Lord Acton was born John Emerich Edward Dalberg in 1834 in Naples; his mother was German and his father a diplomat, whose own father had been Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Acton was, therefore, a child of Europe, and his education took place in three countries, culminating in training at Munich University under Johann Ignaz von Döllinger. From 1840 he had as his stepfather Granville George Leveson-Gower, who, in 1846, succeeded his father as Earl Granville and became in time a senior Whig M.P. and minister, serving as Leader of the House of Lords during Gladstone's second administration of 1880-5. Thus Acton was as comfortable in the highest echelons of British society as he was in Europe.

His literary caree

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First published 23 April 2002

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