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 Monson, 1st Viscount Oxenbridge Baron Monson. William Monson, 1st Viscount Oxenbridge William John Monson, 1st Viscount Oxenbridge PC (18 February 1829 – 16 April 1898), known as The Lord Monson between 1862 and 1886, was a British Liberal politician. He served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard between 1880 and 1885 and in 1886 under William Ewart Gladstone. Monson was the son of William Monson, 6th Baron Monson, and Eliza, daughter of Edmund Larken. The diplomat Sir Edmund Monson, 1st Baronet, was his younger brother. Monson was elected Member of Parliament for Reigate in 1858, a seat he held until he succeeded