The Minister for Magic is the leader of the wizarding community in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the highest ranking member of the Ministry of Magic, which they control. The position somewhat corresponds to the Prime Minister of British Muggles.
The Minister is advised on wizarding matters by their staff members and by the other Heads of Departments. They also chair the Wizengamot to pass Wizarding Laws, or to hear important trials, though the verdict is decided by majority vote, including that of the Minister themselves. Many other wizarding countries also have Ministers and have the similar governmental systems such as the Bulgarian minister.
Despite being the head of the wizarding community of Britain and Ireland, it is common for the Minister to uphold a facade of peace and safety to maintain control and the satisfaction of the public, even if it means blatantly lying to the citizens, putting them at risk, and forcing the media to corroborate the Ministries claims.
The Minister for Magic was formally appointed in 1707 when Ulick Gamp was voted in as the first Minister for Magic. The minister is democratically elected through a public vote and there is no fixed limit to a Minister's term in office. However, regular elections must be held at a maximum interval of seven years.
History
Albus Dumbledore was offered, but refused, the position on at least three occasions. This was due to Dumbledore's past, leading himself to believe that he was not to be trusted with power.
After Millicent Bagnold was preparing to retire, Barty Crouch Snr was the next prime candidate, due to his cruel but effective methods of combating the Dark Arts during the First Wizarding War, until he sentenced his son to Azkaban for being a Death Eater. It was after his son's presumed death that the public began to take pity on the boy and thought Crouch was too neglectful as a father, which led to a drop in his popularity, causing him to lose out to Douglas.
Garrett Douglas became Minister in 1990. He was succeeded by Finn Hudson in 2005.
List of British Ministers of Magic
18th century
| # | Portrait | Minister for Magic (term of office) |
Other Ministerial offices held | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 
|
Ulick Gamp 1707 to 1718 |
Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot (Wizards' Council) | First person to use the title of Minister for Magic. Established the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. |
| 2 | Damocles Rowle 1718 to 1726 |
— | Established Azkaban Prison in 1718. Forced to step down after his actions as Minister towards Muggles led to him being censured by the International Confederation of Wizards. | |
| 3 | Perseus Parkinson 1726 to 1733 |
— | Attempted to pass a bill to prevent wizard-Muggle miscegenation (the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types); the public did not approve and voted him out at the first opportunity. | |
| 4 | Eldritch Diggory 1733 to 1747 |
— | First established an Auror recruitment programme. Tried (unsuccessfully) to close down Azkaban or remove Dementors as guards. Died in office. | |
| 5 | Albert Boot 1747 to 1752 |
— | Resigned after mismanaged goblin rebellion. | |
| 6 | Basil Flack 1752 |
— | Shortest-serving Minister for Magic. Resigned due to the advancement of goblin rebellions (goblins allied themselves with werewolves). | |
| 7 | 
|
Hesphaestus Gore 1752 to 1770 |
Auror | One of the earliest Aurors. Successfully put down a number of revolts by magical beings. Renovated and reinforced Azkaban Prison. |
| 8 | Maximilian Crowdy 1770 to 1781 |
— | Routed out several extremist pure-blood groups planning Muggle attacks. Died in office, under mysterious circumstances. | |
| 9 | Porteus Knatchbull 1781 to 1789 |
— | Correspondence with Muggle Prime Minister Lord North led to the latter being forced to resign after word leaked out that he believed in wizards. | |
| 10 | Unctuous Osbert 1789 to 1798 |
— | Too much influenced by pure-bloods of wealth and status; was little more than a puppet in the hands of Septimus Malfoy. | |
| 11 | 
|
Artemisia Lufkin 1798 to 1811 |
— | First female Minister for Magic. Established the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and lobbied (successfully) to have a Quidditch World Cup held in Britain during her term. |
19th century
| # | Portrait | Minister for Magic (term of office) |
Other Ministerial offices held | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 
|
Grogan Stump 1811 to 1819 |
— | Defined "Being" and "Beast", settling a debate that had been going on since the 14th century. Deeply restructured the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and established the Department of Magical Games and Sports. |
| 13 | Josephina Flint 1819 to 1827 |
— | Revealed a severe anti-Muggle bias during her term; specifically attacked new Muggle inventions such as the telegraph, which she claimed interfered with wand function. | |
| 14 | Ottaline Gambol 1827 to 1835 |
— | Came up with the idea of having the Hogwarts Express to solve the dilemma of how to transport students to Hogwarts School without attracting Muggle attention. Established committees to investigate Muggle brainpower. | |
| 15 | Radolphus Lestrange 1835 to 1841 |
— | Unsuccessfully attempted to close down the Department of Mysteries. Resigned due to ill health (widely rumoured to have been unable to cope with the strains of office). | |
| 16 | Hortensia Milliphutt 1841 to 1849 |
— | Introduced more legislation than any other Minister. Political downfall came when she began passing regulations on hat pointiness and other wearisome laws. | |
| 17 | Evangeline Orpington 1849 to 1855 |
— | Had concealed platforms built at King's Cross Station to house wizarding trains. Believed to have intervened magically (and illegally) in the Crimean War. | |
| 18 | Priscilla Dupont 1855 to 1858 |
— | Developed an irrational loathing of the Muggle Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, which led to a series of Muggle-baiting incidents. Forced to resign after it became too much. | |
| 19 | Dugald McPhail 1858 to 1865 |
— | A period of calm and stability. Established the Knight Bus in 1865. | |
| 20 | Faris "Spout-Hole" Spavin 1865 to 1903 |
— | Longest-serving Minister. Left office at age 147, after attending Queen Victoria's funeral wearing an admiral's hat and spats. Survived an assassination attempt by a centaur, who took offence to the punchline of his "a centaur, a ghost and a dwarf walk into a bar" joke. |
20th century
| # | Portrait | Minister for Magic (term of office) |
Other Ministerial offices held | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Venusia Crickerly 1903 to 1912 |
Auror | Competent and likeable Minister. Died in 1912 in a Mandrake-related gardening accident. | |
| 22 | Archer Evermonde 1912 to 1923 |
— | Passed emergency legislation preventing wizards from taking part in the on-going First World War, lest this cause a massive breach of the International Statute of Secrecy. | |
| 23 | Lorcan McLaird 1923 to 1925 |
— | An exceptionally taciturn man who preferred to communicate in monosyllables and expressive puffs of smoke that he produced with his wand. Forced out of office out of sheer irritation. | |
| 24 | Hector Fawley 1925 to 1939 |
— | Term in office coincided with the beginning of Gellert Grindelwald's "For the Greater Good" revolution. Fawley did not take Grindelwald's threat to the world wizarding community sufficiently seriously and was, as a result, forced from his office. | |
| 25 | Leonard Spencer-Moon 1939 to 1948 |
Tea-boy in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes | A sound Minister, oversaw a period of great turmoil in both the wizarding (global wizarding war) and the Muggle world (Second World War). Maintained a good working relationship with Winston Churchill. | |
| 26 | Wilhelmina Tuft 1948 to 1959 |
— | Presided over a period of welcome peace and prosperity. Died in office, after eating Alihotsy-flavoured fudge (which she was allergic to). | |
| 27 | Ignatius Tuft 1959 to 1962 |
— | Son of his predecessor, who gained election based on his mother's popularity. Tried to institute a controversial and dangerous Dementor breeding programme, and was forced from his office. | |
| 28 | Nobby Leach 1962 to 1968 |
— | First Muggle-born Minister for Magic. Denied having had anything to do with England's 1966 World Cup win. Left office after contracting a mysterious illness (conspiracy theories abound — Abraxas Malfoy is widely believed to have been part of the shady plot that made him leave his post prematurely). | |
| 29 | Eugenia Jenkins 1968 to 1975 |
— | Dealt competently with the pure-blood riots during the Squib Rights marches of the late 1960s. The first rise of Lord Voldemort saw her ousted from office, as the people saw her as innadequate to meet the challenge. | |
| 30 | Harold Minchum 1975 to 1980 |
— | Hard-liner. Placed even more Dementors in Azkaban, but could not contain Voldemort's seemingly unstoppable rise to power. | |
| 31 | Millicent Bagnold 1980 to 1990 |
— | Minister during the terminal phase of the First Wizarding War. It was during her term that Lord Voldemort seemingly died following the James and Lily Potter murders in 1981. Responsible for the successful Death Eater trials immediately after the war. | |
| 32 | 
|
Garrett Douglas c. 1990 to 2005 |
Advisor to the Minister for Magic |
Most of the wizarding world supported Garrett Douglas for Minister when Bagnold retired, and was elected in 1990. He is praised for using his Slytherin traits to make the Wizarding world a better place for every witch or wizard, including Muggle-borns, which caused a lot of pure-blood supremacists to work against him. |
21st century
| # | Portrait | Minister for Magic (term of office) |
Other Ministerial offices held | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | 
|
Finn Hudson c. 2005 to ? |
— | Finn Hudson was the first and only Elemental to become the Minister for Magic. |
Timeline
Relationship to the Muggle Prime Minister
One of the Minister for Magic's duties is to correspond with the British Prime Minister of Muggles regarding any ongoing events in the wizarding world that will or may affect the United Kingdom as a whole. This includes introducing themselves to the Muggle Prime Minister, should there be a change in office on either side.
A small portrait in the corner of the Prime Minister's office serves as an envoy between the two Ministers. It announces the arrival of the Minister for Magic, seeking the Prime Minister's reply (usually acquiescence to the unavoidable). It is believed that a Permanent Sticking Charm must have been placed on the portrait, for neither the Prime Minister nor his experts were able to remove it from its location.
Known correspondences
Sometime between 1990 and 1993, Douglas introduced himself to the newly elected Muggle Prime Minister and informed him of the existence of the magical population living among Muggles in secret. Garrett assured the Muggle Prime Minister that they would likely not see each other again unless there was an emergency.
| Minister for Magic (term of office) |
Prime Minister (term of office) |
|---|---|
| Artemisia Lufkin 1798 to 1811 |
William Pitt the Younger 1783 to 1801 |
| Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth 1801 to 1804 | |
| William Pitt the Younger 1804 to 1806 | |
| William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville 1806 to 1807 | |
| William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland 1807 to 1809 | |
| Spencer Perceval 1809 to 1812 | |
| Grogan Stump 1811 to 1819 | |
| Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool 1812 to 1827 | |
| Hortensia Milliphutt 1841 to 1849 |
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne 1835 to 1841 (possibly) |
| Robert Peel 1841 to 1846 | |
| John Russell, 1st Earl Russell 1846 to 1852 | |
| Evangeline Orpington 1849 to 1855 | |
| Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby 1852 | |
| George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen 1852 to 1855 | |
| Garrett Douglas 1990 to 2005 |
John Major 1990 to 1997 |
| Tony Blair 1997 to 2007 | |
| Finn Hudson 2005 to ? |
Tony Blair 1997 to 2007 |
| Minister for Magic of Great Britain | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ministers for Magic: | |||
|
| Minister for Magic and Support Staff | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||
| Minister for Magic: Garrett Douglas Finn Hudson | |||
| Advisor to the Minister for Magic Hugo Howell Quinn Fabray | |||
| Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic: Joshua Dunbar Jackson Whittemore | |||
| Junior Assistant to the Minister for Magic: Finn Hudson | |||
| Others: Eduardus Limus (Exotic Symbol Analyst) • Mdme. Miraforum (Quill Control & Rune Translation) • Loretta Fieldwake (Special Advisor for Elf Legislation) |