‘He gave his name to the longest, and one of the most important, British administrations of the nineteenth century. Yet the man himself has remained a shadowy figure.’ Norman Gash, from the introduction

Prime Minister at the time of the battle of Waterloo, Robert Banks Jenkinson, the 2nd Earl of Liverpool, was in power from 1812 to 1827. But despite his seeing off the threat of Napoleon, and being British premier during the turbulent years of Peterloo, the Six Acts and the campaign for Catholic Emancipation, Lord Liverpool was later dubbed the ‘Arch-Mediocrity’ by Disraeli, and was generally forgotten, eclipsed by the events of his day. This biography, first published in 1984, brings both the man and his politics out of the shadows.