View source for Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer

{{short description|British Liberal politician, diplomat and writer (1801–1872)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
[[File:William Bulwer, Baron Dalling and Bulwer by Giuseppe Fagnani.jpg|thumb|Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer by Joseph (Giuseppe) Fagnani]]

'''William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer''', {{post-nominals|country=GB|commas=yes|size=100%|GCB|PC}} (13 February 1801{{snd}}23 May 1872) was a British [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] politician, diplomat and writer.

==Background and education==
Bulwer was the second son of General William Bulwer and his wife, [[Elizabeth Barbara Lytton|Elizabeth Barbara]], daughter of [[Richard Warburton-Lytton]]. He was an elder brother of [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton]], uncle of [[Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton]], [[Viceroy of India]], 1876–1880, and the uncle of [[Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer|Sir Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer]]. He was educated at [[Harrow School]], [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]] and then the recently founded [[Downing College]], both at [[Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=BLWR820WH|name=Bulwer, William Henry Earle Lytton}}</ref> After graduating and touring the continent, he joined the [[Life Guards (British Army)|Life Guards]] in 1824 and exchanged to the [[58th Regiment of Foot]] two years later.

==Diplomatic and political career==
[[File:Henry Bulwer Vanity Fair 27 August 1870.JPG|thumb|left|{{center|"A superannuated diplomat"<br />Bulwer as caricatured by Ape ([[Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)|Carlo Pellegrini]]) in [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]], August 1870}}]]

After having unsuccessfully contested [[Hertford (UK Parliament constituency)|Hertford]] in 1826, Bulwer joined the [[Diplomatic Service]] in 1827 and was sent to Berlin in August that year, to [[Vienna]] in April 1829 and then to [[The Hague]] in April 1830. In July 1830, he entered the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] as MP for the [[rotten borough]] of [[Wilton (UK Parliament constituency)|Wilton]] and was sent to [[Brussels]] the following month to report on the [[Belgian Revolution]]. A year later, he was returned for [[Coventry (UK Parliament constituency)|Coventry]], again in 1833, then for [[Marylebone (UK Parliament constituency)|Marylebone]] in 1835.

At a meeting in [[Sydney]] on 29 May 1835, Australian statesman [[William Wentworth]] discussed a proposal of Bulwer's for a colonial committee to be formed which would act through a Parliamentary Advocate, for which Bulwer nominated himself, to represent [[New South Wales]]. The meeting resolved to raise £2,000 to fund the position by establishing the [[Australian Patriotic Association]], Australia's first political party.<ref name="Tink">{{Cite book |author1=Tink, Andrew |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/28173894 |title=William Charles Wentworth : Australia's greatest native son |date=2009 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=978-1-74175-192-5}}</ref>

That year, Bulwer planned to join [[George de Lacy Evans|General Evans]], who was raising a legion to help [[Isabella II of Spain]] in the [[First Carlist War]], but was instead sent back to the newly independent [[Belgium]] as secretary of [[legation]]. When a general election was called two years later on the death of [[William IV of the United Kingdom|William IV]], Bulwer decided not to contest his current seat for Marylebone and after having commuted between Parliament and his diplomatics posts for seven years, decided to become a full-time diplomat and was sent to [[Constantinople]].

A year later, Bulwer was due to go to [[St Petersburg]] after accepting a new post there, but caught a fever just before leaving Constantinople and instead went back to London. Upon his arrival, the government was embroiled in the [[Bedchamber Crisis]] and because of the delays involved, Bulwer did not take up his post in [[Russia]] and was instead sent to Paris in June 1839. After having dealt with the poor Anglo-French relations prior to the [[London Straits Convention]], Bulwer was sent to [[Madrid]] in November 1843 and served there until [[Ramón María Narváez y Campos, Duke of Valencia|Narváez]] instructed him to leave in 1848, after being accused of implicating [[Revolutions of 1848|liberal risings]] against the former's conservative government. By now a diplomatic embarrassment in [[Europe]], the British government formally showed its support of Bulwer by making him a [[Order of the Bath|KCB]] that year, but sent him far from Europe, to [[Washington D.C.|Washington]] a year later.

Bulwer enjoyed his three years in [[United States|America]], having been promoted to [[Order of the Bath|GCB]] during his office, but wished to return to Europe and so was posted to [[Florence]], [[Tuscany]]<!--"Tuscany is placed here to show that he wasn't merely a consul in "some" city but at the capital of a city-state, at least-->, in 1852. His two years in [[Italy]] were largely uneventful and ill health forced him back to London in 1854. He was granted a pension a year later and it was at this time that he and his wife separated. When his health improved, Bulwer was in Eastern Europe from 1856 to 1858. In 1858, he succeeded [[Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe|Lord Stratford de Redcliffe]] as [[Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to the Ottoman Empire|Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire]] and his wife joined him. He significantly contributed to the indebtedness of the Ottoman regime.<ref>{{cite web|author=Cyrus Hamlin|title=The Dream of Russia |work=The Atlantic|date=December 1886|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1886/12/the-dream-of-russia/522855/}}</ref> This was his final diplomatic post before his semi-retirement in 1865.

On his return to England, Bulwer went back to politics and successfully contested [[Tamworth (UK Parliament constituency)|Tamworth]] in 1868. He returned to literature after his retirement and was also raised to the [[peerage]] as '''Baron Dalling and Bulwer''', of [[Wood Dalling|Dalling]] in the County of Norfolk, in 1871.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=23718 |date=21 March 1871 |page=1492 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
Lord Dalling and Bulwer married the Honourable Georgiana, youngest daughter of [[Henry Wellesley, 1st Baron Cowley]] and a niece of the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]], at [[Hatfield House]] in December 1848. They had no children. On his return from a trip to [[Egypt]] in 1872, Bulwer died suddenly in [[Naples]], aged 71, when the barony became extinct. His will was valued at less than £5,000. His estranged widow died in August 1878, aged 61.

A [[Freemason]], he became the first district grand master for [[Turkey]] under the [[United Grand Lodge of England]] in 1862.{{sfn|Sommer|2014|p=77}}
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== Principal works ==
* ''Ode on the Death of Napoleon; Lines on the Neapolitan Revolution; and Other Poems.''  1822
* ''An Autumn in Greece; Comprising Sketches of the Character, Customs, and Scenery of the Country; with a View of Its Present Critical State. In Letters, Addressed to C.B. Sheridan, Esq.''  1826
* ''France, Social, Literary, Political.''  1834
* ''The Monarchy of the Middle Classes. France, Social, Literary, Political, Second Series.''  1836
* ''Historical characters: Talleyrand, Cobbett, Mackintosh, Canning'' 2 vols. 1868<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Review of ''Historical Characters'' by the Right Hon. Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, G.C.B.|title=Quarterly Review|volume=123|year=1867|pages=383–417|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UWo38x10gCIC&pg=PA383}}</ref>
* ''The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston: With Selections from His Diaries and Correspondence.''  1870
* ''Sir Robert Peel. An Historical Sketch.''  1874

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
* {{cite book|editor-first=Stanley|editor-last= Kunitz|title=British Authors of the Nineteenth Century|chapter=Bulwer, Sir Henry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6KtSnQAACAAJ|year=1936|publisher=H. W. Wilson|isbn=978-0-8242-0007-7}}
*{{cite book|last=Sommer|first=Dorothe |title=Freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire: A History of the Fraternity and Its Influence in Syria and the Levant|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cq6bBQAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-78076-313-2}}
* {{ODNBweb|id=3935|title=Bulwer, (William) Henry Lytton Earle|last=Chamberlain|first=Muriel E.|authorlink = M. E. Chamberlain}}
*{{EB1911 |wstitle=Dalling and Bulwer, William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, Baron}}

== External links ==
*{{npg name|id=01173}}
* {{Hansard-contribs | sir-henry-bulwer | Henry Bulwer }}
* {{WorldCat|id=lccn-n85273713|name=Henry Lytton Bulwer}}
* [http://www.burkes-peerage.net/ Burke's Peerage & Gentry]

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{{succession box | title=[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Tamworth (UK Parliament constituency)|Tamworth]] |with= [[Sir Robert Peel, 3rd Baronet|Sir Robert Peel, Bt]] | before=[[Sir Robert Peel, 3rd Baronet|Sir Robert Peel, Bt]]<br />[[John Peel (Tamworth MP)|John Peel]] | after=[[Sir Robert Peel, 3rd Baronet|Sir Robert Peel, Bt]]<br />[[John Peel (Tamworth MP)|John Peel]]| years= 1868–1871}}

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{{succession box | title=[[List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to Spain|British Ambassador to Spain]] | before=[[George Jerningham|Hon. George Jerningham]] <br /> '''(Chargé d'Affaires)''' | after=[[John Hobart Caradoc, 2nd Baron Howden]] | years=1844&ndash;1848}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalling and Bulwer, Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron}}
[[Category:1801 births]]
[[Category:1872 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British diplomats]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Spain]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the United States]]
[[Category:British Freemasons]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies|Bulwer, Henry]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1830–1831|Bulwer, Henry]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1831–1832|Bulwer, Henry]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1832–1835|Bulwer, Henry]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1835–1837|Bulwer, Henry]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1868–1874|Bulwer, Henry]]
[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages]]
[[Category:Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:58th Regiment of Foot officers]]
[[Category:British Life Guards officers]]
[[Category:People educated at Harrow School]]
[[Category:Lytton family|Henry]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Coventry]]
[[Category:Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria]]