by Who is Melbourne named after? Viscount Melbourne: two-time British Prime Minister and mentor to Queen Victoria, a political centrist who was never far from scandal.
Viscount Melbourne was born William Lamb in London, on 15 March 1779. His family was political; his father Peniston, the first Viscount Melbourne, was a prominent ‘Whig’ and sat in the House of Commons for 25 years.
The Whigs were one of the first political parties in a modern sense. Born out of the British civil war of the 17th century, they promoted the authority of Parliament over the rule of the monarch, and would later champion reform in a number of areas.
Lamb’s mother Elizabeth was also a political player. A committed Whig, she cultivated a wide circle of connections which she used to help her husband’s career.
Lord Melbourne and his wife were also the subject of much gossip.
Both Peniston and Elizabeth were unfaithful to each other. While both were discrete, some degree of scandal still attached to them; it was said of Elizabeth that she was not above exchanging sexual favours for political ones.
One of Elizabeth’s lovers was George Wyndham, the 3rd Earl of Egremont; a rumour circulated he was actually Lamb’s father. Lamb was thought to resemble Wyndham, and he spent much time in his household when he was a boy.
Decades later, as he lay dying, Wyndham called Lamb to his bedside for a final meeting: some saw this as proof the pair were related. But in public all parties denied Wyndham’s paternity.
Elizabeth remained unruffled by speculations on her private life. She was cool tempered, calculating, not considered intellectual but instead, cunning.
Her activities and reputation did cause her sons some angst; her younger son George once got into a public fist fight with a contemporary when they called his mother a ‘whore’.
Lamb’s life now proceeded along a path considered proper for a young gentleman. Educated at Eton and then Cambridge, he studied Arts and Law, and was admitted to the bar in 1804.
In 1805, Lamb’s older brother died, and he became the heir to his father’s title. This meant he would follow him into politics, and the same year he was elected to the House of Commons as the member for Leominster.
Later in 1805 he would marry Caroline Ponsonby, the beautiful and artistic daughter of Frederick Ponsonby, the 3rd Earl of Bessborough. The pair had met at a formal social gathering in 1802, and Lamb had been instantly smitten.
Caroline was considered a great beauty, and was cultured and highly educated. She had spent considerable time in Italy growing up, and had a particular interest in literature; she would later be a published author and poet.
The marriage was initially happy.
Lamb focused on his political career, while he and his wife tried to start a family. Caroline became pregnant three times between 1806 and 1809, but two of the children were stillborn; a son, George, survived.
The pregnancies and premature deaths unsurprisingly took a toll on Caroline’s health. She had a lengthy convalescence after each birth, often in the countryside, and the couple spent considerable time apart.
They gradually became estranged.
When Caroline was fully recovered she took a series of casual lovers. One of these would lead to a salacious public scandal.
Early in 1812 Caroline met George Gordon Byron, the 6th Baron Byron, at a social gathering in London. Byron was then 26 and newly famous: the first instalments of a series of autobiographical poems he had written, ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’, had just been published to rapturous acclaim.
Byron was instantly established as a literary star.
As public attention turned to him, he became even more famous for his personal life. Byron was moody and passionate; he drank heavily, took laudanum, and was known to be physically intimate with both men and women (including, it was said, his own half-sister).
Well-travelled, intelligent and handsome, Byron’s literary output and decadent behaviour made him seem almost impossibly glamorous: a rock star of his era.
Distant from her husband and conversant in literature, Lady Caroline was well placed to fall for his charms. Shortly after meetin the pair began an affair, in March 1812.
In her diary, Caroline would famously call Byron, ‘Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.’
The affair was passionate, but also short. Byron was fickle, and by August his attention had moved elsewhere.
Caroline was outraged.
She denounced Byron publicly. She published satirical verse where she criticised him, both personally and as a writer. She frequently appeared, unannounced, at his home.
She even disguised herself as a pageboy, so she could follow him undetected through the streets.
Things climaxed early in 1813, when Caroline, her husband and Byron all attended a ball hosted by the Duke of Wellington. Caroline confronted Byron who insulted her in response, she then smashed a wine glass and attempted to slash her wrists.
Caroline was not seriously injured, but the events became public, and an embarrassment for Lamb. Further scandal would be forthcoming.
Caroline finally stopped trying to see Byron, and instead took revenge on him via her writing. She wrote a novel, ‘Glenarvon’, where the main character was a thinly veiled caricature of her former lover.
Here Byron was depicted as thoroughly corrupt: sexually voracious, amoral, and a rampant drunkard. Among his conquests an innocent named Calantha, meant to be Caroline herself, a young women ruined by Byron and driven to an early death.
The book also took aim at Whig politics, satirising the party and the lack of scruples of its Parliamentarians.
When it was published in 1816 it caused a sensation, and quickly became a bestseller.
It also permanently ruined Caroline’s social standing. Many of her acquaintances recognised themselves in the book’s characters, and ostracised the author.
Her intended revenge had not gone as planned. The year of Glenarvon’s publication, Byron moved to the continent, never to return to England.
Instead, Caroline’s husband bore the brunt of the novel’s content. The scandalous material attached itself to him, denting his reputation and permanently ruining their marriage.
The couple would separate formally. Caroline lived as a recluse for the rest of her life, and died in 1828, aged only 42.
These events stymied Lamb’s career, and he spent twenty years as a backbencher. During this wilderness period he slowly developed his political persona: a moderate with centrist positions, committed to finding common ground with his opponents.
The Whigs leading rivals were the Tories. Melbourne’s first significant appointment would come under their jurisdiction; in 1827 he was appointed Secretary for Ireland, by Tory Prime Minister George Canning.
The following year, his father died, and Lamb ascended to the House of Lords as the 2nd Viscount Melbourne. When the Whigs were returned to Government in 1830, under Lord Grey, Melbourne was appointed Home Secretary.
The 1830s were a turbulent period in British politics, with several major issues stirring passionate debate. Across the decade major reforms would be enacted, including the expansion of voting rights to non-landowners, the formal abolition of slavery, and significant improvements to labour laws for industrial workers.
All of these changes were controversial.
The push for change took its toll on Lord Grey, who resigned in 1834. Lord Melbourne, seen by many as a safe option during an unsettled period, was appointed his successor.
Melbourne’s first stint as Prime Minister was short: appointed in July 1834, he was removed by King William IV in November. The king was perturbed by the reform agenda of Parliament, and appointed Tory leader Robert Peel as Prime Minster, to stall its agenda.
This would be the final instance of a British monarch directly interfering in Parliamentary politics.
A general election was held in January 1835, and the Whigs and Lord Melbourne were returned to Government. The following year, Melbourne would have another brush with scandal, this time of his own making.
Melbourne never re-married, periodically he had affairs with women in his social circle. One of these was Caroline Norton, who bore some similarities to his late wife; as well as sharing a first name, Norton was also a noted beauty and published author.
Norton’s husband George discovered the affair, and in 1836 attempted to blackmail the Prime Minster, demanding 1 400 pounds in exchange for his silence.
Melbourne refused, George remarkably then tried to sue him in court. The suit was dismissed, and while Melbourne’s reputation was again damaged, with public backing from leading members of Parliament he was able to continue as Prime Minster.
After a long illness, King William IV died in June 1837. He had no surviving children, so the crown now passed to his niece, Alexandrina Victoria.
When she assumed the throne on June 20, she removed reference to her first name, and would rule as Queen Victoria.
Victoria had just turned eighteen, and was naïve in the affairs of state. For advice she turned to Lord Melbourne, who she came to forge a strong relationship with.
‘Their close relationship was founded in his responsibility for tutoring her in the world of politics but ran much deeper. Queen Victoria came to regard Lord Melbourne as a mentor and personal friend.’
– Biography of Lord Melbourne, gov.uk
Melbourne, 40 years her senior, was said to remind her of her own father. He would be provided a private apartment at Windsor Castle, so he could be close by if needed.
Meanwhile, events on the other side of the world would ensure Melbourne’s wider place in history.
In mid 1835, pastoral settlers from Van Dieman’s land began arriving in Port Phillip Bay, in what would become Victoria.
There were two groups, one headed by John Batman, one by John Fawkner. Both wanted the same thing: opportunities in Van Dieman’s land were limited, the settlers saw the land around Port Phillip Bay as ripe for agricultural development.
Both groups were also there illegally: the British government had forbidden new settlements, outside of those existing in New South Wales and Van Dieman’s Land.
Nevertheless, the settlers took their chances, and founded a small town alongside the Yarra River. Originally this went by a few informal names, including Bearbrass, and Batmania.
The settlement flourished, and a year later would be given official sanction. In 1836 the Governor of New South Wales, Richard Bourke, declared it a southern outpost of his colony.
In April 1837, Bourke decided it needed a new name. He chose Melbourne, after the Prime Minister, thinking that his connection to the Queen would mean this would be well received.
Melbourne would be the town’s official name from this point forwards. It would not be declared an independent colony, separate to New South Wales, until 1851.
Lord Melbourne’s second stint as Prime Minister would last until 1841.
Among his achievements, he would help secure Queen Victoria’s marriage to Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As Albert was a foreign national, Parliamentary approval was required for a royal union; Melbourne shepherded this through in October 1839.
But his government endured a number of scandals, and the turbulence of the times made holding power difficult.
In August 1841, an opposition MP raised a vote of no confidence in the government: this succeeded, and Melbourne resigned. The following year he had a stroke, and retired to his country estate at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire.
Even after his departure from public life, Queen Victoria continued to correspond with him, and occasionally seek his advice on policy matters.
Lord Melbourne died at his home, on 24 November 1848.
