Joshua Reynolds Charles James Fox, 1782-3
© By permission of the Earl of Leicester and the Trustees of the Holkham Estate
(1749-1806)
'Fox is a most extraordinary man... who has divided the kingdom with Caesar; so that it was a doubt whether the nation should be ruled by the sceptre of George the Third, or the tongue of Fox.'
Samuel Johnson
The great political character of his age, Fox was a democratic Whig, an advocate of parliamentary reform and a strenuous opponent of the war with America. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution and a prominent exponent of revolutionary principles throughout the 1790s. A friend and ally of the Prince of Wales, he was a hard-drinking gambler and almost constantly in debt. By the end of the 1790s he had no real political support, and led the opposition into effective retirement.