Constantine Henry Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby Knight of the Order of the Garter Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath GCH Personal Computer, styled Viscount Normanby between 1812 and 1831 and known as The Earl of Mulgrave between 1831 and 1838, was a British Whig politician and author
Background
Normanby was the son of Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave and Martha Sophia, daughter of Christopher Thompson Maling. His great-grandfather William Phipps had married Lady Catherine Annesley, who was the daughter and heiress of James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey and his wife Lady Catherine Darnley (an illegitimate daughter of King James II by his mistress Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester).
Education
He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was the second President of the Cambridge Union Society.
Career
He notably served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1835 to 1839 and as Home Secretary from 1839 to 1841 and was British Ambassador to France between 1846 and 1852. Lady Catherine Darnley had later married John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, and hence Constantine Phipps, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave and later 1st Marquess of Normanby was the step-great-great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby. However, after dissenting from the family politics, such as by speaking in favour of Catholic Emancipation, he resigned his seat and lived in Italy for two years.
On his return in 1822 he was elected for Higham Ferrers and made a considerable reputation by political pamphlets and by his speeches in the house.
He was returned for Malton at the general election of 1826, becoming a supporter of Canning. He was already known as a writer of romantic tales, The English in Italy (1825).
In the same year he made his appearance as a novelist with Matilda, and in 1828 he produced another novel, Yes and Number. He succeeded his father as Earl of Mulgrave in 1831.
He was sent out as Governor of Jamaica and was afterwards appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1835–1839).
On his visit to Wexford in 1836 he heard a Congratulatory Address in the ancient Forth and Bargy dialect, then already on the point of becoming extinct. He was created Marquess of Normanby on 25 June 1838, and held successively the offices of colonial secretary and home secretary in the last years of Lord Melbourne"s ministry. While Colonial Secretary, he wrote a letter of instructions to William Hobson, in which the government"s policy for the sovereignty of New Zealand was set out.
From 1846 to 1852 he was ambassador at Paris, and from 1854 to 1858 minister at Florence.
The publication in 1857 of a journal kept in Paris during the stormy times of 1848 (A Year of Revolution), brought him into violent controversy with Louis Blanc, and he came into conflict with Lord Palmerston and William Ewart Gladstone, after his retirement from the public service, on questions of French and Italian policy. Lord Normanby married the Honorary
Maria Liddell, daughter of Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth, in 1818. The Marchioness of Normanby died in October 1882, aged 84.
Membership
6th United Kingdom Parliament. 7th United Kingdom Parliament. 8th United Kingdom Parliament.