The Harley Ministry was a British

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

 government that existed between 1710 and 1714 in the reign of Queen Anne. It was headed by Robert Harley

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer KG was a British politician and statesman of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory Ministry. Between 1711 and 1714 he served as First Lord of the Treasury, effectively Queen...

 and composed largely of Tories. Harley was a former Whig who had changed sides, bringing down the seemingly powerful Whig Junto. The Ministry vigorously pushed for a peace to end the War of the Spanish Succession

War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...

, leading to the Treaty of Utrecht

Treaty of Utrecht

The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...

. Foreign affairs were largely conducted by Viscount Bolingbroke

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his atheism. In 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the...

. The Ministry successfully prosecuted Robert Walpole over charges of profiteering

War profiteering

A war profiteer is any person or organization that profits from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. The term has strong negative connotations. General profiteering may also occur in peace time.-International arms dealers:...

 and had him imprisoned in the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

.

The government fell following Anne's death in 1714. The new King George I

George I of Great Britain

George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....

 was not comfortable with Harley or Bolingbroke, whom he believed had opposed the Hanoverian Succession and instead supported the Jacobite

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

 pretenders. They were replaced by the Townshend Ministry

Townshend Ministry

Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend was appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department by George I on September 1714. He would be the de facto leader of this Whig ministry as Northern Secretary until 1717, when he was demoted to Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in favour of the First...

, beginning the Whig Ascendency, and it would be nearly fifty years before a Tory Ministry gained office again in 1762. Both Harley and Bolingbroke were forced into exile, along with many of their followers after being accused of treason.