Background
Francis Godolphin Osborne was born on 29 January 1751, the youngest son of Thomas, fourth Duke of Leeds, and his wife Lady Mary Godolphin, heiress of Francis, second Earl of Godolphin.
Francis Godolphin Osborne was born on 29 January 1751, the youngest son of Thomas, fourth Duke of Leeds, and his wife Lady Mary Godolphin, heiress of Francis, second Earl of Godolphin.
He was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford.
Carmarthen, who was a Welsh M.P and had no automatic right to enter the House of Lords at Westminster, London, was elected M.P. for Ely, in Suffolk, in 1774. He voted consistently with Lord Norths government, except that he voted in favor of the third reading of the bill regulating the government of Massachusetts. In the general election of October 1774, he became M.P. for Helston in Cornwall. Soon afterward, in February 1775, when Lord North began to push for conciliation between Britain and America, Carmarthen spoke out in opposition to this move. Carmarthen lost his seat as a result of a petition.
In 1778, he became lord lieutenant of the East Riding, in Yorkshire. He remained staunchly opposed to Lord North on the issue of American grievances, and eventually left his official posts in 1780.
Carmarthen remained active in politics and was restored to the lord lieutenancy of East Yorkshire with the formation of the second government of the Marquess of Rockingham in March 1782. At this time he was also appointed ambassador-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to Paris. Before he could take up his new post abroad, William Pitt, the Younger, became prime minister of a Tory administration and appointed him secretary of state for foreign affairs on 23 December 1783. He held this post until April 1791.
The driving force behind his foreign policy was the goal of forming alliances with Russia and Austria and of destroying the existing alliance between Austria and France. He also defended Pitt’s commercial treaty with France in 1787. His personal position was further enhanced in March 1789, when he succeeded his father as the Duke of Leeds; but soon afterward, in April 1791, he resigned his foreign affairs post over the issue of Russian armament.
He died on 31 January 1799, a respected aristocratic politician of modest political abilities.
He remained a staunch supporter of the war against France and strongly opposed Lord Lansdowne’s motion in favor of peace in 1794. He was also implacably opposed to parliamentary reform, suggesting in 1797 that it was “a most dangerous remedy to resort to” .
In November 1773 he married Lady Amelia, the heiress of Robert D’Arcy, fourth Earl of Holderness. The marriage was brief, and the couple divorced in 1779.
He was married, for the second time, on 11 October 1788, to Catherine Anguish.