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The Tamworth Manifesto was a political manifesto issued by Sir Robert Peel in December 1834 to the voters of Tamworth prior to the 1835 United Kingdom general election. It is widely credited by historians as having laid down the principles upon which the modern British Conservative Party is based.
In November 1834, King William IV removed the Whig Prime Minister Lord Melbourne and asked the Duke of Wellington, a Tory, to form a ministry. Wellington was reluctant; he formed a caretaker government but recommended that the king choose Peel, who was abroad. After Peel took over in December, an election was called. Perhaps owing to Wellington's endorsement, Peel intended from the start, as the historian S. J. Lee tells, "to fully convince the country and electorate that there was a substantial difference between his brand of conservatism and that of his predecessor and 'old tory' Wellington."
With that in mind, on 18 December the Tamworth Manifesto was published by the press and read around the country. Like many other manifestos in nineteenth-century British politics it was formally an address to the electors of the leader's own constituency, but reproduced widely. In the event Tamworth was uncontested in 1835: Peel and his brother William were the only candidates – they were elected, i.e. "returned", unopposed.[1] Nationally, Peel's party made gains, but the Whigs retained an overall majority and Melbourne returned to power in April.
- ^ Norman Gash, Sir Robert Peel: The Life of Sir Robert Peel after 1830 (1972) pp 93-99
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