Henry de Foide

The Right Noble and Right Honourable The Lord de Foide-Huston GCSE KCMT PC
Lord High Treasurer
Monarch	Edmund IX and George II
Preceded by	Quentin, 4th Earl of Bexeness
Burgess for Gibbingham in the Erbonian Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 1928
Preceded by	Hughe de West
Majority	10·2%
Personal details
Born	(1899-10-25)25 October 1899 Huston, Southannering
Died	Huston, Southannering
Political party	National Conservative Party
Spouse	Lady Magdalene de Foide
Alma mater	University of Aldesey

Sir Henry Frederic Crispin de Foide, 1st Baron de Huston, 12th Banneret, G.C.S.E. K.C.M.T. P.C., (October 25th, 1899 — June 28th, 1993) was an Erbonian politician who served as the Lord High Treasurer of Great Nortend between 1935 and 1958. He was the longest serving Lord High Treasurer since the 16th century.

He joined the National Conservative Party at the young age of 22, and quickly stood out as a “rising star” for his passionate speeches. He was appointed the National Conservative party warden for the Gibbingham hundred in 1925, doubling party membership within two years. Foide served in the ministry of Quentin de Anthord, Earl of Bexeness, between 1932 and 1935, having been elected to the House of Burgesses for the borough of Gibbingham, Southannering in 1928 at the age of only 29.

Foide has been considered by to be the most influential and successful Lord Treasurer in the 20th century, having enacted numerous groundbreaking policies during his 23-year-long tenure which have shaped and continue to shape Erbonian society and economy. He formalised the Coalition between the Company of Scodeliers and his own party, the National Conservative party. His policies, known as Foidism, have evolved into the nationalist conservative Foid-Alsbyism ideology of the Coalition parties.

Early life

Foide was born in Huston, Southannering, a village only two miles from the county town of Gibbingham. He was the eldest son of his father, Henry Thomas de Foide, son of the 10th Banneret de Foide, and his mother Rosamund Jocker, the youngest daughter of the quasi-hereditary Mayor of Gibbingham, Sir Oswald Jocker, Kt. The Foide family had held the knight yeomanry of the manor of Huston since the 14th century.

Foide Jnr. was educated privately by the long-time prebendary of the parish, the Dr. R. Q. Williams, the great uncle of the Cardinal Dr. S. J. Williams, until the age of 10, when he was sent the short distance to Gibbingham School to board. He won an exhibition to the University of Aldesey where graduated cum laude in 1920. At Aldersey, he participated in traditional university sports such as fencing and rowing.

Early career

In 1920, Great Nortend was still neutral in the Great Astyrian War. Foide, however, feared what entering the war would do to the social fabric of the country, which had been already under strain during the drought and economic depression of the previous decade. Returning to Huston, he joined his local branch of the National Conservative Party in 1921 at the age of 22. At the time, the National Conservative Party was a minor party with strength only in some towns and cities, but never surpassing the 50 per cent mark at any time. However, its platform of nationalism appealed to Foide in the face of the ever growing threat of war.

Being a member of the petty gentry, Foide had much time to spare from his light duties at Huston to pursue his political career. Through his connexions, he met and married the daughter, Rosamund, of the Mayor of Gibbingham, Sir Oswald Jocker, in 1922. The mayoralty of the town was, as is still to-day, held almost hereditarily by the Jocker family, being passed through the family who were prominent members of the local burgesses. Despite being a relatively young outsider, Foide was endorsed as the junior National Conservative candidate for the borough of Gibbingham, which returned two burgesses to the House of Burgesses.

Election

At the elections in 1924, Foide secured 22 per cent of the vote and failed to win a seat. The senior candidate for the National Conservative Party, John Whittaker, secured himself only 26 per cent of the vote, also missing out on a seat. Whittaker, a local banker, was seen by Foide as lacking potential and unable to appeal to the general public who distrusted banking. The next year, in 1925, Foide led a successful petition to the party's county warden to appoint him as the local warden of the party.

Over the next few years, Foide aggressively promoted the Party's platform and signed up over 1,340 new members, nearly doubling the number of Party members in the region. Residents of the town remembered the “fiery crowds” which thronged the streets after the conclusion of a Party meeting. The 1928 elections, held in Gibbingham on the day after St. George's Day, saw Foide's efforts pay off, being voted in by a majority of 52 per cent, being returned as the senior Burgess for Gibbingham.

Backbencher

In Parliament, Foide was again noted for his excellent oratory and sharp wit. He would frequently attack the Droughers for their ambivalence towards the established Church of Nortend, suggesting that they were atheists or worse. He also became known for his criticism of modernisation, attacking it as a “capitalist venture contrary to the common weal”. Indeed, the phrase “common weal” featured prominently in his speeches representing the Party's idealised Erbonia.

The Scodelier government lacked a majority in the Houses of Commons, which included the Opposition Droughers, several National Conservatives, and a smattering of smaller parties and Plines. As such, it relied on the National Conservatives to provide the confidence it needed to keep the Government. Foide's strident attacks on the Droughers and his vocal support for the National Conservative cause resonated with many in the Company of Scodeliers, which had lacked a clear ideology apart from its traditional associations with Olnite Cardican Catholicism. However, many in the party were concerned over the National Conservative Party's position on capitalism and the financial sectors, seeing its general opposition as being revolutionary.

Foide, during one particularly energetic debate on a question posed by the Droughers proposing the reduction of religious education in state schools, articulated his now famous expression of, “The Crown and Church and Commons in Unity in this Realm form our Nation, and none may be put aside lest all shall be destroyed.” This met with great approval from the Government benches.

Ministry

In the 1932 election saw Foide returned to the Commons with an increased majority. The Scodeliers, however, had lost several seats to the National Conservative Party, including that of the Surveyour-General. Bexeness, seizing the opportunity to reduce the influence of the young National Conservative burgess, invited Foide to become the new Under-Surveyour in his new ministry. Foide accepted, becoming the first National Conservative to serve as a Minister of the Crown.

As Under-Surveyour, then a junior member of the Utter Ministry, Foide pursued the strengthening of existing building approval regulations after the controversial partial demolition of 14th century stained glass windows in a Lendert church. This episode also heralded the recognition of the burgeoning historical preservation movement, and the enactment of the Civic Buildings Act, which required all new public buildings to be first submitted to the Works Office for approval, a responsibility which Foide reportedly undertook with great diligence.

In a Cabinet reshuffle in early of 1934, just before the elections, Foide was promoted to Inner Ministry as Senior Clerk of the Treasury. There, he began to implement measures against the printing of bank-notes by private banks, which for decades had been widely criticised for undermining trust in the currency.

Treasurership

Election

When the Earl of Bexeness announced his upcoming retirement after the next election, he failed to nominate a successor. This is generally believed to have been done owing to the unpopularity of the “heir apparent” of the Scodeliers, the Lord de Legcastle, with both the public and the King, Edmund IX.

Foide led the National Conservative party in the 1934 general elections to a significant victory, gaining 59 seats out of 218, nearly 30 per cent of the House of Burgesses. Though the Scodeliers obtained a 55 per cent majority in the House of Commons, it lacked a majority in the House of Burgesses, and was forced to accede to a coalition with the National Conservatives.

Surprisingly, Bexeness took the decision to name Foide as his preferred successor as Lord High Treasurer to lead this Coalition of the Scodeliers and National Consevative Party. This decision was met with great controversy within the Company of Scodeliers, given that the National Conservatives was only a minor party relatively in the Commons by share of seats. After several tense days of negotiation, the need to form government prevailed over party politics, especially as the National Conservatives were beginning to raise doubts over their influence in the proposed Coalition.

After these negotiations had concluded in favour of a Coalition with Foide as Treasurer, Legcastle threatened to go to the King and have himself appointed as Lord Treasurer. However, he was appeased by Foide, who guaranteed that Legcastle would offered the office of King's Clerk and also the title of Vice Prime Minister. It was also speculated that Bexeness had threatened Legcastle with demotion or expulsion should he attempt to elevate himself, having already advised the King to not accept Legcastle as Treasurer.

First Term, 1935–1939

On October 1st, 1935, Foide was created a knight banneret, and then swore the oath of office and took the white staff of office, and by the King's commission was created Lord High Treasurer.

Did lots of stuff.

Second Term, 1940–1944

Did less stuff. Created the Coalition for real.

Third Term, 1945–1949

Did more stuff again.

Fourth Term, 1950–1953

Did some unpopular stuff. Golden jubilee of Edmund IX. The Corps of Boy Cadets received a Royal charter and became the King's Cadet Corps.

Fifth Term, 1954–1958

Did some more popular stuff.

After the accession of George II, Foide found himself at odds with the new Sovereign in his traditionalist authoritarian policy. George, who had been educated abroad in the more socially liberal XX, had already indicated that he preferred to take a more liberal approach to legislating during the last years of Edmund IX's reign. When sitting in the Privy Council on behalf of his father, he on several occasions reportedly refused to give assent to draught Royal decrees proposed by Foide and his government.

This conflict led to his falling out of favour with the newly crowned King, and Foide decided to step down from the Treasurership which he had held for 23 years out of respect to the Sovereign's wishes.

Later life

Despite retiring from the Treasurership, Foide remained active in the House of Lords well into his 80s. He was an active member of the Opposition during the five and a half years of Drougher rule under the Lord de Wolverham-Chesvoir. Though he never took up another ministerial office, he was invited to continue to sit in the Privy Council upon the accession of Catherine II on the advice of the Duke of Bokewell.

Death

Foide died on June 28th, 1993, of natural causes, at his family home in Huston. He was aged 93 years old. He was given a ceremonial funeral at St. Peter's Cathedral on July 4th with full state services of Requiems and the offices of the dead as befitting a person of his office and influence, his coffin thence transported by rail to Gibbingham where another set of offices and Requiem were chaunted. Finally, there was a procession by carriage to the church of St. Anne's, Huston, where after another set of offices and Requiem were chaunted, Foide was buried under the chancel. His grave is marked by a brazen plaque.

Legacy

Foide's legacy lasted long after he retired as Lord High Treasurer and continues to be a notable influence on modern-day Erbonian politics. As the father of the modern Coalition of the Scodeliers and National Conservatives, he refomed the ideology of the former party with a new nationalist conservative focus. Indirectly, he also forced the Droughers to conform to the new status quo, leading them to abandon or at least considerably soften their opposition to “Catholic” doctrines in the Church of Nortend.

His influence is also felt in society, with the social framework of society greatly influenced by laws passed during his tenure and by his influence in general. As a great proponent of the “countryside” as the cure for the city's ills, he halted the flow of people from the countryside to towns and cities. He also resisted “internationalist” trends in architecture, art, design, music and dress, evidence whereof is clearly visible in modern Erbonian society.

Since leaving office, Foide has consistently ranked highly in opinion polls, frequently coming first across all sectors of society as the greatest Lord High Treasurer of the modern era.

Titles, awards and honours

Foide became a member of the Great Council upon being elected to the Parliament in 1929 with the style of “The Honourable”. He was sworn into the Privy Council upon being appointed Senior Clerk of the Treasury in 1934, being accorded the style of “The Right Honourable”. He was created a Cavalier of the Order of the Mantle and Tippet.

Immediately before becoming Lord High Treasurer, Foide was created a hereditary knight banneret, entitled to the honorific “Sir”. As Lord High Treasurer, Foide was invested with the style of “The Right Noble”, a style which he retained for life. He was also elevated to Knight Companion of the Order of the Mantle and Tippet.

After his retirement as Lord High Treasurer, Foide was created a Baron in the Peerage of Great Nortend, of the manor of Huston which his family had held for generations. His immediate mesne lords above him in the feudal system of land tenure were compensated by the Crown.

On his 70th birthday, in 1969, Foide was created Knight Commander of the Order of the Mantle and Tippet. On his 90th birthday, in 1989, he was created Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Edmund.

See also

• Lord High Treasurer of Great Nortend