STEWART, Hon. Charles William (1778-1854), of Mount Stewart, co. Down.

Stewart’s military career was assisted by his maternal uncle Lord Camden, to whom he was a.d.c. during his Irish lord lieutenancy. In his favourite role of a dashing cavalry officer he saw action in 25 battles in the Netherlands, Ireland and the Peninsula until Wellington declined his services in 1813. By then, his half-brother Castlereagh being foreign minister, he was assured of a diplomatic career. His political life was uninspired, governed by his family’s and Castlereagh’s requirements; his devotion to Castlereagh, on whose death his public career fell into abeyance and whose reputation, alive and dead, he jealously guarded, was unquestionable and Castlereagh in turn indulged and, according to Wellington, over-valued him.Add. 33101, f. 240; 33102, f. 51; Wellington Supp. Despatches, vii. 165, 549; HMC Bathurst, 532; Castlereagh Corresp. i. 143; Croker Pprs. ed. Jennings, i. 346.

Stewart was returned to the last Irish parliament for Lord Clifden’s borough of Thomastown in March 1800 at his brother’s request, but transferred to county Derry three months later, his uncle Alexander exchanging seats with him. His family’s interest enabled him to retain the county seat at Westminster without much difficulty: he headed the poll in his only contest in 1806. At Westminster, ‘votes with Lord Castlereagh’ was the typical comment on him. In May 1804 he alarmed the chief secretary and viceroy by insisting on lingering in Ireland with his regiment when required in Parliament, which led to rumours that he was acting on his half-brother’s instructions while Castlereagh came to ‘some understanding’ with ‘some of the opposition’.PRO 30/8/123, f. 155; Add. 35705, f. 302; 35715, f. 33. Such fears proved idle. Stewart spoke in favour of limiting punishments by courts martial and for the reform of the latter, 5, 12 Mar. 1805, and on 6 Mar. defended the additional force bill, until a better plan could be found. His Suggestions for the improvement of the force of the British Empire, published that year, was his own contribution to the subject. On 14 May 1805 he voted against the Catholic claims.

Like his brother, Stewart went into opposition to the Grenville ministry, voting against Ellenborough’s seat in the cabinet, 3 Mar. 1806. On 2 June he criticized Windham’s enlistment scheme, and when Grattan clashed with him, informed him that he did not profess to be an Irish orator, but an Irish soldier. As under-secretary to Castlereagh at the War Office, he was a regular attender in support of the Portland ministry until in August 1808 he went to the Peninsula as a brigadier-general. Back in England, 24 Jan. 1809, he justified the discretionary publication of Sir John Moore’s despatches, as authorized by the latter, to Castlereagh’s satisfaction, and next day paid tribute to Wellesley’s conduct at Vimeiro. Castlereagh secured him a colonial sinecure worth £1,200 p.a. that month, and in April 1809, relinquishing office, he returned to the Peninsula. He distinguished himself as Wellesley’s adjutant-general at the Douro and Talavera. For this, while on sick leave, he received and acknowledged the thanks of the House, 5 Feb. 1810, having four days previously paid tribute there to Wellington as a military leader. He was in the government majority against the Scheldt inquiry, 30 Mar. 1810. While fully in Castlereagh’s confidence, in sympathy with his quarrel with government in September 1809 and, inevitably, listed as one of Castlereagh’s squad in 1810, he was prevented from public expression of it by his resumption of his Peninsular duties. He further distinguished himself at Badajoz and again received the thanks of the House. In February 1812 he returned home ill and became a groom of the bedchamber and a mediator in Castlereagh’s restoration to favour and office. On 10 Dec. 1812 he came to the defence of the German legion in debate and, though due back on duty, lingered in the House until 2 Mar. 1813, when, like Castlereagh, he supported Catholic relief.Geo III Corresp. v. 3781, 3870; HMC Var. v. 164.

A reluctant adjutant-general, he was disgruntled by his failure to obtain a cavalry command from Wellington and switched to diplomacy, serving the allies as a military commissioner from Berlin, on which account he was absent from Parliament until, on the eve of becoming ambassador to Austria, he was given a peerage in July 1814. Thereafter ‘all stars and tenderness’, he assisted Castlereagh in ‘keeping Metternich steady’ in Congress Europe, not without disadvantageous comment on his pretensions and conduct. He could not stomach Canning’s succession to Castlereagh in 1822 and devoted himself subsequently to the development of the Tempest estate, his wife’s heritage, in county Durham. He was also a memorialist of the Napoleonic wars and of Castlereagh.Letters of Countess Granville, 62; Castlereagh Corresp. xii. 1; HMC Bathurst, 319, 327; Greville Mems. ed. Strachey and Fulford, i. 28. He died 6 Mar. 1854.