Like his almost life-long rival Robert Harley, Charles Spencer, third Earl of Sunderland, had an equally ardent passion for literature, and for the glorious strife of statesmanship. No man knew better how to enjoy and how to dignify retirement, and very few men have wrestled more strenuously to avoid it. Nearly twelve years of his short life were passed in high offices of State, and almost the half of that official period was spent under Queen Anne, who mortally hated him. The other half embraced those early years of the next reign, in which the contests of politicians too often resembled the combats of those ancient Retiarii who fought with nets, as well as with sharp-pointed weapons.

Charles Spencer was the second but only surviving son of Robert, second Earl of Sunderland, and fourth Lord Spencer of Wormleighton, by the Lady Anne Digby.