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,
Viscount Melbourne Newport, Isle of Wight, and who, in 1770, was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Lord Melbourne, Baron of Kilmore, in the County of Cavan. In 1781, he was created Viscount Melbourne, of Kilmore in the County of Cavan, also in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1815, he was made Baron Melbourne, of Melbourne in the County of Derby, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He was succeeded by his son, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne who was a noted Whig politician and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1834 and 1835–1841. He was Queen