George Germain gets the Sack(ville)

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George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville

In the Battle of Minden on 1 August 1759, British/Hanoverian infantry of the centre made an advance on the French cavalry/artillery in that sector. They apparently went in without orders and their attacking line formation even repulsed repeated French cavalry charges, holding until the last moment then firing a massive volley when the charge came within ten yards. As the disrupted French began to fall back on Minden, Ferdinand called for a British cavalry charge to complete the victory, but Sackville withheld permission for their advance. Ferdinand sent his order several times, but Sackville was estranged from Lord Granby, the force commander. He continued to withhold permission for Granby to gain glory through an attack. For this action, he was cashiered and sent home. Granby replaced him as commander of the British contingent for the remainder of the war.

Court martial

Sackville refused to accept responsibility for refusing to obey orders. Back in England, he demanded a court martial, and made it a large enough issue that he obtained his demand in 1760. The court found him guilty, and imposed one of the strangest and strongest verdicts ever rendered against a general officer. The court's verdict not only upheld his discharge, but ruled that he was "...unfit to serve his Majesty in any [OTL military capacity] capacity whatsoever", then ordered that their verdict be read to and entered in the orderly book of every regiment in the Army. The king had his name struck from the Privy Council rolls.
To give him a cabinet post after this damning indictment would seem almost disloyal to the crown.

Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet, of Maryland (unless you can come up with a better candidate?*)

Eden was not among those who believed that coercion would force Marylanders into loyalty to the mother country. He returned to Maryland from England shortly after the Peggy Stewart was burned in protest against English taxes on tea, and on December 30 1774 he wrote:
"The spirit of resistance against the Tea Act, or any mode of internal taxation, is as strong and universal here as ever. I firmly believe that they will undergo any hardship sooner than acknowledge a right in the British Parliament in that particular, and will persevere in their non-importation and non-exportation experiments, in spite of every inconvenience that they must consequently be exposed to, and the total loss of their trade."[1] By 1775 his authority had been totally usurped by the Annapolis Convention. He was created a Baronet, of Maryland in North America, in 1776.
On 10 November 1775, Sir Robert is appointed Secretary of State for the American department in Lord North's government instead. What happens?

* William_Petty,_2nd_Earl_of_Shelburne or even Jeffrey_Amherst,_1st_Baron_Amherst? Although that would require a healthy Pitt the Elder instead of Lord North.
The same year [1770] when Britain and Spain became involved in the Falklands Crisis and came close to war, Pitt was a staunch advocate of taking a tough stance with Madrid and Paris (as he had been during the earlier Corsican Crisis when France had invaded Corsica) and made a number of speeches on the subject rousing public opinion.[49] The government of Lord North was pushed into taking a firmer line because of this, mobilising the navy, and forcing Spain to back down. Some had even believed that the issue was enough to cast North from office and restore Pitt as Prime Minister - although the ultimate result was to strengthen the position of North who took credit for his firm handling of the crisis and was able to fill the cabinet with his own supporters. North would go on to dominate politics for the next decade, leading the country until 1782.
 
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