Pitt

Pitt, name of 2 English statesmen. William, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–78), known as Pitt the Elder and a noted orator, was war minister during the Seven Years' War (1756–63). Through defeating the French, by 1761 he had gained imperial supremacy for Britain in Europe, Canada, and India, and made the British navy a formidable force. Out of office after 1768, he opposed taxing American colonists and defended their rights, but was against granting them independence. His second son, William (1759–1806), known as Pitt the Younger, at 24 became Britain's youngest prime minister. He dominated British politics until his death. From 1784, supported by a weakened George III, Pitt's ministry strengthened national finances and the government's power in India, but agitation by radicals at home forced him to suppress some civil rights (1794) and shelve parliamentary reforms. Continental wars waged, and lost (1793–1805), by coalitions of Britain's allies against Napoleon I required Pitt's financial support, which he raised through higher taxes. To quell continuing Irish rebellions, Pitt proposed a parliamentary union with England and Catholic Emancipation (1798), but King George refused it. Pitt resigned in 1801, then returned to office in 1804 when Napoleon threatened to invade England—prevented, evidently, by Britain's sea victory at Trafalgar in 1805. But Napoleon's defeat of Britain's allies at Austerlitz later that year proved a death blow to Pitt politically.

See also: United Kingdom.