ABSTRACT
The Prime Minister Th e fi rst person generally held by historians to be the fi rst Prime Minister was Robert Walpole (1721-41). As Stephen Taylor has written,
Robert Walpole is one of the most remarkable figures of modern British politics. He is commonly regarded not only as the first prime minister, but also as the longest serving holder of that office, his twenty-one years far exceeding the tenure of any of his successors. He was the dominant figure of the early Hanoverian period.
