Editing Whigs (British political party)

{{Short description|Political faction then party in the United Kingdom between 1678 and 1859}}
{{about|the political faction in Britain and Ireland between 1678 and 1859|the political party founded in 2014|Whig Party (British political party)|the 19th-century American political party|Whig Party (United States)}}
{{use British English|date=March 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox political party
| name             = Whigs
| colorcode        = {{party color|Whigs (British political party)}}
| leader1_title    = [[Leaders of the British Whig Party|Leaders]]
| leader1_name     = {{unbulleted list|[[Robert Walpole]]|[[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|William Pitt the Elder]]|[[George Grenville]]|[[Charles James Fox]]|[[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey]]|[[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne]]|[[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord Russell]]|[[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]]
}}
| founder          = [[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury]]
| foundation       = {{start date and age|1678}}
| dissolution      = {{end date and age|1859}}
| predecessor      = [[Roundheads]] <br> [[Kirk Party]]
| merged           = [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]
| ideology         = [[Whiggism]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/Whig-Party-England|title=Whig and Tory|website=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|date=23 May 2014|access-date=5 February 2020}}</ref>
'''Factions:'''
{{ubl|[[Liberalism]] ([[Liberalism in the United Kingdom|British]])<ref>{{cite book|last=Sykes|first=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJWbBAAAQBAJ|chapter=The Liberal Party: A Question of Origins: The Whigs and the politics of Reform |title=The Rise and Fall of British Liberalism: 1776–1988|editor=Routlegde|year=2014|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-89905-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Leach|first=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHfbCQAAQBAJ|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414021830/https://books.google.com/books?id=JHfbCQAAQBAJ|archive-date=14 April 2021|title=Political Ideology in Britain|editor=Macmillan|date=2015|pages=32–34|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-33256-1}}</ref>|[[Classical liberalism]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Lowe|first=Norman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XppMDwAAQBAJ|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414045003/https://books.google.com/books?id=XppMDwAAQBAJ|archive-date=14 April 2021|title=Mastering Modern British History|editor=Macmillan|year=2017|page=72|publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1-137-60388-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=How Britain Turned to Free Trade|year=2021|jstor=3115775|last1=Grampp|first1=William D.|journal=The Business History Review|volume=61|issue=1|pages=86–112|doi=10.2307/3115775|s2cid=154050334 }}</ref>|[[Conservative liberalism]]<ref>{{cite book |editor1=Jeroen Deploige |editor2=Gita Deneckere |url= |title=Mystifying the Monarch: Studies on Discourse, Power, and History |quote= ... preference for the (conservative-liberal) Whigs. But until the second half of the nineteenth century, ... |date=2006 |page=195 |publisher=[[Amsterdam University Press]] |isbn=978-90-5356-767-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Efraim Podoksik |title=In Defence of Modernity: Vision and Philosophy in Michael Oakeshott |quote= ... For Whig liberalism is also known as 'conservative liberalism' ... |date=2013 |page=14 |publisher=Imprint Academic |isbn=978-1-84540-468-0 }}</ref>|[[Parliamentary sovereignty|Parliamentarism]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/whigs-and-tories|title=Whigs and Tories}}</ref>}}
| position         = [[Centrism|Centre]]<ref name="radical">{{cite book|editor=James Frey |title=The Indian Rebellion, 1857–1859: A Short History with Documents |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXP6DwAAQBAJ&dq=leftist+%22Radicals%22+Britain+1859&pg=PR30 |quote= British politics of the first half of the nineteenth century was an ideological spectrum, with the Tories, or Conservative Party, on the right, the Whigs as liberal-centrists, and the radicals on the left. |date=2020 |page=XXX |publisher=Hackett Publishing|isbn=978-1-62466-905-7 }}</ref> to [[Centre-left politics|centre-left]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clark|first1=Jonathan Charles Douglas|title=English Society, 1660–1832: Religion, Ideology and Politics During the Ancien Régime|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=515}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hay|first=William|title=The Whig Revival, 1808–1830|year=2004|publisher=Springer|page=177 |isbn=1-4039-1771-X }}</ref><br />
| religion         = [[Protestantism]]{{efn|Many Whigs were members of the established [[Church of England]], but the party attracted much support from [[English Dissenters|Dissenting Protestants]]}}<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Whigs and Protestant Dissent in the Decade of Reform: The Case of Church Rates, 1833–1841|first=Richard |last=Brent|journal=The English Historical Review |volume=102 |issue=405 |pages=887–910|year=1987 |doi=10.1093/ehr/CII.405.887 |jstor=572000}}</ref>
| colours          = {{color box|{{party color|Whigs (British political party)}}|border=darkgray}} Orange
| country          = the United Kingdom
}}
{{Liberalism UK|Parties}}
{{liberalism sidebar}}

The '''Whigs''' were a [[political party]] in the [[Parliament of England|Parliaments of England]], [[Parliament of Scotland|Scotland]], [[Parliament of Ireland|Ireland]], [[Parliament of Great Britain|Great Britain]] and the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]]. Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, the [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]]. The Whigs became the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] when the faction merged with the [[Peelite]]s and [[Radicals (UK)|Radicals]] in the 1850s. Many Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 over the issue of [[Irish Home Rule movement|Irish Home Rule]] to form the [[Liberal Unionist Party]], which merged into the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] in 1912.

The Whigs began as a political faction that opposed [[absolute monarchy]] and [[Catholic emancipation]], supporting [[constitutional monarchism]] and [[parliamentary system|parliamentary government]], but also Protestant supremacy. They played a central role in the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688 and were the standing enemies of the [[Roman Catholic]] [[House of Stuart|Stuart kings and pretenders]]. The period known as the Whig Supremacy (1714–1760) was enabled by the [[Hanoverian succession]] of [[George I of Great Britain|George I]] in 1714 and the failure of the [[Jacobite rising of 1715]] by Tory rebels. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715 and thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the [[Church of England]], the legal profession, and local political offices. The first great leader of the Whigs was [[Robert Walpole]], who maintained control of the government from 1721 to 1742, and whose protégé, [[Henry Pelham]], led the government from 1743 to 1754. Great Britain approximated a [[single party state|one-party state]] under the Whigs until King [[George III]] came to the throne in 1760 and allowed Tories back in. But the Whig Party's hold on power remained strong for many years thereafter. Thus historians have called the period from roughly 1714 to 1783 the "long period of Whig oligarchy".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Szechi |first2=D. |year=2014 |title=The Age of Oligarchy: Pre-Industrial Britain 1722–1783 |publisher=Routledge |page=xi |isbn=978-1-317-89426-1 }}</ref>  During the [[American Revolution]], the Whigs were the party more sympathetic to American independence and the creation of a democracy in the United States.

By 1784, both the Whigs and Tories had become formal political parties, with [[Charles James Fox]] becoming the leader of a reorganized Whig Party arrayed against [[William Pitt the Younger]]'s new Tories. The foundation of both parties depended more on the support of wealthy politicians than on popular votes. Although there were elections to the [[House of Commons of Great Britain|House of Commons]], only a few men [[Unreformed House of Commons|controlled most of the voters]].

Both parties slowly evolved during the 18th century. In the beginning, the Whig Party generally tended to support the [[aristocratic]] families, the continued disenfranchisement of Catholics and toleration of [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] Protestants ([[English Dissenters|dissenters]] such as the Presbyterians), while the Tories generally favoured the minor [[gentry]] and people who were ([[forty shilling freeholders|relatively speaking]]) smallholders; they also supported the legitimacy of a strongly [[established church|established]] [[Church of England]]. (The so-called [[High Tories]] preferred [[high church]] Anglicanism, or [[Anglo-Catholicism]]. Some, particularly adherents of the [[non-juring schism]], openly or covertly supported the exiled [[House of Stuart]]'s claim to the throne—a position known as [[Jacobitism]].) Later, the Whigs came to draw support from the emerging industrial reformists and the mercantile class while the Tories came to draw support from farmers, landowners, [[Monarchy of the United Kingdom|royalists]] and (relatedly) those who favoured imperial military spending.

By the first half of the 19th century, the Whig manifesto had come to encompass the [[Constitutionalism|supremacy of parliament]], the [[abolition of slavery]], the expansion of the franchise (suffrage) and an acceleration of the move toward [[Catholic emancipation|complete equal rights for Catholics]] (a reversal of the party's late-17th-century position, which had been militantly [[anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom|anti-Catholic]]).<ref>{{cite book |first=Elie |last=Halevy |title=A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, III; the Triumph of Reform (1830-1841) |year=1950 |pages=60–70 |publisher=Barnes & Noble |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofenglshp0000elie }}</ref>

== Name ==
The word ''Whig'' originated as a shortening of ''Whiggamore'', a nickname for a [[Scottish Presbyterian]], particularly a [[Covenanter]]. This word first appeared in the context of the [[Whiggamore Raid]] of 1648, in which thousands of Covenanters marched on Edinburgh in order to overthrow the [[Engagers]], who sought to reinstate [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]. Its further history is unclear. The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' regards it as a compound of ''whig'', meaning "to drive briskly", and ''[[mare]]'' (which would make it an example of a [[wikt:cutthroat compound|cutthroat compound]]).<ref>{{cite OED|whiggamore|3913431577}}</ref> [[Bishop Burnet]] offers a different etymology, tracing the word to ''whiggam'', a call supposedly used to urge on horses:

{{quote|The south-west counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to serve them round the year: and the northern parts producing more than they need, those in the west come in the summer to buy at [[Leith]] the stores that come from the north: and from a word Whiggam, used in driving their horses, all that drove were called the Whiggamors, and shorter the Whiggs. Now in that year [1648], after the news came down of [[James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton|Duke Hamilton]]'s [[Battle of Preston (1648)|defeat]], the Ministers animated their people to rise, and march to Edinburgh: and they came up marching on the head of their parishes, with an unheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way as they came. The [[Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll|Marquis of Argile]] and his party came and headed them, they being about 6000. This was called the Whiggamor's inroad: and ever after that all that opposed the Court came in contempt to be called Whiggs: and from Scotland the word was brought into England, where it is now one of our unhappy terms of distinction.<ref>{{cite book|last=Burnet|first=Gilbert|title=Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time|date=1753|orig-date=1724|location=London|publisher=A. Millar|volume=1|pages=58 f.|url=https://archive.org/details/bishopburnetshis01burn/page/58}}</ref>}}

The word entered English political discourse during the [[Exclusion Crisis]] of 1679–1681, which hinged on whether [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]'s brother, the [[James II of England|Duke of York]] (a Roman Catholic), should be allowed to succeed him as king. York's supporters were nicknamed ''Tories'' because of their supposed resemblance to Irish bandits and rebels, while his opponents were nicknamed ''Whigs'' because of their supposed resemblance to Scottish religious fanatics. In spite of their derogatory origins, the two words eventually became neutral designations for the two major factions in British politics.<ref>{{cite book |last=Newbould |first=Ian |year=1990 |title=Whiggery and Reform, 1830–41 |page=41 |isbn=0-333-53124-8 }}</ref><ref>Hume, David (1797). "LXVIII". ''The History of England''. '''VIII'''. London. p. 126.</ref>

== Origins ==

===The parliamentarian faction===
{{Expand section|date=January 2024}}
The precursor to the Whigs was [[Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles|Denzil Holles]]' parliamentarian faction, which was characterised by its opposition to [[absolute monarchism]].

=== Exclusion Crisis ===
{{main|Exclusion Crisis|Green Ribbon Club}}
 
[[File:Anthony_Ashley-Cooper,_1st_Earl_of_Shaftesbury.jpg|thumb|[[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury]], painted more than once during his chancellorship in 1672 by [[John Greenhill]]]]
Under [[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury]]'s leadership, the Whigs (also known as the Country Party) sought to exclude the [[James II of England|Duke of York]] (who later became King James II) from the throne due to his Roman Catholicism, his favouring of monarchical absolutism, and his connections to France. They believed the heir presumptive, if allowed to inherit the throne, would endanger the Protestant religion, liberty and property.<ref name="Jones">{{cite book |first=J. R. |last=Jones |title=The First Whigs. The Politics of the Exclusion Crisis. 1678–1683 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1961 |oclc=1431479 }}</ref>{{rp|p=4}}

The first Exclusion Bill was supported by a substantial majority on its second reading in May 1679. In response, [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] [[legislative session#Procedure in Commonwealth realms|prorogued]] Parliament and then dissolved it, but the subsequent elections in August and September saw the Whigs' strength increase. This new parliament did not meet for thirteen months, because Charles wanted to give passions a chance to die down. When it met in October 1680, an Exclusion Bill was introduced and passed in the Commons without major resistance, but was rejected in the Lords. Charles dissolved Parliament in January 1681, but the Whigs did not suffer serious losses in the ensuing election. The next Parliament first met in March at Oxford, but Charles dissolved it after only a few days, when he made an appeal to the country against the Whigs and determined to rule without Parliament. In February, Charles had made a deal with the French King [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]], who promised to support him against the Whigs. Without Parliament, the Whigs gradually crumbled, mainly due to government repression following the discovery of the [[Rye House Plot]]. The Whig peers, the [[George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville]], the [[David Leslie-Melville|David Leslie-Melville, Earl of Leven]], and Lord Shaftesbury, and Charles II's illegitimate son the [[James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth]], being implicated, fled to and regrouped in the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]]. [[Algernon Sidney]], [[Thomas Armstrong (English politician)|Thomas Armstrong]] and [[William Russell, Lord Russell]], were executed for treason. The [[Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex|Earl of Essex]] committed suicide in the Tower of London over his arrest for treason, whilst [[Ford Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville|Lord Grey of Werke]] escaped from the Tower.<ref name="Jones" />{{rp|pp=7–8}}

=== Glorious Revolution ===
[[File:William III Landing at Brixham, Torbay, 5 November 1688.jpg|thumb|Equestrian portrait of [[William III of England|William III]] by [[Jan Wyck]], commemorating the landing at Brixham, Torbay, 5 November 1688]]
After the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688, Queen [[Mary II of England|Mary II]] and King [[William III of England|William III]] governed with both Whigs and Tories, despite the fact that many of the Tories still supported the deposed Roman Catholic [[James II of England|James II]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Judd |first1=Gerrit P. |title=A History of Civilization |date=1966 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |oclc=224015746 |page=409|quote=Some [Tories] remained loyal to James II}}</ref> William saw that the Tories were generally friendlier to royal authority than the Whigs and he employed both groups in his government. His early ministry was largely Tory, but gradually the government came to be dominated by the so-called [[Whig Junto|Junto Whigs]], a group of younger Whig politicians who led a tightly organised political grouping. The increasing dominance of the Junto led to a split among the Whigs, with the so-called Country Whigs seeing the Junto as betraying their principles for office. The Country Whigs, led by [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer|Robert Harley]], gradually merged with the Tory opposition in the later 1690s.<ref name="Keith Feiling 1714">{{cite book |first=Keith |last=Feiling |title=A History of the Tory Party, 1640–1714 |year=1924 |publisher=Clarendon Press |oclc=503503 }}</ref>

== History ==

=== 18th century ===
Although William's successor [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]] had considerable Tory sympathies and excluded the Junto Whigs from power, after a brief and unsuccessful experiment with an exclusively Tory government she generally continued William's policy of balancing the parties, supported by her moderate Tory ministers, the [[John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough|Duke of Marlborough]] and [[Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin|Lord Godolphin]]. However, as the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] went on and became less and less popular with the Tories, Marlborough and Godolphin were forced to rely more and more on the Junto Whigs, so that by 1708 they headed an administration of the [[Parliament of Great Britain]] dominated by the Junto. Anne herself grew increasingly uncomfortable with this dependence on the Whigs, especially as her personal relationship with the [[Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough|Duchess of Marlborough]] deteriorated. This situation also became increasingly uncomfortable to many of the non-Junto Whigs, led by the [[Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset|Duke of Somerset]] and the [[Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury|Duke of Shrewsbury]], who began to intrigue with [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer|Robert Harley's]] Tories. In the spring of 1710, Anne dismissed Godolphin and the Junto ministers, replacing them with Tories.<ref name="Keith Feiling 1714"/>

The Whigs now moved into opposition and particularly decried the 1713 [[Treaty of Utrecht]], which they attempted to block through their majority in the [[House of Lords]]. The Tory administration led by Harley and the [[Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke|Viscount Bolingbroke]] persuaded the Queen to create twelve new Tory peers to force the treaty through.<ref>The twelve peers consisted of two who were [[Writ of acceleration|summoned in their father's baronies]], Lords Compton (Northampton) and Bruce (Ailesbury); and ten recruits, namely Lords Hay (Kinnoull), Mountjoy, Burton (Paget), Mansell, Middleton, Trevor, Lansdowne, Masham, Foley and Bathurst. David Backhouse. [http://www.history.ac.uk/eseminars/sem17.html#3 "Tory Tergiversation In The House of Lords, 1714–1760"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628080733/http://www.history.ac.uk/eseminars/sem17.html#3 |date=28 June 2006 }}.</ref>

==== Liberal ideals ====
{{main|Whiggism}}
The Whigs primarily advocated the supremacy of Parliament, while calling for toleration for Protestant dissenters. They adamantly opposed a Catholic as king.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Hamowy |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Hamowy|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism|title=Whiggism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC  |year=2008 |publisher= [[SAGE Publishing|SAGE]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location= Thousand Oaks, California|isbn= 978-1-4129-6580-4|oclc=750831024|lccn=2008009151|pages=542–543}}</ref> They opposed the Catholic Church because they saw it as a threat to liberty, or as [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|Pitt the Elder]] stated: "The errors of Rome are rank idolatry, a subversion of all civil as well as religious liberty, and the utter disgrace of reason and of human nature".<ref>{{cite book |first=Basil |last=Williams |title=The Whig Supremacy: 1714–1760 |year=1949 |publisher=Clarendon Press |page=75 |oclc=2963203 }}</ref>

Ashcraft and Goldsmith (1983) have traced in detail, in the period 1689 to 1710, the major influence of the liberal political ideas of [[John Locke]] on Whig political values, as expressed in widely cited manifestos such as "Political Aphorisms: or, the True Maxims of Government Displayed", an anonymous pamphlet that appeared in 1690 and was widely cited by Whigs.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Richard |last1=Ashcraft |first2=M. M. |last2=Goldsmith |title=Locke, Revolution Principles, and the Formation of Whig Ideology |journal=Historical Journal |year=1983 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=773–800 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00012693 }}</ref> The 18th-century Whigs borrowed the concepts and language of universal rights employed by political theorists Locke and [[Algernon Sidney]] (1622–1682).<ref>{{cite journal |first=Melinda S. |last=Zook |title=The Restoration Remembered: The First Whigs and the Making of their History |journal=Seventeenth Century |year=2002 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=213–34 |doi=10.1080/0268117X.2002.10555509 }}</ref> By the 1770s the ideas of [[Adam Smith]], a founder of [[classical liberalism]] became important. As Wilson and Reill (2004) note: "Adam Smith's theory melded nicely with the liberal political stance of the Whig Party and its middle-class constituents".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ellen |last1=Wilson |first2=Peter |last2=Reill |title=Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment |year=2004 |page=298 }}</ref>

[[Samuel Johnson]] (1709–1784), a leading London intellectual, repeatedly denigrated the "vile"<ref>Boswell's Life of Johnson, Vol 2, p502</ref> Whigs and praised the Tories, even during times of Whig political supremacy. In his great ''Dictionary'' (1755), Johnson defined a Tory as "one who adheres to the ancient Constitution of the state and the apostolical hierarchy of the Church of England, opposed to a Whig". He linked 18th-century [[Whiggism]] with 17th-century revolutionary Puritanism, arguing that the Whigs of his day were similarly inimical to the established order of church and state. Johnson recommended that strict uniformity in religious externals was the best antidote to the objectionable religious traits that he linked to Whiggism.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Chester |last=Chapin |title=Religion and the Nature of Samuel Johnson's Toryism |journal=Cithara |year=1990 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=38–54 }}</ref>

==== Protectionism ====
At their inception, the Whigs were [[Protectionism|protectionist]] in economic policy, with [[free trade]] policies being advocated by Tories.<ref name="Ashley">{{cite book |first=W. J. |last=Ashley |title=Surveys: Historic and Economic |year=1900 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_hh8aAAAAYAAJ }}</ref>{{rp|pp=270–71}} The Whigs were opposed to the pro-French policies of the Stuart kings Charles II and James II as they believed that such an alliance with the Catholic [[absolute monarchy]] of France endangered liberty and Protestantism. The Whigs claimed that trade with France was bad for England and developed an economic theory of overbalance, that is a deficit of trade with France was bad because it would enrich France at England's expense.<ref name="Ashley" />{{rp|pp=270–74}}

In 1678, the Whigs passed the [[Prohibition of 1678]] that banned certain French goods from being imported into England. The economic historian [[William Ashley (economic historian)|William Ashley]] claimed that this Act witnessed the "real starting-point in the history of Whig policy in the matter of trade".<ref name="Ashley" />{{rp|271}} It was repealed upon the accession of James II by a Tory-dominated House of Commons but upon the accession of William III in 1688 a new [[Trade with France Act 1688|Act]] was passed that prohibited the importation of French goods.<ref name="Ashley" />{{rp|283}} In 1704, the Whigs passed the [[Trade with France Act 1704|Trade with France Act]] that renewed protectionism against France. In 1710, Queen Anne appointed the predominantly Tory [[Harley Ministry]], which favoured free trade. When the Tory minister Lord Bolingbroke proposed a commercial treaty with France in 1713 that would have led to freer trade, the Whigs were vehemently against it and it had to be abandoned.<ref name="Ashley" />{{rp|pp=271, 299}}

In 1786, Pitt's government negotiated the [[Eden Agreement]], a commercial treaty with France which led to freer trade between the two countries. All of the Whig leaders attacked this on traditional Whig anti-French and protectionist grounds. Fox claimed that France was England's natural enemy and that it was only at Britain's expense that she could grow. [[Edmund Burke]], [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan|Richard Sheridan]], [[William Windham]] and [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Charles Grey]] all spoke out against the trade agreement on the same grounds.<ref>{{cite book |first=Henry Offley |last=Wakeman |title=Charles James Fox |location=London |publisher=Gibbings and Company |year=1909 |page=127 |oclc=679500221 }}</ref>

Ashley claimed that "[t]he traditional policy of the Whig party from before the Revolution [of 1688] down to the time of Fox was an extreme form of Protectionism".<ref>{{cite book |first=W. J. |last=Ashley |title=The Tariff Problem |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |page=21 |isbn=0-415-19467-9 }}</ref> The Whigs' protectionism of this period is today increasingly cited with approval by heterodox economists such as [[Ha-Joon Chang]], who wish to challenge contemporary prevailing free trade orthodoxies via precedents from the past.<ref>{{Cite book |title=23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism |author=Ha-Joon Chang |year=2010 |publisher=Allen Lane |location=London |page=70 |isbn=978-1-84614-328-1 }}</ref>

Later on, several members from the Whig party came to oppose the protectionism of the [[Corn Laws]], but trade restrictions were not repealed even after the Whigs returned to power in the 1830s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 1815–46 Corn Laws: your guide to the crisis and why they were repealed |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/corn-laws-guide-what-impact-why-repealed-benefit/ |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=History Extra |language=en}}</ref>

==== Whig Supremacy ====
[[File:Portrait of John Somers, Baron Somers.jpg|thumb|A {{circa|1705}} portrait of [[John Somers, 1st Baron Somers]] by [[Godfrey Kneller]].]]
With the succession of [[Prince-elector|Elector]] [[George I of Great Britain|George Louis]] of [[Hanover]] as king in 1714, the Whigs returned to government with the support of some [[Hanoverian Tories]]. The [[Jacobite rising of 1715]] discredited much of the [[Tories (British political party)|Tory]] party as treasonous [[Jacobitism|Jacobites]], and the [[Septennial Act 1716|Septennial Act]] ensured that the Whigs became the dominant party, establishing the Whig oligarchy. Between 1717 and 1720 the [[Whig Split]] led to a division in the party. Government Whigs led by the former soldier [[James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope|James Stanhope]] were opposed by [[Robert Walpole]] and his allies. While Stanhope was backed by George I, Walpole and his supporters were closer to the [[George II of Great Britain|Prince of Wales]]. Following his success in defeating the government over the [[Peerage Bill]] in 1719, Walpole was invited back into government the following year. He was able to defend the government in the Commons when the [[South Sea Company|South Sea Bubble]] collapsed. When Stanhope died unexpectedly in 1721, Walpole replaced him as leader of the government and became known as the first [[Prime Minister]]. In the [[1722 British general election|1722 general election]] the Whigs swept to a decisive victory.

Between 1714 and 1760, the Tories struggled as an active political force, but always retained a considerable presence in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]]. The governments of Walpole, [[Henry Pelham]] and his older brother the [[Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle|Duke of Newcastle]] dominated between 1721 and 1757 (with a brief break during the also-Whig [[Carteret ministry]]). The leading entities in these governments consistently referred to themselves as "Whigs".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Basil |last1=Williams |first2=C. H. |last2=Stuart |title=The Whig Supremacy, 1714–1760 |year=1962 |publisher=Clarendon Press |oclc=827608 }}</ref>

==== George III's accession ====
This arrangement changed during the reign of [[George III of Great Britain|George III]], who hoped to restore his own power by freeing himself from the great Whig magnates. Thus George promoted his old tutor [[John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute|Lord Bute]] to power and broke with the old Whig leadership surrounding the Duke of Newcastle. After a decade of factional chaos, with distinct [[Bedfordite]], [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|Chathamite]], [[Grenvillite]] and [[Rockingham Whigs|Rockinghamite]] factions successively in power and all referring to themselves as "Whigs", a new system emerged with two separate opposition groups. The [[Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham|Rockingham]] Whigs claimed the mantle of Old Whigs as the purported successors of the party of the Pelhams and the great Whig families. With such noted intellectuals as [[Edmund Burke]] behind them, the Rockingham Whigs laid out a philosophy which for the first time extolled the virtues of faction, or at least their faction. The other group were the followers of [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|Lord Chatham]], who as the great political hero of the [[Seven Years' War]] generally took a stance of opposition to party and faction.<ref>{{cite book |first=Warren M. |last=Elofson |title=The Rockingham Connection and the Second Founding of the Whig Party 1768–1773 |year=1996 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal |isbn=0-7735-1388-4 }}</ref>

The Whigs were opposed by the government of [[Frederick North, Lord North|Lord North]] which they accused of being a Tory administration. While it largely consisted of individuals previously associated with the Whigs, many old Pelhamites as well as the Bedfordite Whig faction formerly led by the [[John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford|Duke of Bedford]] and elements of that which had been led by [[George Grenville]], it also contained elements of the Kings' Men, the group formerly associated with Lord Bute and which was generally seen as Tory-leaning.<ref>{{cite book |first=Keith |last=Feiling |title=The Second Tory Party, 1714–1832 |year=1938 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |oclc=932376 }}</ref>

==== American impact ====
The association of Toryism with Lord North's government was also influential in the American colonies and writings of British political commentators known as the [[Radical Whigs]] did much to stimulate colonial [[Republicanism in the United States|republican]] sentiment. Early activists in the [[Thirteen Colonies|colonies]] called themselves Whigs,{{example needed|date=November 2015}} seeing themselves as in alliance with the political opposition in Britain, until they turned to independence and started emphasising the label [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]].{{citation needed|date =September 2023|reason= When and how ow did the patriot label come about? }} In contrast, the American [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]], who supported the monarchy, were consistently also referred to as Tories.

Later, the [[United States Whig Party]] was founded in 1833 on the basis of opposition to a strong [[President of the United States|presidency]], initially the presidency of [[Andrew Jackson]], analogous to the British Whig opposition to a strong monarchy.<ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel Walker |last=Howe |title=The American Whigs: An Anthology |year=1973 |isbn=0-471-41671-1 }}</ref> The [[True Whig Party]], which for a century dominated [[Liberia]], was named for the American party rather than directly for the British one.

==== Two-party system ====
[[File:A-Block-for-the-Wigs-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.35|In ''A Block for the Wigs'' (1783), caricaturist [[James Gillray]] caricatured [[Charles James Fox]]'s return to power in a coalition with [[Frederick North, Lord North]] ([[George III]] is the blockhead in the centre)]]
Dickinson reports the following:
{{blockquote|All historians are agreed that the Tory party declined sharply in the late 1740s and 1750s and that it ceased to be an organized party by 1760. The research of Sir Lewis Namier and his disciples [...] has convinced all historians that there were no organized political parties in Parliament between the late 1750s and the early 1780s. Even the Whigs ceased to be an identifiable party, and Parliament was dominated by competing political connections, which all proclaimed Whiggish political views, or by independent backbenchers unattached to any particular group.<ref>H. T. Dickinson, "Tories: 1714–1830", in David Loades, ed. ''Reader's Guide to British History'' (2003) 2:1279.</ref>}}

The North administration left power in March 1782 following the [[American Revolution]] and a coalition of the Rockingham Whigs and the former Chathamites, now led by the [[William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne|Earl of Shelburne]], took its place. After Rockingham's unexpected death in July 1782, this uneasy coalition fell apart, with [[Charles James Fox]], Rockingham's successor as faction leader, quarrelling with Shelburne and withdrawing his supporters from the government. The following Shelburne administration was short-lived and Fox returned to power in April 1783, this time in an unexpected coalition with his old enemy Lord North. Although this pairing seemed unnatural to many at the time, it was to last beyond the demise of the coalition in December 1783. The coalition's untimely fall was brought about by George III in league with the House of Lords and the King now brought in Chatham's son [[William Pitt the Younger]] as his prime minister.

It was only now that a genuine two-party system can be seen to emerge, with Pitt and the government on the one side, and the ousted Fox-North coalition on the other. On 17 December 1783, Fox stated in the House of Commons that "[i]f [...] a change must take place, and a new ministry is to be formed and supported, not by the confidence of this House or the public, but the sole authority of the Crown, I, for one, shall not envy that hon. gentleman his situation. From that moment I put in my claim for a monopoly of Whig principles".<ref>Parliamentary History, xxiv, 213, 222, cited in Foord, ''His Majesty's Opposition'', 1714–1830, p. 441</ref> Although Pitt is often referred to as a Tory and Fox as a Whig, Pitt always considered himself to be an independent Whig and generally opposed the development of a strict partisan political system. Fox's supporters saw themselves as legitimate heirs of the Whig tradition and they strongly opposed Pitt in his early years in office, notably during the regency crisis revolving around the King's temporary insanity in 1788–1789, when Fox and his allies supported full powers as regent for their ally, the [[Prince of Wales]].

The opposition Whigs were split by the onset of the [[French Revolution]]. While Fox and some younger members of the party such as [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Charles Grey]] and [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]] were sympathetic to the French revolutionaries, others led by [[Edmund Burke]] were strongly opposed. Although Burke himself was largely alone in defecting to Pitt in 1791, much of the rest of the party, including the influential House of Lords leader the [[William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland|Duke of Portland]], Rockingham's nephew [[William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam|Lord Fitzwilliam]] and [[William Windham]], were increasingly uncomfortable with the flirtations of Fox and his allies with radicalism and the French Revolution. They split in early 1793 with Fox over the question of support for the war with France and by the end of the year they had openly broken with Fox. By the summer of the next year, large portions of the opposition had defected and joined Pitt's government.

=== 19th century ===
[[File:Grey2.JPG|thumb|''[[Portrait of Earl Grey]]'' by [[Thomas Phillips]], 1820. Grey led the Whigs for many years in opposition.]]
Many of the Whigs who had joined with Pitt would eventually return to the fold, joining again with Fox in the [[Ministry of All the Talents]] following Pitt's death in 1806. The followers of Pitt—led until 1809 by Fox's old colleague the Duke of Portland—rejected the label of Tories and preferred to call themselves [[Pittite|The Friends of Mr. Pitt]]. After the fall of the Talents ministry in 1807, the Foxite Whigs remained out of power for the better part of 25 years. The accession of Fox's old ally, the Prince of Wales, to the regency in 1811 did not change the situation, as the Prince had broken entirely with his old Foxite Whig companions. The members of the government of [[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|Lord Liverpool]] from 1812 to 1827 called themselves Whigs.<ref>{{cite book |first=I. R. |last=Christie |title=Wars and Revolutions. Britain 1760–1815 |location=London |publisher=Edward Arnold |year=1982 |page=283 |isbn=0-7131-6158-2 }}</ref>

==== Structure and appeal ====
By 1815, the Whigs were still far from being a "party" in the modern sense. They had no definite programme or policy and were by no means even united. Generally, they stood for reducing crown patronage, sympathy towards [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformists]], support for the interests of merchants and bankers and a leaning towards the idea of a limited reform of the voting system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowe |first=Norman |title=Mastering modern British history |date=2009 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-20556-7 |edition=4th |series=Palgrave master series |location=Basingstoke |page=9}}</ref> Most Whig leaders, such as [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey]], [[Lord Grenville]], [[Lord Althorp]], William Lamb (later [[Lord Melbourne]]) and [[Lord John Russell]], were still rich landowners. The most prominent exception was [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]], the talented lawyer, who had a relatively modest background.<ref>{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Lowe |title=Mastering Modern British History |edition=3rd |year=1998 |pages=9–10 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-333-72106-3 }}</ref>

Hay argues that Whig leaders welcomed the increasing political participation of the English middle classes in the two decades after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. The fresh support strengthened their position in Parliament. Whigs rejected the Tory appeals to governmental authority and social discipline and extended political discussion beyond Parliament. Whigs used a national network of newspapers and magazines as well as local clubs to deliver their message. The press organised petitions and debates and reported to the public on government policy, while leaders such as [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]] (1778–1868) built alliances with men who lacked direct representation. This new approach to the grass roots helped to define Whiggism and opened the way for later success. Whigs thereby forced the government to recognise the role of public opinion in parliamentary debate and influenced views of representation and reform throughout the 19th century.<ref>William Anthony Hay, {{"'}}If There Is a Mob, There Is Also a People': Middle Class Politics and The Whig Revival, 1810–1830", ''Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750–1850: Selected Papers'' (2000), pp. 396–402.</ref>

==== Return to power ====
[[File:William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Lord Melbourne (Partridge)|Portrait of Lord Melbourne]]'' by [[John Partridge (artist)|John Partridge]]. Melbourne was twice Prime Minister during the 1830s.]]
Whigs restored their unity by supporting moral reforms, especially the abolition of slavery. They triumphed in 1830 as champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lord Grey prime minister 1830–1834 and the [[Reform Act 1832]] championed by Grey became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise and ended the system of "[[rotten and pocket boroughs]]" (where elections were controlled by powerful families) and instead redistributed power on the basis of population. It added 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales. Only the upper and middle classes voted, so this shifted power away from the landed aristocracy to the urban middle classes. In 1832, the party abolished enslavement in the British Empire with the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]]. It purchased and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands. After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited reforms were passed in 1833. The Whigs also passed the [[Poor Law Amendment Act 1834]] that reformed the administration of relief to the poor<ref>E. L. Woodward, ''The Age of Reform, 1815–1870'' (1938), pp. 120–145, 325–330, 354–357.</ref> and the [[Marriage Act 1836]] that allowed civil marriages.

It was around this time that the great Whig historian [[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay|Thomas Babington Macaulay]] began to promulgate what would later be coined the [[Whig history|Whig view of history]], in which all of English history was seen as leading up to the culminating moment of the passage of Lord Grey's reform bill. This view led to serious distortions in later portrayals of 17th-century and 18th-century history, as Macaulay and his followers attempted to fit the complex and changing factional politics of the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] into the neat categories of 19th-century political divisions.

In 1836, a private gentleman's Club was constructed in [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]], [[Piccadilly]] as a consequence of the successful [[Reform Act 1832]]. The [[Reform Club]] was founded by [[Edward Ellice Sr.]], [[Member of parliament|MP for Coventry]] and Whig [[Whip (politics)|Whip]], whose riches came from the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] but whose zeal was chiefly devoted to securing the passage of the [[Reform Act 1832]]. This new club, for members of both Houses of [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]], was intended to be a forum for the [[Political radicalism|radical]] ideas which the First Reform Bill represented: a bastion of liberal and progressive thought that became closely associated with the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]], who largely succeeded the [[Whig Party (UK)|Whigs]] in the second half of the 19th century.

Until the decline of the Liberal Party in the early 20th century, it was ''de rigueur'' for Liberal MPs and peers to be members of the Reform Club, being regarded as an unofficial party headquarters. However, in 1882 the [[National Liberal Club]] was established under [[William Ewart Gladstone]]'s chairmanship, designed to be more "inclusive" towards Liberal [[grandee]]s and activists throughout the United Kingdom.

==== Transition to the Liberal Party ====
The [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] (the term was first used officially in 1868, but had been used colloquially for decades beforehand) arose from a coalition of Whigs, [[free trade]] Tory followers of [[Robert Peel]] and free trade [[Radicals (UK)|Radicals]], first created, tenuously under the [[Peelite]] [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|Earl of Aberdeen]] in 1852 and put together more permanently under the former [[Canningite]] Tory [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]] in 1859. Although the Whigs at first formed the most important part of the coalition, the Whiggish elements of the new party progressively lost influence during the long leadership of former Peelite William Ewart Gladstone. Subsequently, the majority of the old Whig aristocracy broke from the party over the issue of [[Irish home rule]] in 1886 to help form the [[Liberal Unionist Party]], which in turn would merge with the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] by 1912.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Porritt |first1=Edward |title=Political Parties on the Eve of Home Rule |journal=The North American Review |date=1912 |volume=195 |issue=676 |pages=333–342 |jstor=25119718  |issn=0029-2397}}</ref> However, the Unionist support for trade protection in the early twentieth century under [[Joseph Chamberlain]] (probably the least Whiggish character in the Liberal Unionist party) further alienated the more orthodox Whigs. By the early twentieth century "Whiggery" was largely irrelevant and without a natural political home. One of the last active politicians to celebrate his Whiggish roots was the Liberal Unionist statesman [[Henry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford|Henry James]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1909/nov/29/finance-bill-1#S5LV0004P0_19091129_HOL_23|title=Finance BILL.  |website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|access-date=3 March 2018|archive-date=8 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308025813/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1909/nov/29/finance-bill-1#S5LV0004P0_19091129_HOL_23|date=29 November 1909|url-status=live}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
The colours of the Whig Party ([[blue]]<!-- #F0DC82 --> and [[Buff (colour)|buff]],<!-- #005581 --> a yellow-brown colour named after [[buff leather]]) were particularly associated with [[Charles James Fox]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Blue and Buff |journal=[[Notes and Queries]] |series=2nd ser. |volume=1 |issue=14 |date=5 April 1856 |page=269 |url=https://archive.org/details/s2notesqueries01londuoft/page/268/mode/2up }}</ref>

== Electoral performance ==
{{Main|List of Whig Party MPs (UK)}}

===[[Parliament of England]]===
{|class=wikitable style="text-align:"
|-
!Election
!Leader
!Votes
!%
!Seats
!+/–
!Position
!Government
|-
![[1661 English general election|1661]]
| [[Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles|Denzil Holles]]
|colspan=2 rowspan=12 bgcolor=#DDDDDD style="text-align:center;"|N/A
|{{composition bar|139|518|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}}139
|{{increase}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[March 1679 English general election|March 1679]]
|rowspan="3"|[[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury|Anthony Ashley Cooper]]
|{{composition bar|218|522|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 79
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Plurality}}
|-
![[October 1679 English general election|October 1679]]
|{{composition bar|310|530|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 92
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1681 English general election|1681]]
|{{composition bar|309|502|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 1
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1685 English general election|1685]]
|rowspan="8"|[[John Somers, 1st Baron Somers|John Somers]]
|{{composition bar|57|525|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 252
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1689 English general election|1689]]
|{{composition bar|319|551|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 262
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1690 English general election|1690]]
|{{composition bar|241|512|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 78
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1695 English general election|1695]]
|{{composition bar|257|513|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 16
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1698 English general election|1698]]
|{{composition bar|246|513|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 11
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Plurality}}
|-
![[January 1701 English general election|January 1701]]
|{{composition bar|219|513|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 27
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[November 1701 English general election|November 1701]]
|{{composition bar|248|513|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 29
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Plurality}}
|-
![[1705 English general election|1705]]
|{{composition bar|184|513|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 49
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
|}

===[[Parliament of Great Britain]]===
{|class=wikitable style="text-align:"
|-
!Election
!Leader
!Votes
!%
!Seats
!+/–
!Position
!Government
|-
![[1708 British general election|1708]]
|rowspan="3"|[[John Somers, 1st Baron Somers|John Somers]]
|colspan=2 rowspan=17 bgcolor=#DDDDDD style="text-align:center;"|N/A
|{{composition bar|291|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 45
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1710 British general election|1710]]
|{{composition bar|196|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 95
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1713 British general election|1713]]
|{{composition bar|161|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 25
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1715 British general election|1715]]
| rowspan="3"|[[Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend|Charles Townshend]]
|{{composition bar|341|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 180
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1722 British general election|1722]]
|{{composition bar|389|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 48
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1727 British general election|1727]]
|{{composition bar|415|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 26
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1734 British general election|1734]]
|rowspan="2"|[[Robert Walpole]]
|{{composition bar|330|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 85
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1741 British general election|1741]]
|{{composition bar|286|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 44
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1747 British general election|1747]]
|[[Henry Pelham]]
|{{composition bar|338|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 52
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1754 British general election|1754]]
|rowspan="2"|[[Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle|Thomas Pelham-Holles]]
|{{composition bar|368|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 30
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1761 British general election|1761]]
|{{composition bar|446|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 78
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1768 British general election|1768]]
|[[Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton|Augustus FitzRoy]]
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#DDDDDD style="text-align:center;"|N/A
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1774 British general election|1774]]
|rowspan="2"|[[Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham|Charles Watson-Wentworth]]
|{{composition bar|215|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} unknown
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1780 British general election|1780]]
|{{composition bar|254|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 39
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1784 British general election|1784]]
|rowspan="3"|[[Charles James Fox]]
|{{composition bar|155|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 99
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1790 British general election|1790]]
|{{composition bar|183|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 28
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1796 British general election|1796]]
|{{composition bar|95|558|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 88
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
|}

===[[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]===
{|class=wikitable style="text-align:"
|-
!Election
!Leader
!Votes
!%
!Seats
!+/–
!Position
!Government
|-
![[1802 United Kingdom general election|1802]]
|[[Charles James Fox]]
|colspan=2 rowspan=9 bgcolor=#DDDDDD style="text-align:center;"|N/A
|{{composition bar|269|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 184
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1806 United Kingdom general election|1806]]
|rowspan="3"|[[William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville|William Grenville]]
|{{composition bar|431|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 162
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1807 United Kingdom general election|1807]]
|{{composition bar|213|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 218
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1812 United Kingdom general election|1812]]
|{{composition bar|196|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 17
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1818 United Kingdom general election|1818]]
|rowspan="2"|[[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Charles Grey]]
|{{composition bar|175|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 21
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1820 United Kingdom general election|1820]]
|{{composition bar|215|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 40
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1826 United Kingdom general election|1826]]
|rowspan="2|[[Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne|Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice]]
|{{composition bar|198|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 17
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1830 United Kingdom general election|1830]]
|{{composition bar|196|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 2
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1831 United Kingdom general election|1831]]
|rowspan="2"|[[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Charles Grey]]
|{{composition bar|370|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 174
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1832 United Kingdom general election|1832]]
|554,719
|67.0%
|{{composition bar|441|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 71
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1835 United Kingdom general election|1835]]
|rowspan="3"|[[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|William Lamb]]
|349,868
|57.3%
|{{composition bar|385|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 56
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1837 United Kingdom general election|1837]]
|418,331
|51.7%
|{{composition bar|344|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 41
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1841 United Kingdom general election|1841]]
|273,902
|46.9%
|{{composition bar|271|658|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 73
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1847 United Kingdom general election|1847]]
|rowspan="2"|[[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|John Russell]]
|259,311
|53.8%
|{{composition bar|292|656|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 21
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1852 United Kingdom general election|1852]]
|430,882
|57.9%
|{{composition bar|324|654|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 32
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Minority}}
|-
![[1857 United Kingdom general election|1857]]
|rowspan="2"|[[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Henry John Temple]]
|464,127
|65.9%
|{{composition bar|377|654|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{increase}} 53
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|-
![[1859 United Kingdom general election|1859]]
|372,117
|65.7%
|{{composition bar|356|654|hex={{party color|Whig (British political party)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 21
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Majority}}
|}

== See also ==
* [[Early-18th-century Whig plots]]
* [[Foxite]]
* [[King of Clubs (Whig club)]]
* [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]
* [[List of United Kingdom Whig and allied party leaders, 1801–1859|List of United Kingdom Whig and allied party leaders (1801–1859)]]
* [[Patriot Whigs]]
* [[Whig government]]
* [[Whig Party (United States)]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|35em}}
* {{cite book|last=Black|first=Jeremy|author-link=Jeremy Black (historian)|title=Walpole in Power|place=Stroud|publisher=Sutton|isbn=0-7509-2523-X|year=2001}}
* {{cite book|last=Brewer|first=John|title=Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1976}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Cannon|editor-first=John Ashton|title=The Whig Ascendancy: Colloquies on Hanoverian England|publisher=Edward Arnold|year=1981|isbn=0-7131-6277-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Carswell|first=John|title=The Old Cause: Three Biographical Studies in Whiggism|place=London|publisher=Cresset Press|year=1954|url=https://archive.org/details/oldcause002664mbp/page/n5/mode/2up}}
* {{cite book|first=H. T.|last=Dickinson|author-link=H. T. Dickinson|title=Walpole and the Whig Supremacy|year=1973|publisher=English Universities Press |isbn=0-340-11515-7|url=https://archive.org/details/walpolewhigsupre0000dick|url-access=registration}}
* Elofson, Warren M. ''The Rockingham Connection and the Second Founding of the Whig Party 1768–1773'' (1996).
* Fairlie, Henry.  "Oratory in Political Life," ''History Today'' (Jan 1960) 10#1 pp 3–13. A survey of political oratory in Britain from 1730 to 1960. 
* Feiling, Keith; ''A History of the Tory Party, 1640–1714'', 1924 [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6610420 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116151514/https://www.gale.com/databases/questia?a=o&d=6610420 |date=16 November 2022 }}.
* Feiling, Keith; ''The Second Tory Party, 1714–1832'', 1938 [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=58567794 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116151515/https://www.gale.com/databases/questia?a=o&d=58567794 |date=16 November 2022 }}.
* Forbes, Suzanne. "Whigs and Tories, 1709–1712." in''Print and Party Politics in Ireland, 1689-1714'' (Palgrav
*  Halevy, Elie. ''A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, III; the Triumph of Reform (1830-1841)'' (1950) [https://archive.org/details/historyofenglshp0000elie online]
* Hill, Brian W. ''British parliamentary parties, 1742-1832 : from the fall of Walpole to the first Reform Act'' (1985) [https://archive.org/details/britishparliamen00hill online]
* {{cite book|first=William|last=Harris|author-link=William Harris (Birmingham Liberal)|title=The History of the Radical Party in Parliament|place=London|publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.|year=1885|url=https://archive.org/details/historyradicalp00ggoog}}
* {{cite book|title=The Whig Revival: 1808–1830|series=Studies in Modern History|last=Hay|first=William Anthony|year=2005|publisher=Palgreave Macmillan|isbn=1-4039-1771-X}}
* Holmes, Geoffrey.  "British Politics in the Age of Anne" (2nd ed. 1987).
* Jones; J. R. ''The First Whigs: The Politics of the Exclusion Crisis, 1678–1683'', 1961 [https://web.archive.org/web/20050104181309/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98156041 online edition].
* [[R. B. McCallum|McCallum; Ronald Buchanan]]. ''The Liberal Party from Earl Grey to Asquith'' (1963).
* [[Dorothy Marshall (historian)|Marshall, Dorothy]]. ''Eighteenth Century England'' (1962) [https://web.archive.org/web/20130706101236/http://www.questia.com/library/1619658/eighteenth-century-england online]. A standard scholarly history.
* {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=L. G.|author-link=Leslie Mitchell (historian)|title=Charles James Fox and the Disintegration of the Whig Party, 1782–1794|place=London|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1971|isbn=0-19-821838-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Austin|author-link=Austin Mitchell|title=The Whigs in Opposition, 1815–1830|place=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1967}}
* {{cite book |last=O'Gorman |first=Frank |title=Voters, patrons, and parties: the unreformed electoral system of Hanoverian England 1734–1832 |publisher=Clarendon Press  |year=1989}}
* {{cite book |last=Plumb |first=J. H. |author-link=John H. Plumb |title=Growth of Political Stability in England 1675–1725 |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |year=1967 }}
* Reid, Loren Dudley. ''Charles James Fox: A Man for the People'' (1969) [https://archive.org/details/charlesjamesfoxm0000reid/page/n6/mode/1up online]
* Roszman, Jay R. "'Ireland as a Weapon of Warfare': Whigs, Tories, and the Problem of Irish Outrages, 1835 To 1839." ''Historical Journal'' 60.4 (2017): 971–995.
* Southgate, Donald. ''The passing of the Whigs, 1832-1886'' (Macmillan, 1962) [https://archive.org/details/passingofwhigs180000dona/page/n8/mode/1up online].
* Speck, W. A.  ''Stability and Strife: England, 1714–1760'' (1977), A standard scholarly history.
* Trevelyan, George Otto.  ''The Early History of Charles James Fox'' (1880) [https://books.google.com/books?id=rJcgAAAAMAAJ online edition].
* [[Basil Williams (historian)|Williams, Basil]], and C. H. Stuart; ''The Whig Supremacy, 1714–1760'' (1962) [https://archive.org/details/whigsupremacy171001761mbp/page/n5/mode/2up online], a standard scholarly survey
* Willman, Robert. "The Origins of 'Whig' and 'Tory' in English Political Language." ''Historical Journal'' 17, no. 2 (1974): 247–64. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638297 online].
* Woodward; E. L. ''The Age of Reform, 1815–1870'' (1938) [https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.524474/page/n3/mode/1up online]

=== Historiography ===
* Hill, Brain W. "II. Executive Monarchy and the Challenge of Parties, 1689–1832: Two Concepts of Government and Two Historiographical Interpretations." ''The Historical Journal'' (1970) 13#3 pp: 379–401. [http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0018246X00009249 abstract].
* Hone, Joseph. "John Darby and the Whig Canon." ''Historical Journal'' 1-24. [https://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/271583/933EB261-5526-438F-9F48-B1D34A98C72C.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202622/https://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/271583/933EB261-5526-438F-9F48-B1D34A98C72C.pdf |date=24 June 2021 }}
* Loades, David ed. ''Readers Guide to British History'' (2003) 2:1353–56.
* {{cite book |last=Pocock |first=J. G. A. |author-link=J. G. A. Pocock |chapter=The varieties of whiggism from exclusion to reform: a history of ideology and discourse |title=Virtue, Commerce, and History: essays on political thought and history, chiefly in the eighteenth century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1985 |pages=215–310 }}
* Thomas, Peter D. G. "Party Politics in Eighteenth‐Century Britain: Some Myths and a Touch of Reality." ''Journal for Eighteenth‐Century Studies'' (1987) 10#2 pp.&nbsp;201–210.
{{refend|2}}

===Primary sources===
* Eagles, Robin. ''The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke. General Editor Paul Langford. Volume IV: Party, Parliament, and the Dividing of the Whigs 1780–1794'' Edited by PJ Marshall and Donald C. Bryant. (Oxford University Press. 2015). xvi, 674 pp.

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/08/06.htm Karl Marx on the Tories and the Whigs (1852)]

{{Historic Irish parties}}
{{Liberal Party (UK)}}

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