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The Late Lord: The Life of John Pitt - 2nd Earl of Chatham
John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham is one of the most enigmatic and overlooked figures of early nineteenth century British history. The elder brother of Pitt the Younger, he has long been consigned to history as ‘the late Lord Chatham’, the lazy commander-in-chief of the 1809 Walcheren expedition, whose inactivity and incompetence turned what should have been an easy victory into a disaster.
Chatham’s poor reputation obscures a fascinating and complex man. During a twenty-year career at the heart of government, he served in several important cabinet posts such as First Lord of the Admiralty and Master-General of the Ordnance. Yet despite his closeness to the Prime Minister and friendship with the Royal Family, political rivalries and private tragedy hampered his ascendance. Paradoxically for a man of widely admired diplomatic skills, his downfall owed as much to his personal insecurities and penchant for making enemies as it did to military failure.
Using a variety of manuscript sources to tease Chatham from the records, this biography peels away the myths and places him for the first time in proper familial, political, and military context. It breathes life into a much-maligned member of one of Britain’s greatest political dynasties, revealing a deeply flawed man trapped in the shadow of his illustrious relatives.
Chatham’s poor reputation obscures a fascinating and complex man. During a twenty-year career at the heart of government, he served in several important cabinet posts such as First Lord of the Admiralty and Master-General of the Ordnance. Yet despite his closeness to the Prime Minister and friendship with the Royal Family, political rivalries and private tragedy hampered his ascendance. Paradoxically for a man of widely admired diplomatic skills, his downfall owed as much to his personal insecurities and penchant for making enemies as it did to military failure.
Using a variety of manuscript sources to tease Chatham from the records, this biography peels away the myths and places him for the first time in proper familial, political, and military context. It breathes life into a much-maligned member of one of Britain’s greatest political dynasties, revealing a deeply flawed man trapped in the shadow of his illustrious relatives.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published April 3, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 9, 2017
I freely admit, I knew nothing of John Pitt prior to reading this book. However, there's something rather wonderful about finding out all about a figure that's been largely forgotten by history - and this comprehensive biography does a great job of telling you all you need to know!
I can only imagine the level of research that must have gone into creating this book - the finest details are in there, creating a well-rounded, fascinating glimpse into the man's life. Excellent stuff! :-)
I can only imagine the level of research that must have gone into creating this book - the finest details are in there, creating a well-rounded, fascinating glimpse into the man's life. Excellent stuff! :-)
April 6, 2017
I have enjoyed Jacqueline Reiter's blog and Facebook page but I did wonder whether this factual book, so out of my time period of history, would really manage to grab and hold my interest, but from the first page to the last, I was totally gripped by the story of this man whose life is told with the fluidity and readability of a novel, without destroying or demeaning the historical facts and trivialising a serious study.
Who do you think of when you hear the name John or Pitt, or Chatham? Such is the author's passion for the subject that when coupled with the name Reiter, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, is now almost a household name. A whole generation will grow up knowing of the Pitt underdog, the anti hero, who in Reiter's capable hands, becomes a hero. I have never found another author who so thoroughly makes a historical character their own. It shows a genuine skill and ability to write to make a little known man, long dead, come alive and engender in us readers genuine emotion.
The 2nd Earl of Chatham is a very complex man. Slothful, intelligent, vulnerable, pleasure loving, a keen social animal, always seemingly in the shadow of his younger brother. "John had Pitt the Elder’s name and political principles instilled into him from the cradle, and grew up with the conviction that being a Pitt was something special. John’s importance within the family as the eldest son was never in doubt, and he never forgot that" He seems to have been an attractive and likeable man, who knew how to 'work the crowds' but conversely, never seemed to push himself forward.
Fashionable and elegant, he and his wife were the trend setters of the era and despite her persistent ill health and Chatham's frequent leg problems causing, at times, poor mobility, they managed to be well known and liked in London society. In Reiter's words, "he had always been elegant (in his teens his father called him ‘the powdered beau’), and his Cabinet status gave him added reason to show off. In 1789 his ‘corbeau and blue striped’ coat was acclaimed as ‘one of the handsomest dresses at the Drawing room’; four years later his ‘carmelite [light brown] coloured velvet coat and breeches . . . very richly embroidered with silver’ provoked similar admiration."
No one can read this book and remain untouched by the 2nd Earl of Chatham's life and the tragedies and misfortunes that befell him. The aftermath (and the after myth) of the Walcheren campaign is explored in a realistic but sensitive way and Reiter even manages to make the driest of politics interesting and yet manages to maintain throughout a level that would be suitable for academic study as well as the lay reader. His career was blighted his father's spendthrift ways causing huge debts, by his easy-going temperament and by his bad luck. "He fought as hard as he could against the hand he had been dealt but he was ultimately the victim of his own family’s success."
The author has researched the book with meticulous care for every detail and whilst citations are given, they are never invasive or get in the way of the prose, adding greatly to the enjoyment for the lay-reader. Situations and places are described in such a way to give a real feel for the era and for the places and has encouraged a real interest for the subject and time in British history in this die-hard Mediaevalist.
Helpfully, the book includes three maps - Walcheren (Flushing), Helder and Gibraltar, plus illustrations, an index, an extensive bibliography, and copious source notes (which are discretely placed and do not get in the flow of the narrative.)
The book was thoroughly enjoyable, amazingly informative, interesting, easy to read and understand and I will happily recommend it to both historian and casual reader.
Read it! It is worth it!
Who do you think of when you hear the name John or Pitt, or Chatham? Such is the author's passion for the subject that when coupled with the name Reiter, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, is now almost a household name. A whole generation will grow up knowing of the Pitt underdog, the anti hero, who in Reiter's capable hands, becomes a hero. I have never found another author who so thoroughly makes a historical character their own. It shows a genuine skill and ability to write to make a little known man, long dead, come alive and engender in us readers genuine emotion.
The 2nd Earl of Chatham is a very complex man. Slothful, intelligent, vulnerable, pleasure loving, a keen social animal, always seemingly in the shadow of his younger brother. "John had Pitt the Elder’s name and political principles instilled into him from the cradle, and grew up with the conviction that being a Pitt was something special. John’s importance within the family as the eldest son was never in doubt, and he never forgot that" He seems to have been an attractive and likeable man, who knew how to 'work the crowds' but conversely, never seemed to push himself forward.
Fashionable and elegant, he and his wife were the trend setters of the era and despite her persistent ill health and Chatham's frequent leg problems causing, at times, poor mobility, they managed to be well known and liked in London society. In Reiter's words, "he had always been elegant (in his teens his father called him ‘the powdered beau’), and his Cabinet status gave him added reason to show off. In 1789 his ‘corbeau and blue striped’ coat was acclaimed as ‘one of the handsomest dresses at the Drawing room’; four years later his ‘carmelite [light brown] coloured velvet coat and breeches . . . very richly embroidered with silver’ provoked similar admiration."
No one can read this book and remain untouched by the 2nd Earl of Chatham's life and the tragedies and misfortunes that befell him. The aftermath (and the after myth) of the Walcheren campaign is explored in a realistic but sensitive way and Reiter even manages to make the driest of politics interesting and yet manages to maintain throughout a level that would be suitable for academic study as well as the lay reader. His career was blighted his father's spendthrift ways causing huge debts, by his easy-going temperament and by his bad luck. "He fought as hard as he could against the hand he had been dealt but he was ultimately the victim of his own family’s success."
The author has researched the book with meticulous care for every detail and whilst citations are given, they are never invasive or get in the way of the prose, adding greatly to the enjoyment for the lay-reader. Situations and places are described in such a way to give a real feel for the era and for the places and has encouraged a real interest for the subject and time in British history in this die-hard Mediaevalist.
Helpfully, the book includes three maps - Walcheren (Flushing), Helder and Gibraltar, plus illustrations, an index, an extensive bibliography, and copious source notes (which are discretely placed and do not get in the flow of the narrative.)
The book was thoroughly enjoyable, amazingly informative, interesting, easy to read and understand and I will happily recommend it to both historian and casual reader.
Read it! It is worth it!
July 8, 2017
John Pitt is not one of the forgotten millions who left little or no trace on their journeys through life. He made his mark. Yet it is a mark that faded even before he died and could not match the contributions of the two William Pitts, his far more famous father and younger brother.
Yet in times of upheaval like that of the Napoleonic wars, history is made by the John Pitts and other “role players” as much as by the William Pitts, Wellingtons and Napoleons. It is John Pitt’s misfortune that the most notable event in his career has gone down as a tragic failure.
Jacqueline Reiter can make a fair claim to know more about John Pitt than anyone living, and probably more than most of the contemporaries that knew him during his relatively long life (from 1756 to 1835). Indeed, several years ago it was she who put some real meat on the rather thin bones of his Wikipedia profile.
And her biography fills all the promise of that knowledge. The Late Lord, The Life of John Pitt 2nd Earl of Chatham is a fascinating portrait of a man who was born into extraordinary circumstances and lived in extraordinary times, and yet often seems like an ordinary man picking his way hesitantly through a maze of political, bureaucratic and military conflicts.
Ordinary, because it would be easier for most of us to identify with him than with his strident, intense father or his impossibly hard-working, hard-drinking brother. When John Pitt failed, he was sometimes a victim of circumstance. Yet at other times, he just as clearly a victim of his own failings and his own lethargy, just like the rest of us.
He was born into a life of privilege, yet he struggled for much of his life with the debts left by his hopelessly insolvent father (and ran up more than a few himself). He and his wife loved each other, yet suffered later in life through her physical and then mental disabilities (clinical depression was far beyond the comprehension of eighteenth-century caregiving).
Yet through it all he was intelligent, thoughtful and capable of conceiving and adhering to a plan of action. Unfortunately, he did not seem to possess the instinct that allows political insiders to counter the attacks of those who take their own interests for the right course of action. Even when he was right, he did not always do a deft job of defending his policies.
And, not to put too fine a point on it, he was lazy. He was frequently late for meetings, and just as often failed to show the energy to push through needed reforms and ensure efficient organization. This led to frequent criticism in his posts as First Lord of the Admiralty and Master General of the Ordnance. Yet his dismissal as First Lord also owed a good deal to his inability to outflank a shrewd and ambitious political operator in Henry Dundas. William Pitt had made his brother First Lord, but in the cut and thrust of wartime politics, he saw Dundas as an invaluable ally and his brother as dispensable. The humiliation cut deep for John Pitt.
Late in life, he quietly did a much more efficient job as Governor of Gibraltar. But at the same time, he was an unhappy widower, ready to go home and leave it all behind. Jacqueline Reiter makes us feel all this.
Yet the fulcrum of the 2nd Lord Chatham’s career, and the dramatic core of his biography, is the infamous Walcheren campaign of 1809 (even in high school history, I recall a reference to this campaign that ended in disaster and disease). Trained as a soldier, he served in various military posts throughout his life, and played a prominent role in the Anglo-Russian Helder expedition to Holland in 1799.
He was commander of the army for the Walcheren campaign, an attempt to open a second front against the French in support of Austria. The frustrations of wind and weather, the dance of delay between the army and the navy, the hesitant advances and demoralizing setbacks are all skilfully depicted by the author. Even without historical hindsight, you can feel it lurching toward a miserable end.
Just as compelling is the author’s account of the subsequent enquiry. It becomes, in effect, a gripping courtroom drama. Chatham attempted a spirited defense of his own conduct, and did a reasonable job of making the case for the army’s efforts and against the very real failings of the navy. But even here, he made errors of timing and judgement that helped leave a cloud over his reputation.
And there are nagging questions about his own breadth of feeling, as when he had returned from the campaign and was engaged in shooting parties. “Perhaps Chatham occasionally devoted a thought to the sick arriving daily from Walcheren and overcrowding the military hospitals in Kent, Hampshire and Essex….If he did, he left no sign.”
He was quite simply a human being, born to a famous family, but without the special gifts that marked the towering figures of the era, for good or evil. Jacqueline Reiter does an exemplary job of bringing out that humanity, and putting it in the context of this tumultuous era. In doing so, she illuminates how history is also made by those who labored in the shadow of Napoleon, of Wellington, and of William Pitt. Highly recommended reading.
Yet in times of upheaval like that of the Napoleonic wars, history is made by the John Pitts and other “role players” as much as by the William Pitts, Wellingtons and Napoleons. It is John Pitt’s misfortune that the most notable event in his career has gone down as a tragic failure.
Jacqueline Reiter can make a fair claim to know more about John Pitt than anyone living, and probably more than most of the contemporaries that knew him during his relatively long life (from 1756 to 1835). Indeed, several years ago it was she who put some real meat on the rather thin bones of his Wikipedia profile.
And her biography fills all the promise of that knowledge. The Late Lord, The Life of John Pitt 2nd Earl of Chatham is a fascinating portrait of a man who was born into extraordinary circumstances and lived in extraordinary times, and yet often seems like an ordinary man picking his way hesitantly through a maze of political, bureaucratic and military conflicts.
Ordinary, because it would be easier for most of us to identify with him than with his strident, intense father or his impossibly hard-working, hard-drinking brother. When John Pitt failed, he was sometimes a victim of circumstance. Yet at other times, he just as clearly a victim of his own failings and his own lethargy, just like the rest of us.
He was born into a life of privilege, yet he struggled for much of his life with the debts left by his hopelessly insolvent father (and ran up more than a few himself). He and his wife loved each other, yet suffered later in life through her physical and then mental disabilities (clinical depression was far beyond the comprehension of eighteenth-century caregiving).
Yet through it all he was intelligent, thoughtful and capable of conceiving and adhering to a plan of action. Unfortunately, he did not seem to possess the instinct that allows political insiders to counter the attacks of those who take their own interests for the right course of action. Even when he was right, he did not always do a deft job of defending his policies.
And, not to put too fine a point on it, he was lazy. He was frequently late for meetings, and just as often failed to show the energy to push through needed reforms and ensure efficient organization. This led to frequent criticism in his posts as First Lord of the Admiralty and Master General of the Ordnance. Yet his dismissal as First Lord also owed a good deal to his inability to outflank a shrewd and ambitious political operator in Henry Dundas. William Pitt had made his brother First Lord, but in the cut and thrust of wartime politics, he saw Dundas as an invaluable ally and his brother as dispensable. The humiliation cut deep for John Pitt.
Late in life, he quietly did a much more efficient job as Governor of Gibraltar. But at the same time, he was an unhappy widower, ready to go home and leave it all behind. Jacqueline Reiter makes us feel all this.
Yet the fulcrum of the 2nd Lord Chatham’s career, and the dramatic core of his biography, is the infamous Walcheren campaign of 1809 (even in high school history, I recall a reference to this campaign that ended in disaster and disease). Trained as a soldier, he served in various military posts throughout his life, and played a prominent role in the Anglo-Russian Helder expedition to Holland in 1799.
He was commander of the army for the Walcheren campaign, an attempt to open a second front against the French in support of Austria. The frustrations of wind and weather, the dance of delay between the army and the navy, the hesitant advances and demoralizing setbacks are all skilfully depicted by the author. Even without historical hindsight, you can feel it lurching toward a miserable end.
Just as compelling is the author’s account of the subsequent enquiry. It becomes, in effect, a gripping courtroom drama. Chatham attempted a spirited defense of his own conduct, and did a reasonable job of making the case for the army’s efforts and against the very real failings of the navy. But even here, he made errors of timing and judgement that helped leave a cloud over his reputation.
And there are nagging questions about his own breadth of feeling, as when he had returned from the campaign and was engaged in shooting parties. “Perhaps Chatham occasionally devoted a thought to the sick arriving daily from Walcheren and overcrowding the military hospitals in Kent, Hampshire and Essex….If he did, he left no sign.”
He was quite simply a human being, born to a famous family, but without the special gifts that marked the towering figures of the era, for good or evil. Jacqueline Reiter does an exemplary job of bringing out that humanity, and putting it in the context of this tumultuous era. In doing so, she illuminates how history is also made by those who labored in the shadow of Napoleon, of Wellington, and of William Pitt. Highly recommended reading.
March 27, 2023
I really enjoyed this book about the much maligned John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, who could never live up to the high standards of his father, the first Earl, or his brother, William Pitt the younger, who is the youngest prime minister in British history.
I found the book to be very enjoyable and we written by Reiter. The book encompasses the Age of Revolution, taking us through the American Revolution, French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and up to the reign of William IV, just two years shy of the onset of the Victorian era.
I think Reitter makes the reader sympathize with Chatham, who seemed to be a very decent fellow, thrust into the world of national politics and high military command all because of who he was and the title he carried rather than for his talents. Such was life in Georgian Britain.
I don’t think Chatham was as useless as his contemporaries made him out to be, and certainly deserves to be remembered for more than the Walcheren Expedition.
Reitter is a good writer, and I hope she has another foray into the field of late 18th early 19th century British biography soon.
I found the book to be very enjoyable and we written by Reiter. The book encompasses the Age of Revolution, taking us through the American Revolution, French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and up to the reign of William IV, just two years shy of the onset of the Victorian era.
I think Reitter makes the reader sympathize with Chatham, who seemed to be a very decent fellow, thrust into the world of national politics and high military command all because of who he was and the title he carried rather than for his talents. Such was life in Georgian Britain.
I don’t think Chatham was as useless as his contemporaries made him out to be, and certainly deserves to be remembered for more than the Walcheren Expedition.
Reitter is a good writer, and I hope she has another foray into the field of late 18th early 19th century British biography soon.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews