1715 British general election

1715 British general election

← 1713 22 January – 9 March 1715 (1715-01-22 – 1715-03-09) 1722 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 558 seats in the House of Commons 280 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Whig Junto Viscount Bolingbroke Party Whig Tory Leader since c. 1695 July 1714 Seats won 341 217 Seat change 180 152

The 1715 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the 1707 merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In October 1714, soon after George I had arrived in London after ascending to the throne, he dismissed the Tory cabinet and replaced it with one almost entirely composed of Whigs, as they were responsible for securing his succession. The election of 1715 saw the Whigs win an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, and afterwards virtually all Tories in central or local government were purged, leading to a period of Whig ascendancy lasting almost fifty years during which Tories were almost entirely excluded from office. The Whigs then moved to impeach Robert Harley, the former Tory first minister. After he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two years, the case ultimately ended with his acquittal in 1717.