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Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington

1 of 6 portraits of Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington

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Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington

by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt
oil on canvas, circa 1710
36 in. x 28 in. (914 mm x 711 mm)
Given by the Art Fund, 1945
Primary Collection
NPG 3234

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt (1646-1723), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 1689 portraits, Sitter associated with 30 portraits.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D33113: Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington (source portrait)
  • NPG D37099: Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington (source portrait)

Linked publicationsback to top

Events of 1710back to top

Current affairs

Clergyman Henry Sacheverell is impeached on account of his sermons in which he attacks the Whig government and the revolution settlement of 1688-9. The trial caused rioting, and revived Jacobites sentiments and resentment against the government.
Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, returns to Parliament as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Art and science

The Examiner, a Tory government propaganda journal devised by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, is published. Under its editor, Jonathan Swift, the weekly sheet defended the policies of the new Tory government. The Whigs responded with The Medley, principally written by Arthur Maynwaring.

International

Following the victories at the Battles of Almenara and Saragossa in the War of the Spanish Succession, the allied forces experience a set back at the Battle of Brihuega during which, James Stanhope, Earl of Stanhope, Commander in Chief of the British Forces in Spain, is taken prisoner.

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