Edmund Burke Timeline

In 1765, Burke became private secretary to the liberal Whig politician Charles, Marquess of Rockingham, then Prime Minister of Great Britain, who remained Burke's close friend and associate until his death in 1782.

Image source: Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham

In December 1765, Burke entered the House of Commons as Member for Wendover in Buckinghamshire, a pocket borough in the gift of Lord Fermanagh, later 2nd Earl Verney and a close political ally of Rockingham. He served as MP until 1794.

Image source: House of Commons of Great Britain

Speaking in a Parliamentary debate on the prohibition on the export of grain, Burke argued in favour of a free market in corn: 'There are no such things as a high, & a low price that is encouraging, & discouraging; there is nothing but a natural price.'

During 1771, Burke wrote a bill that would have given juries the right to determine what was libel, if passed. When introducing his own bill in 1791 in opposition, Fox repeated almost verbatim the text of Burke's bill without acknowledgement.

In 1772, Burke was instrumental in the passing of the Repeal of Certain Laws Act 1772, which repealed various old laws against dealers and forestallers in corn.

In the Annual Register for 1772 (published in July 1773), Burke condemned the partition of Poland, demonstrating his concern with international affairs and justice.

Image source: Partitions of Poland

On 3 November 1774, Burke was elected Member of Parliament for Bristol, at the time 'England's second city' with a large constituency in a genuine electoral contest.

On 22 March 1775, Burke delivered in the House of Commons a speech on reconciliation with America, published in May 1775. It was greatly admired, including its passage on Lord Bathurst describing an angel prophesying the future greatness of England and America.

Burke called capital punishment 'the Butchery which we call justice' in 1776, reflecting his reformist instincts on criminal justice during his parliamentary career.

Image source: Capital punishment in the United Kingdom

In May 1778, Burke supported a Parliamentary motion revising restrictions on Irish trade, one of several unpopular causes including free trade with Ireland and Catholic emancipation that eventually cost him his seat.

Burke failed to win re-election for Bristol in the 1780 general election. His support for unpopular causes, notably free trade with Ireland and Catholic emancipation, led to him losing his seat.

Image source: 1780 British general election

During the Gordon Riots in 1780, Burke became a target of hostility due to his support for unpopular causes, and his home was placed under armed guard by the military.

Image source: Gordon Riots

In 1781, Burke was appointed Chairman of the Commons Select Committee on East Indian Affairs. From that point until the end of Hastings' trial, India was Burke's primary concern.

Image source: East India Company

The Civil List and Secret Service Money Act 1782 was a watered-down version of Burke's original intentions as outlined in his famous Speech on Economical Reform of 11 February 1780, another of the two Acts he introduced before Rockingham's government fell.

The Paymaster General Act 1782, introduced by Burke, ended the post of Paymaster of the Forces as a lucrative sinecure, part of his broader programme of economical reform.

The fall of Lord North led to Rockingham being recalled to power in March 1782. Rockingham's unexpected death in July 1782 ended the administration after only a few months, but Burke managed to introduce two Acts.

Image source: Second Rockingham ministry

In February 1783, Burke resumed the post of Paymaster of the Forces when Shelburne's government fell and was replaced by a coalition headed by North that included Charles James Fox. That coalition fell later that year, succeeded by Pitt the Younger's long Tory administration.

Image source: Paymaster of the Forces

On 28 February 1785, Burke delivered a now-famous speech, The Nabob of Arcot's Debts, wherein he condemned the damage done to India by the East India Company.

Image source: Carnatic Sultanate

On 4 April 1786, Burke presented the House of Commons with the Article of Charge of High Crimes and Misdemeanors against Warren Hastings, formerly Governor-General of Bengal. The impeachment trial began in Westminster Hall on 14 February 1788, bringing the morality of imperialism to public perception.

Image source: Impeachment of Warren Hastings

The impeachment in Westminster Hall began on 14 February 1788 after years of Burke's pursuit of impeachment efforts against Warren Hastings. It was described as the 'first major public discursive event of its kind in England'.

On 20 June 1794, Burke received a vote of thanks from the House of Commons for his services in the Hastings Trial and immediately resigned his seat, being replaced by his son Richard, ending his MP tenure that ran from 1766 to 1794.

In a letter of 9 August 1789, Burke wrote: 'England gazing with astonishment at a French struggle for Liberty and not knowing whether to blame or to applaud! The thing indeed... has still something in it paradoxical and Mysterious.'

The events of 5–6 October 1789, when a crowd of Parisian women marched on Versailles to compel King Louis XVI to return to Paris, turned Burke against the French Revolution.

Image source: Women's March on Versailles

In January 1790, Burke read Richard Price's sermon of 4 November 1789 entitled A Discourse on the Love of Our Country to the Revolution Society, a society founded to commemorate the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Image source: A Discourse on the Love of Our Country

In November 1790, François-Louis-Thibault de Menonville, a member of the National Assembly of France, wrote to Burke praising Reflections and requesting more 'very refreshing mental food' that he could publish.

Priced at five shillings, Reflections asserted the revolution was destroying the fabric of good society and traditional institutions, and condemned persecution of the Catholic Church. By the end of 1790 it had gone through ten printings and sold approximately 17,500 copies. Its famous passage described Marie-Antoinette during the October days.

Burke wrote on 29 November 1790 that he had received 'a most full approbation of the principles of that work' from the Duke of Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam, the Duke of Devonshire and other Whig grandees. In 1791, Portland said he recommended the book to his sons as containing the true Whig creed.

Image source: Reflections on the Revolution in France

Thomas Paine followed Burke's Reflections with the Rights of Man in 1791, offering a direct reply defending the French Revolution and republicanism against Burke's conservative critique.

Image source: Rights of Man

Responding to Menonville's request, Burke published A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly in April 1791, continuing his critique of the French Revolution.

Image source: National Assembly (Kuwait)

On 6 May 1791, Burke used the opportunity to answer Fox during a parliamentary debate on the Quebec Bill and condemn the new French Constitution and 'the horrible consequences flowing from the French idea of the Rights of Man', marking his dramatic separation from Fox.

Image source: Constitutional Act 1791

Burke demonstrated his separation from the party on 5 June 1791 by writing to Fitzwilliam, declining money from him, underscoring the rupture caused by his stance on the French Revolution.

On 3 August 1791, Burke published his Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, renewing his criticism of radical revolutionary programmes and attacking Whigs who supported them as holding principles contrary to those traditionally held by the Whig Party.

Image source: An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs

In December 1791, Burke sent government ministers his Thoughts on French Affairs, arguing that no counter-revolution in France would come from domestic causes alone, that the Revolutionary Government grows stronger with time, and that its aim is to disturb all other governments of Europe.

Burke delivered a speech on the debate of the Aliens Bill on 28 December 1792, amid fears of French revolutionary agents spreading sedition in Britain.

Eventually most of the Whigs sided with Burke and gave their support to William Pitt the Younger's Tory government, which in response to France's declaration of war against Britain declared war on France's Revolutionary Government in 1793, vindicating Burke's warnings.

Image source: French Revolutionary Wars

Burke supported the royalist uprising in La Vendée, describing it on 4 November 1793 in a letter to William Windham as 'the sole affair I have much heart in'.

Image source: War in the Vendée

Burke's last publications were the Letters on a Regicide Peace (October 1796), called forth by negotiations for peace with France by the Pitt government, warning against making peace with the revolutionary regime.

Image source: Letters on a Regicide Peace