 Macmillan was succeeded by Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home in a controversial move; it was alleged that Macmillan had pulled strings and utilised the party's grandees, nicknamed 'The Magic Circle', who had slanted their "soundings" of opinion among MPs and Cabinet Ministers to ensure that Butler was (once again) not chosen.He finally resigned, receiving the Queen from his hospital bed, on 18 October 1963, after nearly seven years as prime minister.He felt privately that he was being hounded from office by a backbench minority