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Manners to Pitt, dated 16 June 1784, says: 'Were I to indulge a distant speculation, I should say that without an union Ireland will not be connected with Great Britain in twenty years longer' (Correspondence, 1890, pp. 18-19). In a speech delivered in the House of Lords on 11 April 1799 Richard Watson, bishop of Llandaff, who had been the duke's tutor at Cambridge, mentioned that he had pressed the importance of a legislative union upon Rutland, who replied that 'he wholly approved of the measure, but added the man who should attempt to carry the measure into execution would be tarred and feathered' (Parl. Hist., xxxiv. 736). After a long correspondence between the English and Irish governments, Pitt's commercial propositions were laid before the Irish House of Commons on 7 Feb. 1785 in the form of ten resolutions. They passed through the Irish parliament after a concession had been made by Rutland to Grattan's views. Owing to the determined opposition of the English manufacturers, the resolutions were so materially altered in the English parliament that when Orde, the chief secretary, moved for leave to bring in the bill embodying them (12 Aug. 1785), it was denounced by Grattan in a magnificent speech, and Rutland had to abandon the idea of carrying it through the Irish parliament.

Rutland was an amiable and extravagant peer, without any particular talent, except for conviviality. The utmost magnificence signalised the entertainments of the vice-regal court, and the duke and the duchess 'were reckoned the handsomest couple in Ireland' (, Historic Memoirs, ii. 225). In the summer of 1787 Rutland went for a tour through the country, and was entertained at the seats of many noblemen. 'During the course of this tour,' says Wraxall, 'he invariably began the day by eating at breakfast six or seven turkey's eggs as an accompaniment to tea and coffee. He then rode forty and sometimes fifty miles, dined at six or seven o'clock, after which he drank very freely, and concluded by sitting up to a late hour, always supping before he retired to rest' (Memoirs, v. 34). Upon his return to Dublin he was seized with a violent fever, and died at Phœnix Lodge on 24 Oct. 1787, aged 33. His body, after living in state in the great committee room of the House of Lords, was removed to England with great pomp (London Gazettes, 1787, pp. 545-7), and was buried at Bottesford, Leicestershire, on 25 Nov. 1787. George Crabbe the poet, who had been the duke's domestic chaplain at Belvoir, wrote 'A Discourse read in the Chapel at Belvoir Castle after the Funeral of His Grace the Duke of Rutland,' &c. (London, 1788, 4to); while Bishop Watson pronounced an extravagant panegyric on the late duke during the debate on the address on 27 Nov. 1787 (Parl. Hist. xxvi. 1233-4).

Rutland was an intimate friend of William Pitt, who owed his first seat in the House of Commons to the duke's influence with Sir James Lowther (, ii. 81-2). Part of the 'Correspondence between the Right. Hon. William Pitt and Charles, Duke of Rutland, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 1781-1787,' was privately printed by Lord Mahon (afterwards Earl Stanhope) in 1842 (London, 8vo). This volume was reprinted and published by the present Duke of Rutland in 1890 (London, 8vo). The correspondence of the Irish government with Thomas Townshend (afterwards Viscount Sydney) during Rutland's viceroyalty is preserved at the Record Office. The 'Parliamentary History' records no speeches delivered by Rutland in the House of Lords. His speeches in the Irish parliament will be found in the 'Journals of the Irish House of Lords' (v. 533-4, 635-6, 658, 660, 754-5, vi. 2-3, 124-5).

He married, on 26 Dec. 1775, Lady Mary Isabella Somerset, the youngest daughter of Charles, fourth duke of Beaufort, by whom he had four sons—viz. (1) John Henry, who, born on 4 Jan. 1778, succeeded as the fifth duke, and died on 20 Jan. 1857; (2) Charles Henry Somerset, who, born on 24 Oct. 1780, became a general in the army, and died on 25 May 1855; (3) Robert William, who, born on 14 Dec. 1781, became a major-general in the army, and died on 15 Nov. 1835; and (4) William Robert Albanac, who, born on 1 May 1783, died on 22 April 1793—and two daughters: (1) Elizabeth Isabella, who married Richard Norman of Leatherhead, Surrey, on 21 Aug. 1798, and died on 5 Oct. 1853, and (2) Katherine Mary, who married Cecil Weld Forester (afterwards first Baron Forester) on 17 June 1800, and died on 10 March 1829. The duchess survived her husband many years, and died in Sackville Street, Piccadilly, on 2 Sept. 1831, aged 75. She was a strikingly handsome woman, and Wraxall gives a glowing description of her charms (Memoirs, v. 36-7). Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom the duke gave a large number of commissions, painted her four times. The first portrait, taken in March 1780, and engraved by Valentine Green in the same year, was destroyed in the disastrous fire at Belvoir in October 1816. A half-length portrait of the duke, painted in 1776 by Reynolds, belongs to the Marquis of Lothian. There are engravings by Dickinson (1794) and Hodges of a whole-length portrait by Reynolds.