ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the first biographical study of Charles Pelham Villiers, whose long UK parliamentary career spanned numerous government administrations under twenty different prime ministers. Charles Pelham Villiers' long life coincided with an age of dramatic change and connects almost a whole century of tumultuous and formative transformations in British politics. Brought up as a Liberal Tory, he had entered Parliament as a fervent Benthamite Radical, becoming a noted reformer within the Liberal Party, yet he ended his political career as a Liberal Unionist. His greatest achievement, which came early in his career, was undoubtedly as the acknowledged parliamentary champion of Free Trade, on which his subsequent reputation rested. Nevertheless, Charles Villiers' 'desertion' of the Liberal Party in 1886 should not detract from his immense contribution to parliamentary life during his long career. Villiers' fundamental paternalism, reflecting his aristocratic background and upbringing, never really deserted him, as his political language illustrated.
