William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne fall. The king and the Duke of Wellington urged him to stay on as prime minister. After Norton failed in court, Melbourne was vindicated, but he did stop seeing Norton. Nonetheless, as historian Boyd Hilton concludes, "it is irrefutable that Melbourne's personal life was problematic. Spanking sessions with aristocratic ladies were harmless, not so the whippings administered to orphan girls taken into his household as objects of charity." Melbourne was Prime Minister when Queen Victoria came to the throne (June 1837). Barely eighteen, she was only just breaking free from the domineering influence of her mother, the Duchess of Kent,
William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy (1650 or 16533 August 1692), was an Anglo-Irish peer and soldier. Stewart was born in 1653 or around 1650, the son of Sir Alexander Stewart, 2nd Baronet, of Ramelton. His family was from Donegal, Ulster Scots, and Protestant. He was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance and colonel of a regiment of foot. In 1682 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Viscount Mountjoy and Baron Stewart. In 1686 he served in Hungary at the siege of Buda, where he was twice dangerously wounded, and on his return to