ABSTRACT
Pitt was in politics eleven years before he held any crown office and nearly twenty-two before he rose to first rank. Immediate difficulties in foreign policy were gratuitously created by Chatham's unrealistic attempts to recreate the wartime alliance with Prussia and to bring in Russia when both powers were now more preoccupied with eastern than western Europe. Indeed, the disillusionment of the King after Chatham's collapse in 1767 was so great that he never again had a realistic chance of office. In March 1778, following defeat at Saratoga and the Franco-American alliance, the King reluctantly sanctioned an approach to Chatham to strengthen the administration, but it predictably foundered on Chatham's dictatorial demands. In the 1750s, Chatham won political pre-eminence by deploying a subtle mix of the ‘high’ politics of closet, cabinet and parliament with extra-parliamentary reputation. The grasp of policy with which Chatham has been credited dissolves on close examination.
