Bedchamber crisis
The Bedchamber crisis occurred on 7 May 1839 after Whig politician William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne declared his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after a government bill passed by a very narrow margin of only five votes in the House of Commons. Following a few false moves toward an alternative Tory prime minister and a Conservative government, Lord Melbourne was reinstated until the 1841 election, when the Conservative party took over.
The crisis occurred very early in the reign of
Overview
After the
Peel accepted the invitation on the condition that Victoria dismiss some of her
After Victoria's marriage to
Aftermath
At the time of the crisis Victoria was not yet twenty years old and had been on the throne less than two years. She was dismayed at the thought of losing her first, and so far only, Prime Minister, the avuncular Melbourne, a wise and kindly father-figure to her in the first years of her reign—her own father, the Duke of Kent, had died when she was an infant. Victoria also mistakenly assumed that Peel wanted to replace all of her ladies—her closest friends and companions at court—when in fact Peel wished to replace only six of the twenty-five ladies, but failed to make his intentions clear to Victoria.[3]
Late in life Victoria regretted her youthful intransigence, writing to her private secretary, Arthur Bigge: "I was very young then, and perhaps I should act differently if it was all to be done again."[3]
Fictional portrayals
The Bedchamber crisis appears in the
References
- ^ "The manoeuvres of the Queen's ante-chamber". The Times. No. 17043. London. 16 May 1839. p. 4.
- ^ Robert Peel (13 May 1839). "Ministerial Explanations". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. col. 984–985.
- ^ ISBN 1851093559. Retrieved 18 December 2015.