1. William Windham soon became noted for his oratory in the House of Commons.
52 Facts About William Windham
1. 2.
William Windham discovered that Pitt did not share his enthusiasm for the Bourbon cause and he argued in Cabinet against a peace agreement with the French Republic.
3.
In February 1801 William Windham followed Pitt in resigning from the government over the King's rejection of Catholic Emancipation.
4.
William Windham was the leading opponent of the new prime minister Henry Addington's Treaty of Amiens peace with France in late 1801 and early 1802.
5.
William Windham spent the rest of his life in opposition, dying in 1810.
6.
William Windham was a great-great-grandson of Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, who in 1599 had inherited the Felbrigg estate, the seat of the senior line of the family, from his childless relative Thomas Wyndham.
7.
William Windham was educated at Eton College from 1757 to 1766, where he was a contemporary of Charles James Fox and where he was noted for the ease with which he acquired knowledge, and for his success in sports.
8.
William Windham became known as "Fighting Windham" as he was good with his fists.
9.
William Windham's father died in 1761 and his guardians became Benjamin Stillingfleet, Dr Dampier, David Garrick and a certain Mr Price of Hereford.
10.
At the age of 16 William Windham was removed from Eton for fighting.
11.
William Windham attended the University of Glasgow in 1766 and studied under Dr Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy, and Robert Simson the mathematician.
12.
William Windham then attended University College, Oxford, from 1767 to 1771 as a gentleman-commoner, where he was tutored by Robert Chambers.
13.
William Windham made a tour of Norway in 1773 and visited Switzerland and Italy between 1778 and 1780.
14.
In early 1778 William Windham first took part in political matters.
15.
William Windham's speech went down well and he was urged to stand for election.
16.
However, after only four months in the post, William Windham resigned under mysterious circumstances.
17.
On 5 April 1784 William Windham was elected to Parliament for Norwich, a seat he would hold until 1802.
18.
William Windham supported the Royalist uprising in La Vendee and he urged the British government to aid them with the aim of restoring the House of Bourbon to the throne: "I would, from the beginning, have made this the principal object of the war".
19.
William Windham still had reservations about completely separating from Fox and he denied in the Commons that they differed in principles.
20.
William Windham was possessed of distinguished talents and a disposition so compelling as to endear him to all.
21.
William Windham was daunted with the prospect of assuming responsibility for matters of state by the doubts and fears which gnawed away at the determination he could summon in his rare moments of enthusiasm and exuberance.
22.
William Windham consoled his conscience by toying with the preparation of speeches which he never delivered while he ruminated on his inability to act out the part which he himself had chosen.
23.
William Windham was the contact between the conservative Whigs and the government; however, he was still at this time hesitant about joining Pitt's government.
24.
William Windham was appointed to the Committee, along with Burke, much to Fox's chagrin.
25.
William Windham was now Secretary at War in Pitt's government; at the same time, he was created a privy councillor.
26.
William Windham provided subsidies for the emigres, sponsored anti-Jacobin propaganda, and achieved Cabinet support for the ill-fated Quiberon expedition.
27.
William Windham sometimes met with royalist leaders, such as Comte Joseph-Genevieve de Puisaye and Jacques Anne Joseph Le Prestre, Marquis of Vauban.
28.
In practice, William Windham made himself responsible for all matters related to the Royalists but in the spring of 1796 he relinquished his sole responsibility for this as he was frustrated by the need to constantly refer to other departments when ever he wanted to do something that would help the Royalists.
29.
William Windham realised that other Cabinet members did not share his enthusiasm for the Royalist cause and for a Bourbon restoration.
30.
In late 1795 the government decided to negotiate peace with France and, although he had consistently opposed negotiations until a decisive victory was achieved, William Windham agreed that France remaining a republic should be no obstacle to this.
31.
On 7 February 1801 William Windham was among those who resigned in protest at the King's veto of Catholic emancipation.
32.
One contemporary said William Windham possessed Burke's insanity without his inspiration.
33.
Napoleon said he believed William Windham's "talents were mediocre and that he was an unfeeling, unprincipled man".
34.
When William Windham lost the Norwich election in June 1802, a seat for the pocket borough of St Mawes in Cornwall was found for him.
35.
William Windham in turn did not attend Pitt's funeral at Westminster Abbey after his death in January 1806.
36.
On 5 February 1806 William Windham received the seals of office to become Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in Lord Grenville's Ministry of All the Talents.
37.
William Windham abolished the ballot for the militia to ensure that only volunteers manned the militia.
38.
William Windham wanted to solve the Army's recruiting shortage by limiting service in the Army to seven years.
39.
William Windham increased soldiers' wages from 1 shilling to 1s.
40.
William Windham opposed the Walcheren Expedition of 1809, believing instead that the forces sent there "should have been sent to Spain, so as not to leave Buonaparte, when he has settled the Austrian business, to begin, as he did last year, on the banks of the Ebro, but to have driven the whole of the French force out of the peninsula".
41.
William Windham further argued that "the great thing that is wanted is resistance to the strides that are making, in concurrence with the general tendency of things throughout the world, to turn the country into a democracy".
42.
William Windham said that Wilberforce would delight in sending aristocrats to the guillotine.
43.
On 8 July 1809, William Windham was returning to Pall Mall, London from a friend's when he saw a house on fire in Conduit Street.
44.
Therefore, with the aid of two or three men, William Windham succeeded in removing most of the books before the fire reached North's house.
45.
William Windham was the only son of William Windham, esqre.
46.
William Windham married in 1798 Cecilia, third daughter of the late Commodore Forrest; who erects this Monument in grateful and tender remembrance of him.
47.
William Windham was above all things anxious to preserve untainted the National Character, and even those National Manners which long habit had associated with that character.
48.
William Windham was greatly influenced by the Whig philosopher Edmund Burke, describing Burke's words as "the source of all good".
49.
William Windham's person was graceful, elegant, and distinguished; slender, but not meagre.
50.
William Windham's manners corresponded with his external appearance; and his conversation displayed the treasures of a highly cultivated understanding.
51.
William Windham was a statesman, an orator, a mathematician, a scholar, and the most fascinating talker of his day.
52.
William Windham, a lost early hamlet in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada was named for William Windham.