Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry

The Most Honourable The Marquess of Londonderry KG GCB GCH PC
Minister to Prussia
In office 1813–1814
Monarch	George III
Preceded by	No representation
Succeeded by	George Henry Rose
Ambassador to Austria
In office 1814–1823
Monarch	George III George IV
Preceded by	The Earl of Aberdeen
Succeeded by	Hon. Sir Henry Wellesley
Personal details
Born	18 May 1778 (1778-05-18) Dublin, Ireland
Died	Londonderry House, Park Lane, London
Nationality	Irish
Spouse(s)	(1) Lady Catherine Bligh (d. 1812) (2) Lady Frances Vane-Tempest (d. 1865)

Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry KG GCB GCH PC (18 May 1778 – 6 March 1854), born Charles William Stewart and raised to the peerage as Baron Stewart in 1814, was a British soldier, politician and nobleman.

Charles Stewart (as he was before 1814) was educated at Eton and was commissioned into the British army in 1794. He saw active service in Flanders and Ireland before being elected a member of the Irish House of Commons. In 1803 he was aide-de-camp to King George III and four years later became Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. He fought in the Peninsula War under both Sir John Moore and Sir Arthur Wellesley (who became the Duke of Wellington).

In 1810 Stewart was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the Prussian Court in Berlin and remained in that position until end of the war in 1814. In 1815 he was appointed British Ambassador to Vienna (a post he was to hold for nine years), and was at the Congress of Vienna with his half brother Lord Castlereagh (the senior British plenipotentiary).

Lord Stewart succeeded his half-brother as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry in 1822. The following year he was created Earl Vane and Viscount Seaham. From 1823 he was Governor of County Londonderry and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Durham in 1842. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1853, and died a year later at Londonderry House.

Political career

Born in Dublin, Charles Stewart (as he then was) was the only son of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, by his second wife Lady Frances, daughter of Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, was his half-brother. Charles Stewart was educated at Eton, and at the age of 16 was commissioned into the British Army as a Lieutenant. He saw service in Flanders in 1794, and was Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th Royal Irish Dragoons by the time he helped put down the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Two years later he was elected to the Irish House of Commons as Tory representative for Thomastown, County Kilkenny, and after only two months exchanged this seat for that of Londonderry County. He sat for the latter constituency until the Act of Union in 1801, and then represented Londonderry in the British House of Commons until 1814.

By the time of the Great Irish Famine in the 1840s, Londonderry was one of the ten richest men in the United Kingdom. He owned land across Ulster in addition to property in Britain. While many landlords made efforts to mitigate the worst effects of the famine on their tenants, Londonderry was criticised for meanness: he and his wife gave £30 to the local relief committee but spent £150,000 renovating their Irish home.

'Fighting Charlie'

In 1803 Stewart was appointed aide-de-camp to King George III, and four years later became Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. During the Corunna Campaign of 1808–1809 he commanded a brigade of cavalry, and played a prominent role in the cavalry clash of Benavente. In April 1809 he was made Adjutant General to Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) with the British forces fighting in the Peninsular War, a post in which he distinguished himself, particularly at the battles of Busaco and Talavera. He received the thanks of Parliament in 1810, and on 20 November 1813 was made Colonel of the 25th Light Dragoons, becoming a Knight of the Bath that same year. Until the end of the war he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Berlin, and was also Military Commissioner with the allied armies, being wounded at the Battle of Kulm.

The recipient of numerous foreign honours, Stewart was also, in 1814, ennobled as Baron Stewart, of Stewart's Court and Ballylawn in the County of Donegal. That same year he received honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, was admitted to the Privy Council, and was appointed a Lord of the Bedchamber to the King. He was also made Ambassador to Vienna, a post he held for nine years, and was at the Congress of Vienna with his half brother Lord Castlereagh as one of the British plenipotentiaries, where, according to the renowned historian Adam Zamoyski in his book Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna, he made a spectacle of himself with his loutish behaviour, being apparently rather often inebriated, frequenting prostitutes quite openly and once even starting a fist fight in the middle of the street with a Viennese coach driver after he punched the coachman's horse.

He was appointed GCH in 1816 and made colonel of the 10th (The Prince of Wales's Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars) on 3 February 1820.

Marriages and family

Memorial Statue by Raffaelle Monti in Durham.

His first wife was Lady Catherine Bligh, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Darnley, whom he married in 1804; she was three years older than he. She died during the night of 10–11 February 1812, of fever following a minor operation, while her husband was on active service in the Peninsula.

Lord Stewart married his second wife Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest, daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, on 3 April 1819. He later took her surname of Vane in 1829, by royal licence, and used his new bride's immense wealth to acquire the Seaham Hall estate in County Durham with a view to developing the coal fields there. He also built the harbour at Seaham, to rival nearby Sunderland.

The family also used their new-found wealth to redecorate their main country seat in Ireland, Mount Stewart, and bought Holderness House on London's Park Lane, which they renamed Londonderry House.

Lord Stewart succeeded his half-brother as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry in 1822. The following year he was created Earl Vane and Viscount Seaham, of Seaham in the County Palatine of Durham, with remainder to the heirs male of the body of his second wife.

Governor of County Londonderry from 1823, Londonderry was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Durham in 1842 and the following year became Colonel of the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards. He was finally made a Knight of the Garter in 1853, and died a year later at Londonderry House. Scrabo Tower in Newtownards, County Down was erected in his memory.

He was succeeded as 4th Marquess of Londonderry by his son from his first marriage, and as 2nd Earl Vane by his son from his second marriage.

• Frederick William Robert Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry (1805–1872)
• George Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess of Londonderry (1821–1884)
• Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane (1822–1899); married John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough.
• Lady Alexandrina Octavia Maria Vane (1823–1874), godchild of Alexander I of Russia; married Henry Dawson-Damer, 3rd Earl of Portarlington.
• Lord Adolphus Frederick Charles William Vane-Tempest (1825–1864), politician; became insane, and had to be medically restrained.
• Lady Adelaide Emelina Caroline Vane (c.1830–1882); disgraced the family by eloping with her brother's tutor, Rev. Frederick Henry Law.
• Lord Ernest McDonnell Vane-Tempest (1836–1885), fell in with a press-gang and had to be bought a commission in the army, from which he was subsequently cashiered.

Through his daughter Lady Frances, Lord Londonderry was the great-grandfather of Winston Churchill.

Works

Vane was the author of

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Londonderry

Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by George Dunbar James Kearney	Member of Parliament for Thomastown March – May 1800 With: James Kearney March – April 1800 William Gardiner April – May 1800	Succeeded by William Gardiner John Francis Cradock
Preceded by Thomas Conolly The Earl of Tyrone	Member of Parliament for Londonderry County 1800 – 1801 With: The Earl of Tyrone	Succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Londonderry 1801–1814 With: Sir George Hill, 2nd Bt 1801–1802 Lord George Thomas Beresford 1802–1812 Hon. William Ponsonby 1812–1814	Succeeded by Hon. William Ponsonby Alexander Stewart
Military offices
Preceded by Richard Wilford	Colonel of the 25th Light Dragoons 1813–1818	Regiment disbanded
Preceded by George, Prince of Wales	Colonel of the 10th (The Prince of Wales's Own) Royal Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars) 1820–1843	Succeeded by The Earl Beauchamp
Preceded by The Earl Cathcart	Colonel of the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards 1843–1854	Succeeded by The Lord Seaton
Political offices
Preceded by Sir George Shee, Bt Sir James Cockburn, Bt	Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1807–1809 With: E. Cooke	Succeeded by Hon. F. J. Robinson Hon. Charles Jenkinson
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by No representation due to the Treaties of Tilsit (previously John Frere)	British Minister to Prussia 1813–1814	Succeeded by George Henry Rose
Preceded by The Earl of Aberdeen	British Ambassador to Austria 1814–1823	Succeeded by Hon. Sir Henry Wellesley
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Duke of Cleveland	Lord Lieutenant of Durham 1842–1854	Succeeded by The Earl of Durham
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Robert Stewart	Marquess of Londonderry 1822–1854	Succeeded by Frederick Stewart
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Earl Vane 1823–1854	Succeeded by George Vane-Tempest
	Baron Stewart 1814–1854