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 Fortescue, 2nd Viscount Clermont He was unmarried and the viscountcy died with him. The Clermont title was revived in 1852 when his kinsman Thomas Fortescue was made Baron Clermont. William Fortescue, 2nd Viscount Clermont William Charles Fortescue, 2nd Viscount Clermont (12 October 1764 – 24 June 1829), was an Irish politician. Fortescue was the son of James Fortescue by his wife Mary Henrietta Hunter, a daughter of Thomas Orby Hunter, of Crowland Abbey, Lincolnshire. His uncle was William Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont, 1st Viscount Clermont. He served in the British Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant. In 1796 he was returned to the