Canning entered politics in 1793 as a member of Parliament. His verse, satire and parodies published in the "Anti-Jacobin (1797-98) brought him to the attention of Pitt the Younger and led to his advancement. He served as foreign secretary (1807-10, 1822-27).
While foreign secretary for the first time, his disapproval of a failed military expedition to Walcheren the Netherlands (1809) led to his fighting a duel with Viscount Castlereagh, secretary for war and the colonies at the time. They both resigned as a result of their duel. Castlereagh would later become foreign secretary in 1812.
Following the death of Castlereagh in 1822, Canning became foreign secretary and prime minister five years later. Arthur Wellesley, Robert Peel as well as other prominent Tories refused to serve in his government, forcing him to form a coalition with the Whigs.
Canning died while in office. He is remembered for and, in the most part credited with, the seizure of the Danish fleet off of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic Wars and the British military excursion into the Spanish peninsula. He also supported nationalistic currents in Greece and South America.
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