Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe dating history

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Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, KG, GCB, PC (4 November 1786 – 14 August 1880) was a British diplomat and politician who became best known as the longtime British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. A member of the noble House of Stratford and cousin of George Canning, he served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary to the United States of America between 1820 and 1824 and held his first appointment as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1825 and 1828. He intermittently represented several constituencies in parliament between 1828 and 1842. In 1841 he was re-appointed as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, a position he held for the next 17 years. In 1852 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, probably in reference to his supposed descent from the great 15th-century merchant family of Canynges of Redcliffe near Bristol. However, despite his illustrious diplomatic career, Canning's hopes of high political office were frequently dashed.