Constantine Henry Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby, KG,GCB,GCH,PC (15 May 1797 – 28 July 1863), styled Viscount Normanby between 1812 and 1831 and known as The Earl of Mulgrave between 1831 and 1838, was a British Whig politician and author. He notably served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1835 to 1839 and as Home Secretary from 1839 to 1841 and was British Ambassador to France between 1846 and 1852.
Lt.-Gen. Sir Henry Warre was his first cousin, born to his mother's youngest sister, who married Sir William Warre.[3]
Political career
After attaining his majority, he was returned on his father's interest for Scarborough in 1818. However, in the summer of 1819, he began to break with his family's Tory politics, and signalised his conversion to the Whigs by joining Brooks' Club on 3 December.[4] When Parliament was dissolved in 1820, Normanby was in Florence, Italy, to which he was a regular visitor. His brother Charles kept up the family interest with the Scarborough corporation, and Normanby was returned in absentia in March, despite being politically at odds with his father. This state of affairs was not to last long: in May, Normanby was compelled to take the Chiltern Hundreds by Lord Mulgrave, to vacate the seat for Mulgrave's brother Edmund.[5]
His standing as a former Tory minister's son made Normanby valuable to the Whigs, and they hoped to return him to Parliament in another seat. An attempt was made to have him put in at St Ives at a by-election in 1821, but support proved to be lacking, and Normanby withdrew without contesting the seat. The illness and death of William Plumer in the beginning of 1822 allowed him to take his seat in February for Higham Ferrers, a pocket borough of the Whig grandee Earl Fitzwilliam.[5] He made a considerable reputation by political pamphlets and by his speeches in the house. He was returned for Malton at the general election of 1826,[1] another one of Fitzwilliam's boroughs.[5] He was already known as a writer of romantic tales, The English in Italy (1825); in the same year he made his appearance as a novelist with Matilda, and in 1828 he produced another novel, Yes and No.[1] He declined to be nominated again for Malton in 1830, anticipating the imminent death of his father, and was thus out of Parliament when Lord Grey formed a government in November 1830. Normanby hoped for employment by the foreign office, but none was forthcoming. Through Lord Durham, Normanby solicited a writ in acceleration from Grey in early 1831, which would have brought him up to the House of Lords before his father's death; but Normanby succeeded to the Earldom of Mulgrave on his father's death in April, rendering it moot.[5]
From 1846 to 1852 he was ambassador at Paris, and from 1854 to 1858 minister at Florence. The publication in 1857 of a journal kept in Paris during the stormy times of 1848 (A Year of Revolution), brought him into violent controversy with Louis Blanc, and he came into conflict with Lord Palmerston and William Ewart Gladstone, after his retirement from the public service, on questions of French and Italian policy.[1]
Normanby died in London on 28 July 1863, aged 66, and was succeeded in his titles by his son George. The Marchioness of Normanby died in October 1882, aged 84.
Writings
The English in Italy, a novel in three volumes (1825):
'The Author of "The English in Italy"' (1828). The English in France. Vol. ii. London: Saunders and Otley. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
'The Author of "The English in Italy"' (1828). The English in France. Vol. iii. London: Saunders and Otley. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
'The Author of "Matilda," "Yes and No," &c. &c.' (1832). The Contrast. Vol. i. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
'The Author of "Matilda," "Yes and No," &c. &c.' (1832). The Contrast. Vol. ii. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
'The Author of "Matilda," "Yes and No," &c. &c.' (1832). The Contrast. Vol. iii. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)