Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister for the second time

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Resources

Robert Peel had briefly served as Prime Minister from December 1834 to April 1835, when King William IV, dissatisfied with the Whigs, ordered that the Tories be permitted to form a government. Peel called a general election to try to accumulate a majority in Parliament, but when the election result did not emerge in his favour, he was forced to resign, and allow the Whigs to take over again. Six years later, he now had another chance to take the helm. By this time he had already served as Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, so he was an experienced politician. He presided over several pieces of reforming legislation, including the Mines Act of 1842, and the Factory Act of 1844. He was Tory by inclination, and did not support the idea of Free Trade, but nonetheless it was under…

212 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister for the second time". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1851, accessed 28 March 2024.]

1851 Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister for the second time 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.