Privy Council Ministry - First Meeting of The Council, and Its Collapse

First Meeting of The Council, and Its Collapse

The new Council met on 21 April. Within hours, it had been subverted as a group of nine conflicting members took a lead in the conduct of business; Temple reacted angrily, almost leaving the Council then consenting to form a group of four (with Halifax, Essex and Sunderland) to advise the King in secret. The four worked well together, but the full Council was sharply divided. Shaftesbury now effectively led the opposition from within the government itself, with the support of a majority in the Commons. In the face of the Exclusion Bill, the King prorogued and then dissolved Parliament without the Council's approval. Temple withdrew from active participation, leaving Halifax, Essex and Sunderland to exercise power as a Triumvirate, and a thirty-first Councillor was appointed. When the King fell ill and his brother's return from the Dutch Republic caused alarm in the country, Temple expressed his concerns to the Triumvirate, but was no longer taken seriously. Elections for the new Parliament returned another opposition majority, and the King prorogued it before it met, again in spite of the Council. Shaftesbury was discharged from office and other leading critics of the government resigned. Temple's experiment ended with the rise of Laurence Hyde, a strong supporter of the King, in November.