Halifax, Charles Montagu, 1st earl of (1661-1715). Though of aristocratic background, Montagu achieved political recognition through matchless powers of oratory and a measure of machiavellian trickery. Entering Parliament in 1689, he soon achieved prominence as a court manager, becoming a Treasury commissioner in 1692, chancellor of the Exchequer in 1694, and 1st lord of the Treasury in 1697. Accusations of malversation forced his resignation in 1699, but in the year following he was created baron. An attempt to impeach him in 1701 failed. Throughout Anne's reign he was a Junto leader in the Lords, and at George I's accession (1714) was reappointed 1st lord and made an earl.

(hăl'əfăks) , 1661–1715, English statesman. He and Matthew Prior were coauthors of a parody of John Dryden's The Hind and the Panther, entitled The Town and The Country Mouse (1687). As a lord of the treasury, Halifax proposed (1692) the system of government borrowing that established the British national debt. In 1694 he adopted the proposal of William Paterson to found the Bank of England and was appointed chancellor of the exchequer. The following year he designated Isaac Newton as warden of the mint to effect a recoinage and issued the first exchequer bills. Halifax succeeded Sidney Godolphin as first lord of the treasury (1697–99) and was twice impeached (1701, 1703) for breach of trust as auditor of the exchequer, but he was not convicted. He was reappointed first lord of the treasury on the accession (1714) of George I.