After Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Charles James Fox 1749 - 1806, oil on canvas, 76 x 64cm Charles James Fox was born on 24 January 1749 and was the third son of Henry Fox, first Lord Holland and his wife Lady Caroline Lennox, daughter of the second Duke of Richmond. This made Fox the nephew of the third Duke of Richmond, a leading Rockingham Whig peer. Fox was educated at Eton and Hertford College, Oxford. His father exerted little control over Fox and encouraged him to be extravagant and dissolute. Fox lost vast sums at gambling, and in 1774 Lord Holland paid his son''s gambling debts at a cost of œ140,000. Almost 20 years later political friends paid off Fox''s debts and gave him a comfortable income. Fox subsequently gave up both racing and gambling. Fox was Falstaffian in character and none too clean in appearance. He was openly a rake and there were rumours that he was conducting an affair with Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. In 1768 he became MP for Midhurst, a family pocket borough. Fox immediately attracted attention through his ability and the quality of his speeches. In 1770 he was appointed as a junior Lord of the Admiralty but resigned in 1772 so that he could oppose the legislation that became the Royal Marriages Act in the same year. In December 1773 he became a junior Lord of the Treasury but the king, who disliked Fox for opposing the Royal Marriages Act, dismissed him in February 1774. Edmund Burke and Fox became friends and, because his uncle was a Rockinghamite, Fox was drawn to the Rockinghamites and opposed North''s American policy although he knew that the American war was popular in England. When North resigned in March 1782, Rockingham formed his second ministry. He appointed Lord Shelburne as Home Secretary and Fox became the foreign secretary. Fox announced on 30 June that he was going to resign but before he could do it, Rockingham died on 1 July. Shelburne was appointed as the new PM and Fox and his political allies refused to serve with Shelburne although other Rockinghamites did serve in the new ministry. However, the ministry was not strong and had to face attacks from both Fox and Lord North. On 14 February 1783 the two men negotiated terms by which they would overthrow the government, with the Duke of Portland as the new PM.