Prime Ministers · 19th century

George Canning

1770–1827 · British

Tory

In office: 1827

George Canning, a brilliant orator and disciple of Pitt the Younger, is best remembered as Foreign Secretary (1807–1809 and 1822–1827), when he ordered the seizure of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen and backed the independence of Spain's Latin American colonies. He fought a duel with his rival Castlereagh in 1809. He became Prime Minister in April 1827 but died at Chiswick House that August after 119 days, the shortest premiership until Liz Truss's in 2022.

How to spot them

▸Shortest-serving PM (119 days) until Liz Truss; died in office in 1827
▸Duel with Castlereagh on Putney Heath, 1809
▸'I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old'
▸Recognition of the Latin American republics; Copenhagen 1807

In office

'I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old' (1826)

Commons speech defending his recognition of Spain's former American colonies

Duel with Castlereagh on Putney Heath (1809)

He missed; Castlereagh wounded him in the thigh; both resigned

Seizure of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen (1807)

Pre-emptive strike to keep the fleet out of Napoleon's hands

A premiership of 119 days, ended by death at Chiswick House (1827)

Died of pneumonia on 8 August 1827

The Anti-Jacobin satirical weekly (1797–1798)

Co-founded; includes his 'Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder'

Quick-fire facts

•Died at Chiswick House, where Charles James Fox had also died in 1806
•His last words were reportedly 'Spain and Portugal'
•Wellington and Peel refused to serve under him, partly over his support for Catholic emancipation
•He had never fired a pistol before the 1809 duel
•Replaced Castlereagh as Foreign Secretary after Castlereagh's suicide in 1822
•The Treaty of London (1827) on Greek independence was signed during his premiership

Drill it — 6 cards

1 / 6new card

Sources

GOV.UK History of Government — George Canning
Oxford University Press — Oxford Dictionary of National Biography