William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne and writing to her, and she responded with enthusiasm and grew in wisdom. On 7 May 1839, Melbourne announced his intention to resign. This led to the Bedchamber Crisis. Prospective prime minister Robert Peel requested that Victoria dismiss some of the wives and daughters of Whig MPs who made up her personal entourage, arguing that the monarch should avoid any hint of favouritism to a party out of power. The Queen refused to comply—supported by Melbourne, although he was unaware that Peel had not requested the resignation of all the Queen's ladies as she had led him to believe—and hence,
William Ponsonby, 1st Baron de Mauley December 1832. At the 1832 UK general election he was elected MP for Dorset and held the seat until 1837. In 1838 he was created Baron de Mauley. Whilst an MP for Poole, Ponsonby and Benjamin Lester opened Poole's first public library in 1830. When the marriage of his sister Lady Caroline Lamb to William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, began to break up, he strongly supported Caroline. Unfortunately he was not noted for tact or intelligence—Melbourne's sister Emily Lamb, Countess Cowper, described him as being universally regarded as "an ass and a jackanapes". Ponsonby reminded Melbourne that the Lamb family