Fox, generally acknowledged leader of a faction of the Whigs from 1784, first served as the government Leader of the House of Commons in 1782, and remained in opposition after 1794.
When North finally resigned under the strains of office and the disastrous American War in March 1782, after Earl Cornwallis surrendered at the Battle of Yorktown, and was gingerly replaced with the new ministry of the Marquess of Rockingham, Fox was appointed Foreign Secretary. Leader of the House of Commons 
