he represented in Parliament until the death of his
father in 1702, when he succeeded to the title, his elder brother having
died in 1688. While a member of the House of Commons he appears to have
held opinions of a somewhat republican nature; and Swift tells us, 'he
would often, among his familiar friends, refuse the title of Lord (as he
had done to myself), swear he would never be called otherwise than
Charles Spencer, and hoped to see the day when there should not be a
peer in England.' These views, however, were very considerably modified
on his succession to the title. In 1705 he was appointed envoy
extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Court of Vienna, to
congratulate the Emperor Joseph on his accession to the crown. Shortly
after his return to England, Sunderland, notwithstanding the opposition
of Queen Anne, who always entertained a great antipathy for him, was
made one of the Secretaries of State, an office which he held until June
1710, when he was dismissed by the Queen, who wished, however, to bestow
on him a pension of three thousand pounds a year. This he refused, with
the remark, 'I am glad your Majesty is satisfied I have done my duty.
But if I cannot have the honour to serve my country, I will not plunder
it.' He remained out of office during the remainder of Anne's reign,
but on the accession of George I. to the throne he was made
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. This post, however, was by no means
agreeable to him, for he regarded it as a kind of banishment, and during
the short time he held it he never crossed the Channel. In 1715 he was
appointed Lord Privy Seal, Vice-Treasurer of Ireland in 1716, and in
April 1717 he was a second time made a Secretary of State, his friend
Addison receiving a like appointment. On the 16th of March 1718 he
became Lord-President of the Council, and on the 21st of the same month
First Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, which office he resigned on the
3rd of April 1721. He died, after a short illness, on the 19th of April
1722.

Lord Sunderland was thrice married, and had children by all his wives.
By his second wife, Anne, daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough, he
had four sons and a daughter. The eldest son died in infancy; Robert,
the second, succeeded to the earldom, and died unmarried on the 15th of
September 1729; Charles, the third, became Earl of Sunderland on the
death of his elder brother, and in 1733 second Duke of Marlborough, but
he did not obtain the Mar