Patriot Whigs
Patriot Whigs | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Earl of Bath(founder), William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, William Pitt the Younger |
| Founded | 1725 |
| Dissolved | 1803 |
| Merged into |
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| Ideology |
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| National affiliation | Whigs |
The Patriot Whigs, later the Patriot Party, were a group within the Whig Party in Great Britain from 1725 to 1803. The group was formed in opposition to the government of Robert Walpole in the House of Commons in 1725, when William Pulteney (later 1st Earl of Bath) and seventeen other Whigs joined with the Tory Party in attacks against the ministry. By the mid-1730s, there were over one hundred opposition Whigs in the Commons, many of whom embraced the Patriot label. For many years, they provided a more effective opposition to the Walpole administration than the Tories were.