Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby

Abstract

Thomas Osborne, best known despite his plethora of titles as the Earl of Danby, has a well-established reputation for financial expertise and shrewd political management. Yet by 1679 he was probably the most hated man in England, and his unexpected return to political influence during the early years of William III was barely more successful. It was quite clear by 1674 that Charles II needed a successful and popular first minister. The years of government by the Cabal had led in 1673 to the most humiliating and total rejection of his policies, and royal authority was at a lower ebb than at any time in the century except during the crisis years of 1640–60. Danby’s suggested solution to this dire situation looks most sensible: a programme of financial retrenchment at Court, support for Anglicanism in the country and for Protestantism abroad. Few MPs seemed likely to quarrel with any of these policies. The purpose of this chapter must be primarily to explain why this apparently intelligent programme was such a total failure. It will be suggested that Danby was less of a financial wizard than he is often assumed to have been, and that it was not entirely Charles’s inconstancy and deviousness that undermined Danby’s efforts at political manipulation. There are too many unanswered, and often unasked, questions about the later Stuart period for any really conclusive analysis to be given. However a close examination of Danby’s career does suggest that his reputation as a skilled political manipulator and financial expert owes more to self-publicity than to genuine achievement.