Lord Melbourne, 1779-1848 (Hardcover)

Lord Melbourne was Prime Minister of England from 1834-1841. As mentor and father-figure to the young Queen Victoria, he exerted considerable influence over the first few years of her reign. He was a man to whom career success came rather late - he was 48 years old before he held any major governmental office. In a profound way, his character and thinking had already been determined by experiences outside politics - particularly by his Whig social background and his disastrous marriage to Lady Caroline Lamb. In this biography, Leslie Mitchell uses the Melbourne family papers to explore the man behind a politician at the heart of early Victorian politics. William Lamb, the second Viscount Melbourne, might have held office earlier had it not been for his marriage to Lady Caroline Ponsonby, whose scandalous public affairs (including one with Byron), preceded a descent into madness and separation from her husband. Her death in 1828 freed Melbourne to take up the career which was almost his birthright. His views and subsequent political rise and survival in high office (almost by accident rather than design), reveal much about the nature of Whig politics - operating as an extension of f