The papers are particularly valuable for two periods: 1728-1732, when Chesterfield was Ambassador at The Hague; and 1743-1748, when he was Ambassador on Special Mission to The Hague, Secretary of State for the North, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. An unusually large number of important diplomatic and political figures appear in the collection. Included is correspondence with Horatio and Robert Walpole, Thomas Lascelles, Stephen Poyntz, Luke Schaub, Walter Titley, Edward Weston, the Duke of Newcastle, and Lords Waldegrave, Townshend, Harrington and Grantham. Also included are major treaties, drafts, and memoranda. These papers illumine not only Chesterfield's affairs but provide a view of the major trends in European diplomatic history as well.

Born into the English aristocracy, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield had the family connections and wealth to live, in the words of the Dictionary of National Biography, as "politician, wit, and letter-writer." Upon the death of Queen Anne in 1714, his family connections enabled him to leave his life of travel and leisure to take up at the age of 20 what was the beginning of a fluctuating political career.

Number of containers: 44 volumes

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Collection is open for research.