Virgins as Prime Ministers ...

by Cliopatria

Max Boot,"Boy Premier," Weekly Standard, 15 August, reviews William Hague's William Pitt the Younger. In Parliament at 21, William Pitt the Younger was Chancellor of the Exchequer at 23 and Prime Minister at 24. He served as Prime Minister for almost 19 years, longer than anyone other than Sir Robert Walpole. Thanks to Eugene Volokh for the tip. But Volokh missed this oddity: Boot says that

A lifelong bachelor, [Pitt the Younger] was in all likelihood Britain's only virgin prime minister. Despite innuendo linking him to his protégé (and future prime minister) George Canning, there is no record of a sexual liaison with anyone, male or female.

It isn't clear from Boot's review whether Hague makes that claim in the biography, but it certainly would have occurred to him that Sir Edward Heath was rumored to have been a virgin. How will we ever know the truth of the matter? Liberty & Power's Mark Brady, who made the claim for Heath's sexual innocense, responded to Volokh's citation of Boot's review, but didn't even raise the question. I want to know: has Great Britain had two virgin Prime Ministers or not?

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Alan Allport - 8/11/2005

It was sometimes suggested that Heath's bachelorhood was a sign of closet homosexuality, but knowing something about his personality I think the more straightforward explanation was that he simply too unbearable for any woman to deal with.

Miriam Elizabeth Burstein - 8/11/2005

Oops--vague prose. That is, in addition to what other satirists had to say about Canning...

Miriam Elizabeth Burstein - 8/11/2005

In addition to various insinuations about Canning, the satirists behind The Rolliad and its various sequels also linked Pitt to his friend and fellow politician, Tom Steele. The Huntington Library has a satirical pamphlet that, besides suggesting that Pitt was, ah, lacking certain masculine items of equipment, hints that his old tutor, Gilbert Prettyman, might have been too attached to the Prime Minister's...posterior.

The Rolliad satirists (one of whom wound up working for Pitt!) also had more generalized fun with Pitt's lack of interest in the fair sex, e.g.:

'Tis true, indeed, we oft abuse him,
Because he bends to no man;
But Slander's self dares not accuse him
Of stiffness to a woman.

Mark Brady - 8/10/2005

When I read Boot's speculation about Pitt the Younger being Britain's only virgin prime minister, I thought of Edward Heath. I guess Britain had two, not one.