Editing Henry Pelham (section)

=== "The Broad-Bottomed Administration" ===
{{Main|Broad Bottom ministry}}

Being strongly in favour of peace, Pelham carried on the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] with languor and indifferent success, but the country, wearied of the interminable struggle, was disposed to acquiesce in his foreign policy almost without a murmur. King [[George II of Great Britain|George II]], thwarted in his own favourite schemes, made overtures in February 1746 to [[William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath|Lord Bath]], but his purpose was upset by the resignation of the two Pelhams (Henry and Newcastle), who, after a two-day hiatus in which Bath and Carteret (now earl Granville) proved unable to form a ministry, resumed office at the king's request.  One of their terms was to insist that the king should have 'total confidence' in a ministry; rather than partial grudging acceptance of the Whigs.

[[File:Henry Pelham by William Hoare, 1743.jpg|thumb|right|Henry Pelham, by [[William Hoare]], {{circa|1743}}]]

The [[wikt:Augustan|Augustan]] era was essential to the development of [[Powers of the prime minister of the United Kingdom|prime ministerial power]] as being entirely dependent on a Commons majority, rather than royal prerogative interventions.  While the king struggled with his headstrong son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, his son's uncertain constitutional position was high in the Leicester House party set.  In 1748 Frederick, a Tory, planned to bring down the Pelhamites at a general election due the following year.  The Prime Minister called an early poll in 1748 by asking the king to dissolve Parliament in 1747.  The prince and his father, the king, grew to hate one another with unspeakable animosity. But one consequence was a closer relationship between Henry Pelham and the sovereign.  When he finally died in 1754, the king remarked "Now I shall have no more peace."  The [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle]] had been signed in 1748 leading inexorably to a number of cost-cutting budgetary measures.