1721 - 1742

Robert Walpole (1676-1745) is generally regarded as having been the first to have dominated a government from a seat in the House of Commons. After the accession of George I, initially in concert with his brother-in-law Lord Townshend, Walpole established his command over the Commons, consolidating his hold on power by securing the removal of his rivals in the aftermath of the South Sea Bubble in 1721. His relationship with Townshend soured in the late 1720s, and throughout the 1730s a sense of dissatisfaction grew with the peaceful but sleazy Walpole era; forced reluctantly into a jingoistic war with Spain in 1739, Walpole found his control slipping from his fingers, and in 1742 he recognised the inevitability of defeat and resigned, taking a peerage as Earl of Orford.