# Lord Hartington — Eminent Victorians character guide

> Lord Hartington in Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Hartington

**First appearance:** 0024-the-end-of-general-gordon

## Snapshot

The phlegmatic Secretary of State for War who inherits the Sudan crisis and must decide, reluctantly, whether to send Gordon up the Nile at all.

## Who they are

Hartington is the aristocratic Whig whose instinct is to do nothing and whose fate is to be blamed for everything, a man of solid sense in a government of nervous improvisers. His tension is between the pressure of an excitable press and his own conviction that the whole Sudanese adventure is a folly. He matters because his hesitant authorization of Gordon's mission sets the entire tragedy in motion.

## Relationships

### [General Gordon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/general_gordon)

_professional_

Gordon and Lord Hartington corresponded frequently as Gordon sought political support and Hartington, as War Secretary, managed Gordon's military appointments.

### [Li Hung Chang](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/li_hung_chang)

_professional_

Li Hung Chang and Lord Hartington engaged in diplomatic negotiations and trade discussions between China and Britain.

### [Florence Nightingale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/florence_nightingale)

_professional_

Florence Nightingale and Lord Hartington collaborated on army medical reforms, with Hartington as a political ally in Parliament.

### [General Gordon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/general_gordon)

_professional_

Gordon and Lord Hartington corresponded frequently as Gordon sought political support and Hartington, as War Secretary, managed Gordon's military appointments.

### [General Gordon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/general_gordon)

_professional_

Gordon and Lord Hartington corresponded frequently as Gordon sought political support and Hartington, as War Secretary, managed Gordon's military appointments.

## In the story

### [The End of General Gordon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/chapters/the-end-of-general-gordon)

The slow-moving statesman whose conscience drives him to pressure Mr. Gladstone for a relief expedition. The chapter details his seven-stage process, culminating in a threat to resign, but his delays contribute to the expedition's fatal lateness.

### [Bibliography](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/chapters/bibliography)

Subject of B. Holland's biography of the Eighth Duke of Devonshire.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/lord_hartington
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters