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{{Short description|British diplomat, politician and colonial administrator (1737–1806)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
:''George Macartney should not be confused with [[George Macartney (British consul)|Sir George Macartney]], a later British statesman.''
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Earl Macartney
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the Bath|KB]] [[Privy Council of Ireland|PC (Ire)]]
| image = George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney by Lemuel Francis Abbott.jpg
| image_size = 220
| caption = Portrait by [[Lemuel Francis Abbott]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|1737|5|14|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Loughguile]], [[County Antrim]], [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1806|5|31|1737|5|14|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Chiswick]], [[Middlesex]], [[England]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
| alma_mater = [[Trinity College Dublin]]
| office = [[Governor of Grenada]]
| term = 1776–1779
| monarch = [[George III]]
| predecessor = [[Sir William Young, 1st Baronet, of North Dean|Sir William Young]]
| successor = [[Jean-François, comte de Durat]]
| office1 = [[Governor of Madras]]
| monarch1 = [[George III]]
| term_start1 = 22 June 1781
| term_end1 = 14 June 1785
| predecessor1 = [[Thomas Rumbold|Sir Thomas Rumbold]]
| successor1 = [[Archibald Campbell (British Army officer, born 1739)|Sir Archibald Campbell]]
| office2 = [[Governor of the Cape Colony]]
| term2 = 1797–1798
| monarch2 = [[George III]]
| predecessor2 = [[Abraham Josias Sluysken]]
| successor2 = [[Francis Dundas]]
}}

'''George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KB|PCi}} (14 May 1737 – 31 May 1806) was a [[British people|British]] [[diplomat]], [[politician]] and [[British Empire|colonial]] [[Administrator of the government|administrator]] who served as the governor of [[Grenada]], [[Madras Presidency|Madras]] and the [[Cape Colony]]. He is often remembered for his observation following [[Great Britain in the Seven Years War|Britain's victory]] in the [[Seven Years' War]] and subsequent [[British Empire|territorial expansion]] at the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]] that Britain now controlled "[[The empire on which the sun never sets|a vast Empire, on which the sun never sets]]" as well as his [[Macartney Embassy|mission to China]] in 1793.

==Early years==
He was born in 1737 as the only son of George Macartney, [[High Sheriff of Antrim]] and Elizabeth Winder. Macartney descended from a Scottish family with origins in Ireland, who were granted land in Scotland for serving under [[Edward Bruce]], brother of [[Robert the Bruce]]. The Macartneys of Auchenleck, [[Kirkcudbrightshire]] settled in Lissanoure [[County Antrim]], Ireland, where he was born.

After graduating from [[Trinity College Dublin]], in 1759, he became a student of the [[Inns of Court|Temple, London]]. Through [[Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland|Stephen Fox]], elder brother of [[Charles James Fox]], he was taken up by [[Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland|Lord Holland]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Appointed envoy extraordinary to Russia in 1764,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=10478|page=1|date=11 December 1764}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=10492|page=1|date=29 January 1765}}</ref> he succeeded in negotiating an alliance between Great Britain and Russia with [[Catherine II of Russia|Catherine II]]. In 1768, he returned to the [[Irish House of Commons]] as a Member of Parliament for [[Armagh Borough (Parliament of Ireland constituency)|Armagh Borough]], in order to discharge the duties of [[Chief Secretary for Ireland]]. On resigning this office, he was knighted.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=11255|page=1|date=6 June 1772}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=11262|page=1|date=30 June 1772}}</ref>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1775, he became [[List of colonial governors and administrators of Grenada|governor]] of the [[British West Indies]]<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=11622|page=8|date=12 December 1775}}</ref> and was created Baron Macartney in the [[Peerage of Ireland]] in 1776.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=11679|page=1|date=29 June 1776}}</ref> He was elected to a seat in the British parliament ([[Bere Alston (UK Parliament constituency)|Bere Alston]]) from 1780 to 1781.

== Grenada ==
{{Moresources|section|date=January 2023}}
Macartney was the [[List of colonial governors of Grenada|governor of Grenada]] from 1776<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=11622|page=8|date=12 December 1776}}</ref> to 1779. During his governance, [[Capture of Grenada (1779)|the island was attacked in July 1779]], by the French royal fleet of the [[Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing|Comte d'Estaing]].

After losing control of the fortifications on Hospital Hill
— an essential defence position located on a prominence overlooking the island capital [[St. George's, Grenada|St. George's]]—Macartney chose to surrender unconditionally and was [[Prisoner of war|taken prisoner]] to France.

== Madras ==
{{More citations needed|section|date=December 2019}}
Macartney was the [[List of colonial governors and presidents of Madras Presidency|governor of Madras]] (now known as [[Chennai]]) from 1781 to 1785. During his tenure as governor, renovation and strengthening of the walls of [[Fort St. George, India|Fort St. George]] was commenced after the siege by [[Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally|Thomas Lally]], and completed in 1783. It was also during this time that most of the buildings and barracks in the western portion of the Fort were erected. The Palace Street, the Arsenal, the Hanover square and the Western Barracks were constructed during this time. The streets on the eastern side of the Fort were also altered.

It was also during this time that idea of a police force for Madras was thought of. [[Stephen Popham]], another British resident and the developer of [[Broadway, Chennai|Pophams Broadway]], submitted a plan to Macartney for the establishment of a regular police force for Madras and for the building of direct and cross drains in every street. Popham also advocated measures for the naming and lighting of streets, for the regular registration of births and deaths and for the licensing of liquor, [[arrack]] and [[toddy shop]]s. A Board of Police assisted by a Kotwal was subsequently formed. The Kotwal was to be the officer of the markets under the Superintendent of Police.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chennaicorporation.com/aboutcoc/che_history13.htm|title=Reforms of George MaCartney|website=Corporation of Chennai|access-date=19 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008222741/http://www.chennaicorporation.com/aboutcoc/che_history13.htm|archive-date=8 October 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He negotiated the [[Treaty of Mangalore]] which brought an end to the [[Second Anglo-Mysore War]] in 1784.<ref>Turnbull p. 180.</ref> Macartney declined the governor-generalship of India—then the British territories administered by the [[British East India Company]]—and returned to Britain in 1786.

== Ambassador to China ==
[[File:George Earl Macartney.jpg|thumb|upright|Lord Macartney]]
After being created Earl Macartney in the Irish peerage in 1792, he was appointed the first envoy of Britain to [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]], after the failure of a number of previous embassies, including Cathcart's. He led the [[Macartney Embassy]] to Beijing in 1792, with a large British delegation on board a 64-gun man-of-war, {{HMS|Lion|1777|6}} under the command of Captain Sir [[Erasmus Gower]]. The embassy was ultimately not successful in its primary aim to open trade with China, although numerous secondary purposes were attained, including a first-hand assessment of the strength of the Chinese empire.

The failure to obtain trade concessions was not due to Macartney's refusal to [[kowtow]] in the presence of the [[Qianlong Emperor]], as is commonly believed. It is more likely that the Chinese hegemony of east Asian states meant that China was used to having other states come and offer [[vassalage]]. In comparison, the European states were used to the order that came out of the [[Peace of Westphalia]]. Under that order, all states were formally treated as equals. For this reason, Macartney was negotiating as an equal in the European style, while the [[Qianlong Emperor]] was used to conducting diplomacy under Chinese hegemony.<ref>{{YouTube|id=MIVfczgRuYY&t=997s|title="#36 – David C. Kang on international relations in historic East Asia"|time=15:10}}</ref>

After the conclusion of the embassy, the Qianlong Emperor sent a letter to [[King George III]], explaining in greater depth the reasons for his refusal to grant the requests of the embassy.<ref>[http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/2c/texts/1792QianlongLetterGeorgeIII.htm Ch'ien Lung, (Qianlong) Letter to George III]</ref>{{full short|date=December 2019}} The Macartney Embassy is historically significant because it marked a missed opportunity by the Chinese to move toward some kind of accommodation with the West. This failure would continue to plague China as it encountered increasing foreign pressures and internal unrest during the 19th century.

The policies of the [[Thirteen Factories]] remained. The embassy returned to Britain in 1794 without obtaining any concession from China. However, the mission could be construed as a success because it brought back detailed observations. Sir [[George Leonard Staunton|George Staunton]] was charged with producing the official account of the expedition after their return. This multi-volume work was taken chiefly from the papers of Lord Macartney and from the papers of Sir [[Erasmus Gower]], who was Commander of the expedition. Gower also left a more personal record through his private letters to Admiral [[John Elliot (Royal Navy officer)|John Elliot]] and Captain [[Sir Henry Martin, 1st Baronet]] (Comptroller of the Navy).<ref>{{cite book|last = Bates|first = I. M.|title = Champion of the Quarterdeck: Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (1742–1814)|publisher = Sage Old Books |date = 2017|isbn =9780958702126|pages = 171–206}}</ref> [[Joseph Banks]], the [[President of the Royal Society]], was responsible for selecting and arranging engraving of the illustrations in this official record.<ref>Banks, Joseph. State Library of New South Wales, Papers of Sir Joseph Banks; Section 12: Lord Macartney's embassy to China; [http://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/banks/series_62/62_view.cfm Series 62: Papers concerning publication of the account of Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, ca 1797.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619104055/https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/banks/series_62/62_view.cfm |date=19 June 2009 }}</ref>

Macartney was expected to lead an embassy to Japan after he completed his mission to China, but his hopes of being able to proceed to Japan were ended by the confirmation when he returned to Canton of news of the outbreak of war with France and consequently of the vulnerability of his ships to attack by French cruisers operating from Batavia.<ref>Robert J. King, "'A regular and reciprocal System of Commerce' — Botany Bay, Nootka Sound, and the isles of Japan", ''The Great Circle'', vol.19, no.1, 1997, pp.1–29; and "'The long wish'd for object' – Opening the trade to Japan, 1785–1795", ''The Northern Mariner,'' vol.XX, no.1, January 2010, pp. 1–35, [http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol20/tnm_20_1-34.pdf]</ref> On 23 December, Macartney recorded in his journal: "I have given up my projected visit to Japan, which (though now less alluring in prospect) has always been with me a favourite adventure as a possible opening of a new mine for the exercise of our industry and the purchase of our manufactures".<ref>Cranmer-Byng, "Russian and British Interests in the Far East, 1791–1793", ''Canadian Slavonic Papers'', vol. X, 1968, pp. 206, 357–375.</ref>

==Later life==
On his return from a confidential mission to Italy in 1795, he was raised to the British peerage as Baron Macartney, of Parkhurst in the County of Surrey and Auchinleck in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=13897|page=527|date=31 May 1796}}</ref> and at the end of 1796 was appointed governor of the newly acquired territory of the [[British Cape Colony|Cape Colony]],<ref>{{cite news |title=At the Court at St. James's, Dec 28. 1796 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/368/page/221 |access-date=21 August 2021 |work=Edinburgh Gazette |issue=368 |date=3 January 1797 |page=221}}</ref> where he remained until ill health compelled him to resign in November 1798.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In early 1797, he was requested to assist with the proposed plan to send an attacking force from the Cape under Major-General J. H. Craig to the South West coast of Spanish America by way of the British colony in New South Wales.<ref>Dundas to Macartney, 21 January 1797, "Correspondence of George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, whilst Governor of the Cape of Good Hope", Bodleian Library, GB 0162 MSS.Afr.t.2–4*. See also Robert J. King, "An Australian Perspective on the English Invasions of the Rio de la Plata in 1806 and 1807", ''International Journal of Naval History,'' vol. 8 no.1, April 2009, [http://www.ijnhonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Article-King.pdf]</ref>

He died at [[Chiswick]], [[Middlesex]], on 31 May 1806, the title becoming extinct. After the death of his widow (Lady Jane Stuart, daughter of the [[John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute|3rd Earl of Bute]]; they were married in 1768), his property passed to his niece, whose son took the name.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Coat of arms==
{{Emblem table
|image = {{center|[[File:Coronet of a British Earl.svg|150px]] [[File:Arms of Macartney.svg|180px]]}}
|image size =
|notes =
|coronet = A [[coronet]] of an [[Earl]]
|crest = A hand holding a slip of a rose tree with three roses thereon all proper.
|escutcheon = Or, a stag trippant gules attired argent a border of the second.
|supporters =
|motto = Mens conscia recti.<ref>{{cite book |last= Burke |first= Bernard |author-link=Bernard Burke |title= The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time |date=1884|publisher=Harrison & sons|location=London |pages=634|url=https://archive.org/details/generalarmoryofe00burk/page/634/mode/2up?q=macartney&view=theater}}</ref>}}

==See also==
{{wikiquote|George Macartney}}
* [[Isaac Titsingh]], the ambassador who represented the Netherlands and [[Dutch East India Company|VOC]] to greet [[Qianlong Emperor]]
* [[William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst]]
* [[Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest]]
* [[Halliday Macartney]] – a descendant of the Macartney family who served in China under [[Charles George Gordon|Charles Gordon]] during the [[Taiping Rebellion]]

== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}

==References and further reading==
* [[John Barrow (English statesman)|Barrow]], John. (1807). [https://books.google.com/books?id=hc00JEmKC10C&q=An+account+of+Macartney's+embassy+to+China ''Some Account of the Public Life, and a Selection from the Unpublished Writings, of the Earl of Macartney,''] 2 vols. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies.
* Cranmer-Byng, J. L. "Lord Macartney’s Embassy to Peking in 1793." ''Journal of Oriental Studies.'' Vol. 4, Nos. 1,2 (1957–58): 117–187.
* Esherick, Joseph W. "Cherishing Sources from Afar." ''Modern China'' Vol. 24, No. 2 (1998): 135–61.
* Hevia, James Louis. (1995). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Uj6d9_4F0EIC&q=An+account+of+Macartney's+embassy+to+China ''Cherishing Men from Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793.''] Durham: [[Duke University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8223-1637-4}}
* Hibbert, Christopher. ''The Dragon Wakes. China and the West, 1793–1911'' (1970) [https://archive.org/details/dragonwakeschina0000hibb/page/n1 online free to borrow]
* Jacques, Martin. (2009). ''When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.'' New York: Penguin Press. {{ISBN|9781594201851}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/423217571 OCLC 423217571]
* Peyrefitte, Alain. (1992). [https://archive.org/details/immobileempire00peyr  ''The Immobile Empire''] (Jon Rotschild, translator). New York: [[Alfred A. Knopf]]/[[Random House]]. {{ISBN|978-0-394-58654-0}}
** Peyrefitte, Alain. (1990). ''Images de l'Empire immobile ou le choc des mondes. Récit historique.'' Paris: [[Fayard]]. {{ISBN|978-2-213-02383-0}}
* Reddaway, W. F. "Macartney in Russia, 1765–67." ''Cambridge Historical Journal'' 3#3 (1931), pp. 260–294. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020743 online]
* Robbins, Helen Henrietta Macartney (1908). [http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CTWE/B36599578/ ''Our First Ambassador to China: An Account of the Life of George, Earl of Macartney with Extracts from His Letters, and the Narrative of His Experiences in China, as Told by Himself, 1737–1806, from Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence and Documents.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006125004/http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CTWE/B36599578/ |date=6 October 2018 }} London : John Murray. Digitized by [[University of Hong Kong]] [[University of Hong Kong#Libraries and museums|Libraries]], [http://lib.hku.hk/database/ Digital Initiatives], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070425165629/http://www.spurgeons.ac.uk/site/pages/ui_college_history.aspx "China Through Western Eyes."]; [https://books.google.com/books?id=XSI5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA375 review in ''The Athenaeum'']
* Rockhill, William Woodville. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1833980 "Diplomatic Missions to the Court of China: The Kotow Question I,"] ''The American Historical Review,'' Vol. 2, No. 3 (Apr. 1897), pp. 427–442.
* Rockhill, William Woodville. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1833980 "Diplomatic Missions to the Court of China: The Kotow Question II,"] ''The American Historical Review,'' Vol. 2, No. 4 (Jul. 1897), pp. 627–643.
* [[George Leonard Staunton|Staunton]], George Leonard. (1797). [https://books.google.com/books?id=8qdIAAAAMAAJ&q=An+account+of+Macartney's+embassy+to+China ''An Authentic Account of and Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China,''] 3 vols. London: G. Nichol.
* Turnbull, Patrick. ''Warren Hastings''. New English Library, 1975.

== External links ==
{{commons category|George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney}}
*[http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/ead/upenn_rbml_MsColl624 George Macartney papers], Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Macartney, George Macartney, Earl|volume=17|page=193}}

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{{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for [[Armagh Borough (Parliament of Ireland constituency)|Armagh Borough]]
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| with2 = [[Charles O'Hara (1715–1776)|Charles O'Hara]] 1769–1776
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| before=[[John Mordaunt (British Army officer)|Sir John Mordaunt]] [[John Elliot (Royal Navy officer)|John Elliot]]
| after= [[George Johnstone (Royal Navy officer)|George Johnstone]] [[James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale|Sir James Lowther]]
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| with = [[Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley|Lord Algernon Percy]] (1780) [[William Robert Feilding, Viscount Feilding|Viscount Feilding]] (1781)
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{{succession box | before= | title=[[List of Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China|Ambassador from Great Britain to China]] | after=[[George Elliot (Royal Navy officer, born 1784)|George Elliot]] | years=1792–1794}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macartney, George Macartney, 1st Earl}}
[[Category:1737 births]]
[[Category:1806 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish people]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the Kingdom of Great Britain to China]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the Kingdom of Great Britain to Russia]]
[[Category:Governors of the Cape Colony]]
[[Category:Diplomatic peers]]
[[Category:Governors of Madras]]
[[Category:Earls in the Peerage of Ireland]]
[[Category:Peers of Ireland created by George III]]
[[Category:Peers of Great Britain created by George III]]
[[Category:Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Armagh constituencies]]
[[Category:British East India Company people]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Politicians from County Antrim]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Bere Alston]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies]]
[[Category:Hereditary peers elected to the House of Commons]]
[[Category:British MPs 1768–1774]]
[[Category:British MPs 1774–1780]]
[[Category:British MPs 1780–1784]]
[[Category:Irish MPs 1769–1776]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of Ireland]]
[[Category:Chief secretaries for Ireland]]
[[Category:Governors of British Grenada]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)]]
[[Category:People from Loughguile]]
[[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]]

George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney - Revision history

AlejandroQkj: made new stub