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4 unusual facts about Secretary of State for the Northern Department


Charles Middleton, 2nd Earl of Middleton

In 1684, his career moved to English politics, sworn of the English Privy Council in July and becoming Secretary of State for the Northern Department in August.

He served as Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Department and the Southern Department, before acting as chief advisor to James II and then his son James III during their exile in France.

Henry Coventry

The Honourable Henry Coventry (1619–1686) was an English politician, who was Secretary of State for the Northern Department between 1672 and 1674 and the Southern Department between 1674 and 1680.

In 1671 he was again sent on an embassy to Sweden, and in 1672 he was appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department, transferring to the Southern Department in 1674.


Henry Pelham

For the first year of Pelham's premiership, real power was held by the Secretary of State for the Northern Department, Lord Carteret, who headed the Carteret Ministry (Pelham was First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons).

William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington

Later in the same year he was appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department under Sir Robert Walpole, replacing Lord Townshend, but, like George II, he was anxious to assist the emperor Charles VI in his war with France, while Walpole favoured a policy of peace.


see also