William Pitt the Younger King refused to support him. Fox stated the bill was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy. Pitt responded that: "Necessity was the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It was the argument of tyrants; it was the creed of slaves." The King was opposed to the bill; when it passed in the House of Commons, he secured its defeat in the House of Lords by threatening to regard anyone who voted for it as his enemy. Following the bill's failure in the Upper House, George III dismissed the coalition government and finally entrusted the premiership to William Pitt,
Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom the middle name until the 1980s.) The richest Prime Minister was Lord Derby, with a personal fortune of over £7 million (about £444 million in today's money). The poorest was William Pitt the Younger, who was £40,000 (now over £1 million) in debt by 1800. Three Prime Ministers ultimately died as a result of accidents: Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom The article lists the records of Prime Ministers of Great Britain and of the United Kingdom since 1721. The Prime Minister with the longest single term was Sir Robert Walpole, lasting 20 years and 315 days from