GRANVILLE, JOHN CARTERET, EARL (1690-1763), English statesman, known as Lord Carteret, was born on April 22, 169o, the son of George, 1st Lord Carteret, and great grand son of the Elizabethan admiral, Sir Richard Grenville. He suc ceeded his father in 1695 as end baron Carteret. He was edu cated at Westminster, and at Christ Church, Oxford, and ac quired a wide knowledge of modern languages and literatures, being almost the only Englishman of his time who knew German. He took his seat in the Lords on May 25, 1711. An adherent of the Hanoverian dynasty, the friend of Stanhope and Sunderland, he took a share in defeating the Jacobite conspiracy of Boling broke on the death of Queen Anne, and supported the Septennial Act. His interests were, however, rather in foreign than in do mestic policy. Early in 1719 he was appointed ambassador to Sweden, a post which he held for two years with great success. He gained an exceptional knowledge of European and, in par ticular, of German affairs.
Named secretary of State for the southern department on his return to London, he came into conflict with Townshend and Sir Robert Walpole. Walpole, who resented his ability to speak Ger man with the king, arranged for him to succeed the duke of Grafton as lord lieutenant of Ireland, when the violent agitation in Ireland against Wood's halfpence (see SWIFT, JONATHAN), made a new appointment necessary. He was in Dublin from Oct. 23, 1724 until 173o. He had to deal with the opposition to Wood's halfpence, and to counteract the effect of Swift's Drapier's Letters. It is doubtful whether he could have reconciled his private friendship with Swift with his duty to the Crown if Wood's patent had not been withdrawn. When he returned to London in 173o Walpole was firmly established as master of the House of Commons, and as the trusted minister of George II., and he took no share in public affairs until the fall of Walpole in 1742. Carteret is credited with having paid the expenses of the first edition of Don Quixote to please Queen Caroline, but he lost her favour through becoming entangled in the scandalous family quarrel between Frederick, prince of Wales, and his parents. His sympathies were with Maria Theresa in the War of the Austrian Succession, on the ground that the fall of the house of Austria would increase the power of France.
George II. welcomed these views, and made him secretary of State in 1i42, a post which he held until 1744, accompanying the king to Germany in 1743. He succeeded in promoting an agree ment between Maria Theresa and Frederick. His support of the king's policy was denounced as subservient to Hanover, but a few years later Pitt adopted an identical policy, and confessed that whatever he knew he had learnt from Carteret. In 17 51 he became president of the council, and was still liked and trusted by the king, but had little active share in the government.
In 1756 Newcastle asked him to become prime minister as the alternative to Pitt, but Granville, understanding why the offer was made, declined, and supported Pitt. When in Oct. 1761 Pitt threatened to resign unless his advice to declare war on Spain was accepted, Granville replied that "the opinion of the majority (of the cabinet) must decide." He resisted Pitt's claim to be considered as a "sole minister," or in the modern phrase "prime minister." Granville remained in office as president until his death in London on Jan. 22, 1763. The title descended to his son Robert, who died without issue in 1776, when the earldom became extinct.
A somewhat partisan life of Granville was published by A. Ballan tyne, Lord Carteret, a Political Biography (1887) . His correspondence is in the British Museum.