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19th December 1783: William Pitt the Younger becomes Britain's youngest ever Prime Minister

4,345 views · Published 19 December 2018 · 2:50 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: HistoryPod · 2018 · Education

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Pitt the Younger was the second son of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who served as Prime Minister between 1766 and 1768. Educated at home until he was 14, the talented young William graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge, before securing the patronage of James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, through whom he won election to parliament in 1781.

Against the backdrop of defeat in the War of American Independence, a succession of British governments collapsed. Meanwhile Pitt gained ministerial experience as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Shelburne before resigning the post to develop his reputation as a parliamentary reformer.

In December 1783 King George III dismissed the Fox-North coalition that dominated parliament under the nominal premiership of the Duke of Portland. William Pitt, who was just 24 years old at the time, was instead asked to form a government that many commentators expected to collapse shortly after Christmas. Despite early defeats in the House of Commons, this ‘mince-pie administration’ gradually eroded the Opposition ahead of a General Election in the spring of 1784 that secured the young Prime Minister a parliamentary majority of around 120.

Pitt’s first ministry lasted for seventeen years. During this time he decreased the national debt and reformed taxes, at the same time as dealing with the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. He also engineered the Acts of Union, but Pitt disagreed with the King over Catholic emancipation and he resigned in 1801. He returned to the premiership in 1804, but died less than two years later.

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