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 Waldegrave, Viscount Chewton William Waldegrave, Viscount Chewton William Frederick Waldegrave, Viscount Chewton (29 June 1816 in Cardington, Bedfordshire – 8 October 1854) was a British army officer. Waldegrave was the eldest son of Hon. William Waldegrave and was educated at Cheam School. While still at school, he served as a midshipman aboard his father's ship, HMS "Seringapatam" from 1829–31 and later graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1837. He then emigrated to Canada and served with the militia which put down the rebellions of 1837 and returned to Britain in 1843 and served with the British Army. In 1846, his father had inherited