Editing Leoline Jenkins (section)

==Secretary of State ==

Jenkins was made a privy counsellor in February 1680. During the [[Exclusion Crisis]] he vehemently opposed Exclusion, and acted as the effective Government leader in the Commons. After the failure of Exclusion he played a major role in the so-called "[[Tories (British political party)|Tory]] Revenge", the 1681-4 campaign to crush the [[Whig (British political party)|Whig]] opposition.<ref>Kenyon 1990 p.238</ref>

He served as [[Secretary of State for the Northern Department]] from 26 April 1680 to 2 February 1681 and [[Secretary of State for the Southern Department]] from 2 February 1681 to 14 April 1684. His major legislative achievements include authoring the [[Statute of Frauds]] ([[29 Cha. 2]]. c. 3) and the [[Statute of Distributions]] ([[22 & 23 Cha. 2]]. c. 10), dealing with the inheritance of personal property. Whilst Secretary of State, he was served by the Welsh lawyer (and former student of Jesus College) [[Owen Wynne (civil servant)|Owen Wynne]], who has been called "an early example of the permanent civil servant."<ref>{{cite DWB|id=s-WYNN-OWE-1652|title=Wynne, Owen (1652–?), civil servant|access-date=10 February 2009|first=Arthur Herbert|last=Dodd|author-link=A. H. Dodd}}</ref>

As a Minister, if not noted for brilliance, he was hard-working and incorruptible. Though [[Gilbert Burnet]] found him "heavy and dull" he could show great spirit and determination when necessary. At a meeting of the [[Privy Council of England|Privy Council]] in October 1681, some of the Councillors, Jenkins wrote to a colleague, "were pleased to fall upon me" for not sharing with them important items of foreign policy.<ref>Kenyon, J.P. ''The Stuart Constitution'' 2nd Edition 1987 [[Cambridge University Press]] p. 441</ref> Jenkins staunchly defended the practice of keeping such information strictly confidential. He argued that the Secretaries of State "were not at liberty to carry any part of their intelligences to the Council, unless his Majesty directed it specifically": this was a rule which he had always followed and by which he was "indispensably bound".<ref>Kenyon 1987 p. 441</ref>

In failing health, he retired in 1684 to his house at [[Hammersmith]] and died there the following year. He never married.

He is regarded as the second founder of the eminent [[Cowbridge Grammar School]], renowned for its academic standards which he had himself attended. He is buried in the [[Chapel of Jesus College, Oxford|chapel of Jesus College]], at which he had previously been a student before becoming Principal, and to which he bequeathed most of his estate.<ref>{{Cite DWB|id=s-JENK-LEO-1625|title=Jenkins, Sir Leoline|fewer-links=yes}}</ref>