Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness

Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, Template:Post-nominals (17 May 1718 – 16 May 1778), known before 1721 as Lord Darcy and Conyers, was a British diplomat and politician who served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1754 to 1761.<ref name=dnb>Template:Cite DNB</ref><ref name="Peerage RD">Record for Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness on thepeerage.com</ref>

Career

George II at the Battle of Dettingen by John Wootton, 1743. Holderness is shown with George II and the Duke of Cumberland

In 1741 he collaborated with G.F. Handel in the production of Deidamia.<ref>A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760 by Eleanor Selfridge-Field, p. 492</ref> From 1744 to 1746 he was ambassador at Venice and from 1749 to 1751 he represented his country at The Hague. In 1751 he became Secretary of State for the Southern Department, transferring in 1754 to the Northern Department, and he remained in office until March 1761, when he was dismissed by King George III in favour of Lord Bute, although he had largely been a cipher in that position to the stronger personalities of his colleagues, successively the Duke of Newcastle, Thomas Robinson, Henry Fox, and William Pitt the Elder. From 1771 to 1776 he acted as governor to two of the King's sons, a solemn phantom as Horace Walpole calls him. He left no sons who survived childhood,<ref name="Peerage RD" /> and all his titles became extinct except the Baronies of Darcy de Knayth and Conyers, which were baronies by writ inherited from his father, and the Portuguese countship of Mértola, inherited from his mother. In those peerages, he was succeeded by his daughter, Amelia Osborne, Marchioness of Carmarthen.

David Hume wrote, "It is remarkable that this family of d'Arcy [sic] seems to be the only male descendant of any of the Conqueror's barons now remaining among the Peers. Lord Holdernessae [sic] is the heir of that family".<ref>History of England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975), p. 16 n. 14.</ref>

Family

He was the only surviving son of Robert Darcy, 3rd Earl of Holderness, and his wife Lady Frederica Schomberg. On 29 October 1743, Darcy married Mary Doublet, daughter of Francis Doublet and Constantia Van-der-Beck. The couple had three children, only one of whom survived childhood:<ref name="Peerage RD" />

• George Darcy, Lord Darcy and Conyers (September 1745 – 27 September 1747)
• Thomas Darcy, Lord Darcy and Conyers (born and died 1750), buried 29 July 1750 in the Great or St. James Church in The Hague, the Netherlands<ref>Wildeman, Marinus Godefridus, De grafboeken der Groote of St. Jacobskerk te 's Gravenhage, (1620-1830)... Robijns Publishers, 1898</ref>
• Lady Amelia Darcy (12 October 1754 – 27 January 1784); married firstly Francis Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen, and had issue. The couple divorced in 1779. She married secondly John "Mad Jack" Byron, father of Lord Byron, and had one surviving daughter, Augusta Leigh.

See also

• Great Britain in the Seven Years War

External links

• Template:UK National Archives ID

Template:S-start Template:S-dip Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-off Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:S-hon Template:Succession box Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft |- Template:S-ttl Template:Succession box Template:S-reg Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-non |- Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-reg Template:Succession box Template:S-end