Background
Arthur Paget was the third son of Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge and his wife Jane Champagné daughter of Arthur Champagné, Dean of Clonmacnoise in Ireland.
Arthur Paget was the third son of Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge and his wife Jane Champagné daughter of Arthur Champagné, Dean of Clonmacnoise in Ireland.
He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, but did not take a degree.
He was a younger brother of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey. In 1791, he entered the British diplomatic service. He nominally represented this for 13 years, though usually abroad.
In 1794, he was sent as Envoy-extraordinary to Berlin to remind King Frederick William II of his obligations, a service in which Lord Malmesbury the ambassador commended him for his tact.
His next appointment was as Envoy Extraordinary to the Elector Palatine and the Perpetual Diet at Regensburg in 1798, followed by Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary first at Naples in 1800 and then at Vienna the following year. He remained at Vienna until 1806, being nicknamed "The Emperor" on account of his extravagance.
A dispatch in 1802, following Napoleon"s creation of the Confederation of the Rhine predicted the hegemony of Prussia within Germany. He was materially responsible for the creation of the Third Coalition, and reported its collapse following the Battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805), a dispatch that is said to have hastened the death of William Pitt the Younger (23 January 1806).
After his recall from Austria, he was sent to the Ottoman Porte in 1807, where he told the Sultan of a secret clause in the Treaty of Tilsit adverse to his interests.
However, he was unable to detach the Ottoman Empire from its French Alliance. He was recalled in 1809 and awarded a pension of £2000. Paget had been made a Privy Councillor and Knight of the Bath, both in 1804, and was given a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1815.
They had several children, including Sir Augustus Berkeley Paget, who followed his father as a diplomat.
He occupied time in his retirement as an agriculturalist and yachtsman.
1st United Kingdom Parliament. 2nd United Kingdom Parliament. 3rd United Kingdom Parliament.
17th Parliament of Great Britain.
18th Parliament of Great Britain]
In 1794, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Anglesey.
