A Character of the Trimmer
Being a Short Life of the First Marquis of Halifax

Helen Charlotte Foxcroft (1865?1950) was a renowned British historian and literary editor. In this book, which was first published in 1946, Foxcroft provides a concise biography of the statesman and writer Sir George Savile, 1st Marquis of Halifax, also known as 'The Trimmer'. The text condenses and updates material taken from an earlier two-volume work, The Life and Letters of Sir George Savile (1898). This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the life of Savile and British history.

Preface; 1. Birth, ancestry, and childhood; 2. Youth; 3. The Restoration. Savile enters politics. Ascendancy of Clarendon; 4. In the House of Lords. Ascendancy of Buckingham and the 'cabal'. The embassy of 1670; 5. Under Danby's ascendancy; 6. The 'Popish plot'. Fall of Danby. The opposition in office; 7. In retreat: February to September 1680; 8. The exclusion contest of 1680/1; 9. In the government, 1681–5; 10. In disgrace, 1685–8; 11. The revolution, 1688–9; 12. In office, February 1688/9 to February 1689/90; 13. In opposition to the end: summary; Notes and references; Index.