The Townshend Triumph: 1702–22
The Townshend Triumph: 1702–22
This chapter sets out to examine the successful establishment of a parliamentary interest in an urban constituency. Yarmouth, in common with the vast majority of the country's leading towns, experienced all the symptoms of what has been termed as the “rage of party” of early 18th-century England. Having undergone three elections in the period 1701–2, the freemen had six more opportunities to cast votes over the next thirteen years, during which time the borough saw two further contested polls in a burst of almost continual campaigning between 1708 and 1710. Yarmouth's political development would certainly appear to accord with traditional accounts of the electoral ‘coma’ to which the country succumbed in the wake of the Whig ascendancy. The corporation's susceptibility to influence and politicking at the beginning of Anne's reign suggested that Viscount Townshend had every right to hope for the advancement of his interest over the forthcoming years.
Keywords: urban constituency, elections, cities, towns, susceptibility, Yarmouth
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