Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth,
PC (30 May 1757 – 15 February 1844) was a British statesman who served as
Prime Minister from 1801 to 1804. He is best known for obtaining the
Treaty of Amiens in 1802, an unfavourable peace with
Napoleonic France which marked the end of the
Second Coalition during the
French Revolutionary Wars. When that treaty broke down he resumed the war but he was without allies and conducted a relatively weak defensive war, ahead of what would become the
War of the Third Coalition. He was forced from office in favour of
William Pitt the Younger, who had preceded Addington as Prime Minister. Addington is also known for his ruthless and efficient crackdown on dissent during a ten-year spell as
Home Secretary from 1812 to 1822. He has been the longest-serving holder of that office since it was created in 1782.