Eldest son of the prime minister Robert Peel, he was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford and entered the Diplomatic Service in 1844. He served as co-member for Tamworth, his father's constituency, from 1850 until 1880, for Huntingdon from 1884 and for Blackburn from 1885 to 1886. He was appointed Irish secretary in 1861 in Palmerston's ministry, but in 1865, under Russell he was replaced by Chichester Fortescue. He was appointed a GCB in 1866. His variety of parties and tendency not to toe the party line saw republication of a charge of moral want, volatility and 'lack of dignity' from pre-Liberal landslide biographies after his death such as the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" which mention signs of general profligacy and of his rift from his wife.