High Tories
Encyclopedia
High Toryism is a term used in Britain, Canada and elsewhere to refer to a traditionalist conservatism
which is in line with the Toryism
originating in the 17th century. It tends to be at odds with the modern emphasis of the Conservative Party
in these countries. High Toryism has been described as neo-feudalist
in its preference of a ruling class over democratisation. Historically, the late eighteenth-century conservatism derived from the Whigs Edmund Burke
and William Pitt the Younger
marks a watershed from the earlier and "higher" or legitimist Toryism that was allied to Jacobitism
.
The High Tory view in the 1700s preferred low taxation and deplored Whig
support for a standing army, an expanding empire and commerce. This changed in the late 1700s and many of their privileges were reduced by the Reform Act 1832
. By the reign of Queen Victoria High Tories supported the empire and were personified by the Prime Ministers Lord Derby
and Lord Salisbury
.
High Tories prefer the values of the historical landed gentry
and aristocracy
, with their noblesse oblige
and their self-imposed sense of duty and responsibility, to those of the modern commercial business class. Their focus is on maintaining a traditional, rooted society and way of life, which is often as much threatened by modern capitalism
as by socialism
or the Welfare State
. A High Tory also favours a strong community, in contrast to Whig, liberal and neoconservative individualism. One Nation Conservatism
, as influenced by Disraeli and epitomised in leaders such as Baldwin, favoured social cohesion, and its adherents support social institutions that maintain harmony between different interest groups, classes, and—more recently—different races or religions.
Examples of English High Tory views in the twentieth century would be those of the novelists Evelyn Waugh
and Anthony Burgess
, poet T. S. Eliot
, Members of Parliament such as John Biggs-Davison
, Julian Amery, John Heydon Stokes
, Alan Clark
, and the philosopher Roger Scruton
. The leading pressure-group of High Toryism was undoubtedly the Conservative Monday Club
, described by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson
as "The Conscience of the Tory Party".
, a fervent monarchist
(some were Jacobite
s—particularly prior to George III
and the death of the agnatic Stuart line), most likely a High Church Anglican
but in some cases traditionalist Catholic
in religion, a classically-educated believer in high culture
with a suspicion and dislike of contemporary popular culture
, cool towards the idea of democracy
and populism
, a devoted Anglophile
(if Canadian rather than British), and leaning rather more towards anti-Americanism
than to pro-Americanism in foreign policy (America being seen as the ultimate proponent of democracy and popular culture, a country without rooted traditions, long history, monarchy or aristocracy).
s or paleoconservative
s and mainstream or neoconservative
s in the United States. In Canada the term Red Tory
used to mean something like a High Tory.
Traditionalist Conservatism
Traditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," "Burkean conservatism", "classical conservatism" and , "Toryism", describes a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy and...
which is in line with the Toryism
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
originating in the 17th century. It tends to be at odds with the modern emphasis of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party
-Africa:*Conservative Party *Conservative Party *Conservative Party -Europe:*Conservative Party *Conservative Party of Armenia *Conservative Party *Conservative Party...
in these countries. High Toryism has been described as neo-feudalist
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
in its preference of a ruling class over democratisation. Historically, the late eighteenth-century conservatism derived from the Whigs Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
and William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
marks a watershed from the earlier and "higher" or legitimist Toryism that was allied to Jacobitism
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...
.
Historical
Whig
-In the British Isles:* A faction of the Scottish Covenanters during the 17th-century Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and the original Whigs....
support for a standing army, an expanding empire and commerce. This changed in the late 1700s and many of their privileges were reduced by the Reform Act 1832
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...
. By the reign of Queen Victoria High Tories supported the empire and were personified by the Prime Ministers Lord Derby
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, KG, PC was an English statesman, three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and to date the longest serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley...
and Lord Salisbury
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British Conservative statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...
.
Modern
High Tories prefer the values of the historical landed gentry
Landed gentry
Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....
and aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
, with their noblesse oblige
Noblesse oblige
Noblesse oblige is a French phrase literally meaning "nobility obliges".The Dictionnaire de l’Académie française defines it thus:# Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly....
and their self-imposed sense of duty and responsibility, to those of the modern commercial business class. Their focus is on maintaining a traditional, rooted society and way of life, which is often as much threatened by modern capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
as by socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
or the Welfare State
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
. A High Tory also favours a strong community, in contrast to Whig, liberal and neoconservative individualism. One Nation Conservatism
One Nation Conservatism
One nation, one nation conservatism, and Tory democracy are terms used in political debate in the United Kingdom to refer to a certain wing of the Conservative Party...
, as influenced by Disraeli and epitomised in leaders such as Baldwin, favoured social cohesion, and its adherents support social institutions that maintain harmony between different interest groups, classes, and—more recently—different races or religions.
Examples of English High Tory views in the twentieth century would be those of the novelists Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
and Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
, poet T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, Members of Parliament such as John Biggs-Davison
John Biggs-Davison
Sir John Alec Biggs-Davison was a Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom for Chigwell from 1955 and then, after boundary changes in 1974, Epping Forest until his death. He was a leading figure in the Conservative Monday Club.-Early years:The son of Major John Norman Biggs-Davison,...
, Julian Amery, John Heydon Stokes
John Heydon Stokes
Sir John Heydon Romaine Stokes, KBE , was a British politician and a Conservative Party Member of Parliament.-Education and Early Career:...
, Alan Clark
Alan Clark
Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark was a British Conservative MP and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade, and Defence, and became a privy counsellor in 1991...
, and the philosopher Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
Roger Vernon Scruton is a conservative English philosopher and writer. He is the author of over 30 books, including Art and Imagination , Sexual Desire , The Aesthetics of Music , and A Political Philosophy: Arguments For Conservatism...
. The leading pressure-group of High Toryism was undoubtedly the Conservative Monday Club
Conservative Monday Club
The Conservative Monday Club is a British pressure group "on the right-wing" of the Conservative Party.-Overview:...
, described by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
as "The Conscience of the Tory Party".
Stereotype
The archetypal traditional High Tory would be a gentlemanGentleman
The term gentleman , in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus...
, a fervent monarchist
Monarchism
Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
(some were 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...
s—particularly prior to George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
and the death of the agnatic Stuart line), most likely a High Church Anglican
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
but in some cases traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
in religion, a classically-educated believer in high culture
High culture
High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...
with a suspicion and dislike of contemporary popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, cool towards the idea of democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
, a devoted Anglophile
Anglophilia
An Anglophile is a person who is fond of English culture or, more broadly, British culture. Its antonym is Anglophobe.-Definition:The word comes from Latin Anglus "English" via French, and is ultimately derived from Old English Englisc "English" + Ancient Greek φίλος - philos, "friend"...
(if Canadian rather than British), and leaning rather more towards anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism
The term Anti-Americanism, or Anti-American Sentiment, refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, culture or government of the United States...
than to pro-Americanism in foreign policy (America being seen as the ultimate proponent of democracy and popular culture, a country without rooted traditions, long history, monarchy or aristocracy).
Positioning
The distinction between a "High Tory" and a conventional contemporary Tory bears some resemblance to that between traditionalist conservativeTraditionalist Conservatism
Traditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," "Burkean conservatism", "classical conservatism" and , "Toryism", describes a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy and...
s or paleoconservative
Paleoconservatism
Paleoconservatism is a term for a conservative political philosophy found primarily in the United States stressing tradition, limited government, civil society, anti-colonialism, anti-corporatism and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton...
s and mainstream or neoconservative
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
s in the United States. In Canada the term Red Tory
Red Tory
A red Tory is an adherent of a particular political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in...
used to mean something like a High Tory.