Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds (20 February 1632-26 July 1712) was the Tory Lord High Treasurer (Chief Minister) of Great Britain from 24 June 1673 to 26 March 1679, succeeding Thomas Clifford and preceding the Earl of Essex.
Biography[]
Thomas Osborne was born in Kiveton, Yorkshire in 1632, the son of Sir Edward Osborne, 1st Baronet. He succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1647 before becoming High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1661 and MP for York in 1665. He joined George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham in his attack on Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon in 1667, and he was made Treasurer of the Navy a year later. Created Viscount OSborne in 1673 and Earl of Danby in 1674, he served as Lord High Treasurer from 1673 to 1679, heading King Charles II of England's government. A member of the old Cavalier party, he came to lead the Tories, and he supported the Test Act of 1673 and proposed the life imprisonment of Catholic priests. His proposed measure to outlaw officeholders' resistance to royal power was shot down, and King Charles came to doubt the wisdom and practicability of Lord Danby's "thorough" policy of repression. He supported an alliance with the Netherlands against the French, putting an end to the Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1674 and maintaining friendly correspondence with William of Orange from then on. In 1677, he effected the marriage between William and the future Mary II of England that was the germ of the Glorious Revolution. However, he was forced by the king to conduct foreign policy in union with King Louis XIV of France, an ally of King Charles. He fell from grace due to his failure to obtain the confidence of the nation, as well as due to his corrupt sale of offices. He was impeached and imprisoned in the Tower of London for five years until James II of England acceded to the throne in 1685. In 1688, he was among the "Immortal Seven" who invited William of Orange to seize power rather than let England fall back into Catholicism, and he served as Lord President of the Council from 1689 to 1699. He died in 1712 at the age of 80.