The youngest son of the prime minister Sir Robert Peel and namesake of the first duke of Wellington, his godfather, in his own words Peel gave ‘loyal, but independent, support’ to the Liberal leadership in this period, the beginning of a distinguished political career, which culminated in the speakership, 1884-95.
Peel lost to an ‘out-an-out Tory’ at the rowdy 1863 Coventry by-election, a surprise result given the constituency’s electoral history, but which was attributed to the depression in the local riband trade, widely blamed on the Cobden-Chevalier treaty.
However, an early and vigorous campaign secured Peel’s return in second place for Warwick at the 1865 general election.
A second theme of Peel’s early parliamentary career was his interest in agricultural issues. His first spoken intervention was on the cattle plague, 16 Feb. 1866, he later drew attention to the poor state of education in agricultural areas and seconded Henry Fawcett’s bill on the subject, 31 July 1867 although it was later withdrawn.
Re-elected at the 1868 general election, Peel held a number of ministerial offices in Gladstone’s first government, before becoming Liberal chief in 1873, a difficult post in the circumstances, which he relinquished after the party’s defeat at the general election, Feb. 1874. Peel briefly served in Gladstone’s second ministry before ill-health forced his resignation and became speaker in 1884, at a time when the obstructionism of Parnell’s Irish party was contributing to an already rancorous parliamentary scene, but exercised his role with considerable authority. He resigned in 1895, by which time he was nominally a Liberal Unionist, and was ennobled shortly after.