The curious relationship continues between Queen Victoria and her first Prime Minister, Viscount Melbourne. It is, however, perhaps less easy than in the past, as the young queen becomes more wilful, more determined on getting her way.

One of the things the queen’s particularly determined about is not having that “cold unfeeling disagreeable man” Peel as Prime Minister. However, when Melbourne decides it’s time to resign, the first choice to replace him, the Duke of Wellington, says it has to be Peel. She brings herself to see the man she dislikes so much, and manages, on this occasion, to put him off. So she forces her favourite, Melbourne, ageing and increasingly unwell, back into office.

She can’t pull it off a second time, though. On the back of a good election win, Peel finally forms a government with a solid majority behind him. He brings into office many of the old crowd – Aberdeen, Stanley, the dynamic and thrusting Gladstone. But one man he leaves out: the new young MP for Maidstone, Benjamin Disraeli.

That may turn out not to have been his wisest decision.

Illustration: A dramatic encounter between the Duke of Wellington, dressed in armour bearing a large sword, and Queen Victoria with Lord Melbourne kneeling in supplication and two ladies in waiting. Coloured lithograph by H.B. (John Doyle), 1840.

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