SECTION III: SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND AND PRINCIPAL OFFICERS OF STATE

Part 32: Sovereigns of England and Principal Officers of State.

Table of Sovereigns of England from the Norman Conquest, and Principal Officers from the Accession of the House of Stuart

Sovereigns

TABLE

Lord Treasurers or First Lords of the Treasury

[The title was at first Lord Treasurer, unless when the Treasury was put in commission. Ultimately special rank was given to one of the commissioners as First Lord of the Treasury. From the time of the earl of Essex (1679) the names given are those of First Lords, with the exception of the three printed in italics.]

TABLE

Secretaries of State

[The substitution of two secretaries for one was the consequence of the increase of business. There was no distinction of departments, each secretary taking whatever work the king saw fit to entrust him with. During the reigns of the first two Stuarts, however, there was a tendency to entrust one secretary with the correspondence with Protestant states and their allies, and the other with Catholic states. Probably in the reign of Charles II, and certainly as early as 1691, two departmenents, the Northern and the Southern, were instituted. The secretary for the former took the Low Countries, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. The secretary for the latter took France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Turkey. Home affairs were common to both. Ireland and the Colonies fell to the former secretary. Even when the departments were changed to Home and Foreign, and subsequently still further divided, the division was a mere matter of convenience. Every secretary can still carry on business in the department of another without a fresh appointment.]

TABLE

TABLE

TABLE





Read the rest of this article:
England - Table of Contents