Editing Charles James Fox (section)

== Foreign Secretary: 1782–1783==
=== Fox-North Coalition===
[[File:Reynolds Charles James Fox.jpg|thumb|left|Charles James Fox (1782) by [[Joshua Reynolds]]]]

When North finally resigned under the strains of office and the disastrous American War in March 1782, after [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|Earl Cornwallis]] surrendered at the [[Battle of Yorktown]], and was gingerly replaced with the new ministry of the [[Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham|Marquess of Rockingham]], Fox was appointed [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Foreign Secretary]]. But Rockingham, after finally acknowledging the independence of the former [[Thirteen Colonies]], died unexpectedly on 1 July. Fox refused to serve in the successor administration of the [[William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne|Earl of Shelburne]], splitting the Whig party; Fox's father had been convinced that Shelburne – a supporter of the elder Pitt – had thwarted his ministerial ambitions at the time of the [[1763 Treaty of Paris|Treaty of Paris in 1763]].<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=137}}</ref> Fox now found himself in common opposition to Shelburne with his old and bitter enemy, Lord North. Based on this single conjunction of interests and the fading memory of the happy co-operation of the early 1770s, the two men who had vilified one another throughout the American war together formed a coalition and forced their Government, with an overwhelming majority composed of North's Tories and Fox's opposition Whigs, on to the King.

The [[Fox-North Coalition]] came to power on 2 April 1783, in spite of the King's resistance. It was the first time that George had been allowed no role in determining who should hold government office.<ref name="MI"/> On one occasion, Fox, who returned enthusiastically to the post of Foreign Secretary, ended an epistle to the King: "Whenever Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to condescend even to hint your inclinations upon any subject, that it will be the study of Your Majesty's Ministers to show how truly sensible they are of Your Majesty's goodness." The King replied: "No answer."<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=169}}</ref> George III seriously thought of abdicating at this time, after the comprehensive defeat of his American policy and the imposition of Fox and North,<ref>{{harvnb|Pares|1953|p=120}}</ref> but refrained from doing so, mainly because of the thought of his succession by his son [[George IV of the United Kingdom|George, Prince of Wales]], the notoriously extravagant womaniser, gambler and associate of Fox.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=171}}</ref> Indeed, in many ways the King considered Fox his son's tutor in debauchery. "George III let it be widely broadcast that he held Fox principally responsible for the Prince's many failings, not least a tendency to vomit in public."<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=88}}</ref>

[[File:William Pitt the Younger 2.jpg|thumb|right|1792 Portrait of [[Pitt the Younger]], attributed to [[Gainsborough Dupont]]]]

===Constitutional crisis===

Happily for George, the unpopular coalition would not outlast the year. The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] was signed on 3 September 1783, formally ending the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Fox proposed an [[East India Bill]] to place the government of the ailing and oppressive [[British East India Company]], at that time in control of a considerable expanse of India, on a sounder footing with a board of governors responsible to Parliament and more resistant to Crown patronage. It passed the Commons by 153 to 80, but, when the King made it clear that any peer who voted in favour of the bill would be considered a personal enemy of the Crown, the Lords divided against Fox by 95 to 76.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=190}}</ref> George III now felt justified in dismissing Fox and North from government and in nominating [[Pitt the Younger]] in their place, the King appointed the youngest [[British prime minister]] to date at twenty-four years of age. Fox used his parliamentary majority to oppose Pitt's nomination, and every subsequent measure that he put before the House, until March 1784, when the King dissolved Parliament and, in the following [[1784 British general election]], Pitt was returned with a substantial majority.

In Fox's own constituency of Westminster, the contest was particularly fierce. An energetic campaign in his favour was run by [[Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire]], allegedly a lover of Fox's who was said to have won at least one vote for him by kissing a shoemaker with a rather romantic idea of what constituted a bribe. In the end, Fox was re-elected by a very slender margin, but legal challenges encouraged, to an extent, by Pitt and the King<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=206}}</ref> prevented a final declaration of the result for over a year. In the meantime, Fox sat for the Scottish [[pocket borough]] of [[Tain Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)|Tain or Northern Burghs]], for which he was qualified by being made an unlikely [[burgess of Kirkwall]] in Orkney. The experience of these years was crucial in Fox's political formation. His suspicions had been confirmed. It seemed to him that George III had personally scuppered both the Rockingham-Shelburne and Fox-North governments, interfered in the legislative process and now dissolved Parliament when its composition inconvenienced him. Pitt, a man of little property and no party, seemed to Fox a blatant tool of the Crown.<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=75}}</ref>

However, the King and Pitt had great popular support, and many in the press and general population saw Fox as the trouble-maker challenging the composition of the constitution and the King's remaining powers. He was often caricatured as [[Oliver Cromwell]] and [[Guy Fawkes]] during this period, as well as [[Satan]].<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=73}}</ref>