and he was granted unprecedented powers, effectively making him the first prime minister of Great Britain.

Newcastle had for several years been growing increasingly interested in foreign affairs and had been educating himself on the subtle details of diplomacy and the European State System.

[30] Newcastle's brother Henry Pelham had now attained the lucrative position of Paymaster General and had effectively replaced Townshend as the third man of the government.

The three men would hold private meetings, draw up wide-ranging policies on foreign and domestic issues and then present them to parliament for their seal of approval, which their vast majority allowed them to do.

[35] During the latter half of the decade, his job was increasingly dominated by managing relations with Spain, which included trade disputes and objections to the controversial founding of the American colony of Georgia in 1733.

[36] The incident shocked Britain not so much because of its brutality but because many saw it as an outrage that Spain should have the temerity to harm a British subject simply for trading, which many held to be a legitimate occupation despite the legal prohibition in force.

In 1741, the main British campaign against Spain was a combined amphibious attack on the South American city of Cartagena, which had experienced considerable delays.

Initially, Britain's involvement was limited to financial subsidies and diplomacy in support of Austria, but by 1742, it was apparent that a more substantial commitment would be needed if the alliance were not to end in defeat.

He had long thought that the only way Britain could defeat France was in alliance with Austria, a view sharply at odds with many other leading politicians such as Walpole and Pitt.

Newcastle now set about drawing up a fresh scheme to enhance British power on the continent, including an attempt to persuade the Dutch Republic into the anti-French alliance and mediating the dispute between Austria and Prussia, which led to the Treaty of Dresden in 1745.

Newcastle considered that any peace that would be made would be extremely disadvantageous to Britain, and he tried to keep the anti-French coalition strong through constant diplomacy and offers of financial subsidies.

He managed to outmanoeuvre the Duke of Bedford by engineering his resignation and the dismissal of Lord Sandwich, whom Newcastle had now begun to consider a dangerously ambitious rival.

He had initially hoped to stay in his role as Northern Secretary as he much preferred foreign affairs, but he was persuaded there was no other serious candidate and accepted the seals of office from the king in March.

To great surprise, he rejected the favourites, William Pitt and Henry Fox, and chose Sir Thomas Robinson, who had barely even been considered a candidate by most.

[61] Newcastle's worst fears were confirmed in 1756, when Austria concluded an alliance with France; the Diplomatic Revolution suddenly threw the whole balance of power in Europe askew.

Newcastle saw Britain's best chance of victory in directing resources to the war on the continent, but Pitt wanted a wholesale shift in policy to concentrate British forces in North America, West Africa and Asia, where the French were most vulnerable.

[citation needed] Newcastle had been deeply concerned by Britain's poor start to the war, particularly by the loss of Menorca and the French occupation of key ports in the Austrian Netherlands.

To try to boost Britain's position in the Mediterranean, he pushed for an invasion of Corsica, which was then controlled by neutral Genoa, to use as a naval base or for a British attack on Ostend to drive the French out.

Pitt was determined to press ahead with that year's plans but agreed to lessen the scale of colonial expeditions for 1760 since he expected that 1759 would provide a knockout blow to the French war effort.

This "broad bottom government", under which Britain gained reputation abroad, gradually fell owing to the affection of the new king George III for John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who, having supplanted Pitt, became prime minister in place of Newcastle in May 1762.

It marked arguably the last occasion upon which a British monarch was able to remove a prime minister purely out of personal animosity: that privilege would in future be ceded entirely to Parliament.

[69] He continued to wield enormous patronage and influence, but his health swiftly gave way after a stroke in December 1767, which left him lame and impaired in speech and memory.

"[73] Historical opinion has generally been divided, with some historians drawing the conclusion that he was unfit for his office, but others regard him as a shrewd political operator who subtly navigated the complex European State System of the 18th century.

Others have defended Newcastle by contrasting his 'continental policy' with Lord North's failure to gather European allies during the American War of Independence, which led to Britain's eventual defeat in this conflict.

[citation needed] He was portrayed in the novel Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett as a bungling fool, ignorant of all geography, who is convinced that Cape Breton is not an island.

[77] With the prospect that the dukedom of Newcastle upon Tyne would become extinct once again, King George II also created the Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne in 1756, with a special remainder for inheritance through his nephew, the 9th Earl of Lincoln.