ABSTRACT
Newcastle was the most prominent of the Old Corps Whigs, those Whigs who stayed in office throughout the reigns of George I and George II and who found the accession in 1760 of George III with his non-party views so difficult to deal with. Newcastle played a major role in ensuring that control. The Newcastle ministry had done very well in the general election of 1754; yet it was to collapse in 1756. Newcastle therefore found himself in a different position in the wartime political crisis of 1744–6 and 1756–7. Whiggery had a number of strands. It was originally an opposition movement with new ideas and that provided much of its vitality. However, its potency rested on royal favour – the replacement of James II by William III and, more securely, the accession of the Hanoverians. .
