The English statesman William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) introduced important financial and administrative reforms, girded England for war against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, and attempted to solve the perennial Irish problem.

The second son of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, the younger William Pitt was born on May 28, 1759, at the family estate of Hayes, near Bromley, Kent. It was a year of triumph for his father, and for England, which was victorious on land and on sea against the French. Thus his birth appeared auspicious--and Pitt fully lived up to the expectations that he excited in family and acquaintances. His accomplishments at least equaled those of his illustrious father.

Pitt's Personality

Although in early childhood Pitt suffered from frail health, almost from the beginning he showed great intellectual promise and an interest in politics. Pitt later outgrew his physical frailty, but he always retained the sense of...