Robert Peel In 1830 the Whigs finally returned to power and Peel became a member of the Opposition for the first time. After successive election defeats, leadership of the Conservative Party gradually passed from Wellington to Peel, and when King William IV asked Wellington to become Prime Minister in November 1834, he declined and Peel was selected instead, with Wellington serving as caretaker until Peel took office. Peel then issued the Tamworth Manifesto (December 1834), laying down the principles upon which the modern British Conservative Party is based. His first ministry was a minority government, dependent on Whig support and with Peel
William Peel, 1st Earl Peel William Peel, 1st Earl Peel William Robert Wellesley Peel, 1st Earl Peel, (7 January 1867 – 28 September 1937), known as The Viscount Peel from 1912 to 1929, was a British politician. The eldest son of Arthur Wellesley Peel, 1st Viscount Peel and Adelaide Dugdale, Peel was born in London in 1867. His father was the fifth and youngest son of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was secretary of the Oxford Union. In 1893, he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, and practised as a barrister