Background
Charles Montagu was born on April 16, 1661 in Horton, Northamptonshire, the son of George Montagu, fifth son of the 1st Earl of Manchester.
Charles Montagu was made Viscount Sunbury and Earl of Halifax at the accession of George I.
Charles Montagu was born on April 16, 1661 in Horton, Northamptonshire, the son of George Montagu, fifth son of the 1st Earl of Manchester.
Montagu was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1679. He graduated with an MA in 1682, and became a Fellow of Trinity in 1683. His relation, Dr. John Montagu, was then Master of Trinity College, and took him under his wing. At Cambridge he began a lasting association with Isaac Newton.
In the 1689 election, he successfully contested Maldon, with the support of Dorset and the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, the Earl of Oxford, against the Tory Sir John Bramston. Montagu sat for Maldon in the Convention Parliament of 1689. He also purchased for £1,500 a position as Clerk of the Council, to which he was appointed on 21 February 1689. He was returned for Maldon again without a contest at the 1690 election.
In 1691, having become a member of the House of Commons, he argued in favour of a law to grant the assistance of counsel in trials for high treason.
After the House of Commons he rose quickly, becoming one of the Commissioners of the Treasury and a member of the Privy Council. In 1694 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reward for having devised the establishment of the Bank of England, the plan which had been proposed by William Paterson three years before, but not acted upon. After an unsuccessful attempt to supplant the Earl of Sunderland's leadership with the Whigs, he was compelled to reconcile with him in August 1695. With the support of Sunderland and the Court, Montagu was returned to Parliament for Westminster in October 1695. In 1695, he was involved in the successful recoinage project. In 1698, having been appointed to the first Commission of the Treasury, he was also one of the regency in the King's absence. The next year he was made Auditor of the Exchequer, and the year after created Baron Halifax, of Halifax in the County of Yorkshire. His impeachment by the Commons failed, when the Articles were dismissed by the House of Lords.
On the accession of Queen Anne, Montagu was dismissed from the Council, and in the first Parliament of her reign was again attacked by the Commons, and again escaped by the protection of the Lords.
At the Queen's death Montagu was again appointed one of the regents. At the accession of George I, he was made Viscount Sunbury and Earl of Halifax, with remainder to heirs male, a Knight of the Garter, and First Lord of the Treasury, with a grant to his nephew of the reversion of the Auditorship of the Exchequer. Shortly afterwards he died of an inflammation of his lungs.
He married his cousin's widow, the Dowager Countess of Manchester. The viscountcy and earldom became extinct on his death as he had no sons.