'Harry the Ninth (The Uncrowned King of Scotland) Henry Dundas and the Politics of Self-Interest, 1790-1802

Abstract

The career of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville underscores the importance of individual self-interest in British public life during the 1790-1802 Revolutionary Wars with France. Examining the political intrigue surrounding Dundas’ 1806 impeachment, the manner in which he established his political power, and contemporary critiques of self-interest, this thesis both complicates and adds nuance to understandings of the political culture of ‘Old Corruption’ in the late-Georgian era. As this thesis demonstrates, despite the wealth of opportunities for personal enrichment, individual self-interest was not always focused on obtaining sinecures and financial windfalls. Instead, men like Henry Dundas were primarily focused upon amassing their own political power. In the inherently chaotic politics of the period, the self-seeking concerns of individuals like Henry Dundas, very quickly could, and indeed did, become the thread upon which the whole British political system turned.