It had been 46 years. In all that time, apart from the 14 months when they had led the Ministry of all the Talents in 1806-1807, the Whigs had been excluded from power. But in 1830, they at last came back.

A lot of that was down to the divisions in the Tory Party – now increasingly called the Tory Party again, even by its members – which under the pressure of civil reform (Emancipation of Protestant Dissenters and then the even more historic Emancipation of Catholics) and economic difficulties, had begun to split into Liberal Tory and High Tory wings.

George IV died. William IV took over. Wellington mishandled the Commons. And the Whigs took over.

With Reform of Parliament the great pending question on the agenda.

Illustration: Charles Grey, Second Earl Grey. Based on a mid-19th century work by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License