William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was Prime Minister of Great Britain/the United Kingdom from 19 December 1783 to 14 March 1801, succeeding William Cavendish-Bentinck and preceding Henry Addington, and again from 10 May 1804 to 23 January 1806, succeeding Addington and preceding William Grenville.
Biography[]
William Pitt was born in Hayes, Kent, England on 28 May 1759, the son of Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder. He was called to the bar in 1780 and was elected to the House of Commons for the pocket borough of Appleby in January 1781, and he became known as a debater from his maiden speech. Pitt, unlike his father, was a member of the Tory Party, but he sided with the Whigs in supporting peace with the United States during the American Revolutionary War and was friends with radicals such as Charles James Fox and William Wilberforce. He became Prime Minister in 1783, and he rejected his description as a "new Tory" in favor of being known as an "independent Whig" due to his opposition to partisan politics. Pitt's tenure was dominated by the French Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars, and he raised taxes to pay for the war with France and cracked down on radicalism, while also working for efficiency and reform. He engineered the 1800 Acts of Union, which saw the creation of the United Kingdom, and attempted to pursue Catholic emancipation, both of these actions having the goal of decreasing Irish support for France and increasing support for King George III's government. He died in office in January 1806, and he is often credited with revitalizing and rebranding Toryism.