Sir Charles Jenkinson.
Sir Charles Jenkinson (1727 - 1808?) was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1785 to the end of the Trans-Oceanic War in 1799, and may have served into the early years of the nineteenth century.
Jenkinson was a Lord of the Treasury in the Ministry of the Duke of Grafton, becoming a Privy Councillor in 1775. He succeeded the Viscount Barrington as Secretary at War in December 1778, after the final victory over the American rebels in the North American Rebellion.
In 1785, he succeeded Lord North as Prime Minister. Although Jenkinson was not as sympathetic to the North Americans as North had been, Viceroy Sir John Dickinson's tact and political acumen allowed him to form a productive working relationship with the new Prime Minister.
In 1794, Jenkinson responded to the formation of an alliance between France and Austria by sending envoys to Prussia and several other German states, and signing a treaty of alliance with them in December. A Franco-Austrian invasion of Prussia in April 1795 coincided with a treaty of alliance between France and Spain. Jenkinson enlarged the military and naval budgets, and added prominent Whigs such as William Pitt the Younger and Charles James Fox to his Cabinet. Then, on 23 August, Jenkinson asked for a declaration of war against France, Spain, and Austria.
Jenkinson sent British troops to aid Prussia and Portugal, and instituted a blockade of France and Spain. Although the British troops were able to prevent the conquest of Prussia, there was a military stalemate between the continental armies which was not broken until 1798, when the British and Prussians were able to win decisive victories against the French and Austrians.
The war had shaken the stability of the French monarchy, so Jenkinson declined to seek any territorial gains in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, settling for the payment of an indemnity by France. Jenkinson and his Prussian allies were less forgiving of King Charles IV of Spain, who was deposed in favor of Ferdinand VII Hohenzollern.
Sobel makes no further mention of Jenkinson after the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. He may have resigned immediately afterwards, or he may have remained in office for several years until his resignation or death.
Sobel's source for the political career of Sir Charles Jenkinson is Paul Mitchell's The Jenkinson Cabinet and the Five Years' War (London, 1958).