18 Facts About Lord Melbourne

Lord Melbourne is best known for coaching the Queen in the ways of politics, acting almost as her private secretary.

Lord Melbourne was educated at Eton, Trinity College, Cambridge and the University of Glasgow, as a resident pupil of Professor John Millar alongside his younger brother Frederick.

Lord Melbourne succeeded his elder brother as heir to his father's title in 1805 and married Lady Caroline Ponsonby, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat.

Lamb first came to general notice for reasons he would rather have avoided: his wife had a public affair with Lord Melbourne Byron—she coined the famous characterisation of Byron as "mad, bad and dangerous to know".

Lord Melbourne told Lord Holland that he was committed to the Whig principles of the Glorious Revolution but not to "a heap of modern additions, interpolations, facts and fictions".

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Lord Melbourne had spent 25 years in the Commons, largely as a backbencher, and was not politically well known.

Lord Melbourne appointed a special commission to try approximately 1,000 of those arrested, and ensured that justice was strictly adhered to: one-third were acquitted and most of the one-fifth sentenced to death were instead transported.

Lord Melbourne appears to have been executed solely on the word of Melbourne, who sought a victim in order to 'set an example'.

Lord Melbourne supported the 1834 prosecution and transportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to Australia for their attempts to protest against the cutting of agricultural wages.

Lord Melbourne, who was the man most likely to be both acceptable to the King and hold the Whig party together, hesitated after receiving from Grey a letter from the King requesting Lord Melbourne to visit him to discuss the formation of a government.

Lord Melbourne feared he would not enjoy the extra work that accompanied the office of Premier, but he did not want to let his friends and party down.

Lord Melbourne was opposed to the Reform Act 1832 proposed by the Whigs, arguing that Catholic emancipation had not ended in the tranquillity expected of it, but reluctantly agreed that it was necessary to forestall the threat of revolution.

Lord Melbourne then gave the Tories under Sir Robert Peel an opportunity to form a government.

Lord Melbourne was Prime Minister when Queen Victoria came to the throne.

Lord Melbourne was given a private apartment at Windsor Castle, and unfounded rumours circulated for a time that Victoria would marry Lord Melbourne, 40 years her senior.

Whig cabinet under Lord Melbourne decided on 1 October 1839 to send an expeditionary force to China to protect British interests.

Lord Melbourne died at home on 24 November 1848 and was buried nearby at St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem Lord Melbourne, which was published in 1836, is one of the rare instances in which she allowed herself any political comment.