General James Stanhope, in Spain. In 1715 he was made colonel of a dragoon regiment, and in the same year entered parliament as whig member for Derby. On 19 Aug. 1717 he was sent on a special mission to Madrid, the object of which was to arrange the differences between Philip V and the emperor Charles VI. On 1 July 1718 he announced to Alberoni the determination of England to force Spain to agree to the terms of pacification settled by the quadruple alliance, and had a very stormy interview with him. He was assiduous in urging the grievances of British merchants and gave them timely warning of the outbreak of war. On 17 Nov. 1718 he was appointed envoy at Turin, where he remained during the greater part of the war with Spain. Before returning to Madrid he saw military service as a volunteer with the French army while in Berwick's camp before Fontarabia. Stanhope concerted an attack upon some Spanish ships and stores in the port of St. Andero, and himself commanded the troops which were detached to co-operate with the English fleet. The operation was completely successful. This exploit closed his active military career, but he attained the rank of lieutenant-general in 1739 and general in 1747.
On the conclusion of peace Stanhope returned to Madrid as British ambassador. He remained there for the next seven years, and made for himself a high reputation as a diplomatist. In a series of able despatches he described the abdication of Philip V, his resumption of power after his son's death, the separation of France and Spain resulting from the failure of the match between the infanta and Louis XV, the intrigues between Spain and the emperor, and the rise and fall of their projector, the Baron Ripperda. The latter, when disgraced in 1726, fled to Stanhope's house, and was induced by him to reveal the articles of the recent secret treaty of Vienna. The information was taken down in cipher and sent by special messenger to London. During his second embassy in Spain Stanhope was also engaged in negotiations for the cession of Gibraltar. George I and some of his ministers were not averse to it, and even gave a conditional promise, but dared not propose it to parliament. In an interview with Philip V at the end of 1720, Stanhope denied the king's assertion that an absolute promise to cede Gibraltar had been given as a condition of Philip's accession to the quadruple alliance. Stanhope claimed an equivalent for the surrender of the fortress. He was persuaded that it would be to the advantage of England to yield Gibraltar in exchange for increased facilities for commercial intercourse with Spain and her colonies. To his regret the Spaniards declined to come to terms (letter to Sir Luke Schaub, 18 Jan. 1721, in Coxe, Bourbon Kings of Spain, iii. 22). On a fresh rupture with Spain in March 1727, Stanhope left Madrid and returned to England. On the previous 26 Sept. he had addressed a memorial to the king of Spain justifying the despatch of a British fleet to his coasts on the ground of the intrigues of his court with the emperor, Russia, and the Pretender (Tindal, Hist, of Engl. iv. 698-9). His correspondence with the Marquis de la Paz was published by an opponent of the ministry to show the impolicy of the war (Letters of the Marquis de la Paz and Colonell Stanhope . . . with Remarks, 1726; A Continuation of the Letters, 1727). An answer entitled 'Gibraltar or the Pretender,' by Richard Newyear, appeared in 1727.
In 1727 Stanhope was named by George II vice-chamberlain and a privy councillor. He did not remain long in England, being appointed in August one of the British plenipotentiaries at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, which subsequently removed to Soissons. Here he seems to have been in favour of the cession of Gibraltar, then undergoing a siege (Lord Townshend to Stephen Poyntz, 14 June 1728). Newcastle, with whom he was in constant correspondence, showed some of his letters to Queen Caroline, who approved their tenor (Coxe, Mem. of Sir R. Walpole, ii. 631). Little way being made with the negotiations at the congress, in the autumn of 1729 Stanhope was sent to negotiate directly with the court of Spain. Horatio Walpole engaged the interest of the queen in his favour, and a peerage was promised as the reward of his mission. Poyntz, one of his colleagues at Soissons, testifies to Stanhope's 'most universal and deserved credit with the whole Spanish court and nation,' and remarks that the fact of his never having taken formal leave at Madrid facilitated the English advances (ib. ii. 653). With the help of France the treaty of Seville was concluded on 9 Nov. 1729 between England, France, and Spain, Holland subsequently acceding. The claim to Gibraltar was passed over in silence, and important advantages were secured to British trade in return for the forwarding of Elizabeth Farnese's wishes with regard to the succession in Tuscany and Parma. Newcastle, a few days later, assured Stanhope that he had never seen the king better satisfied with any one than he was with him, and conveyed him the special thanks of Walpole and Townshend (ib. ii. 665). The administration was much
