Edward Stanley was born in 1799. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (though did not earn a degree).

In 1822, he entered Parliament as the MP for Stockbridge as a Whig, a ‘rotten borough’ purchased by his grandfather. He earned a reputation as one of the finest speakers in the Commons and was able to speak with authority on a wide variety of subjects.

When Lord Grey came to power in 1830, Stanley became Chief Secretary to Ireland, moving to Secretary of War and the Colonies in 1833. That year, it was Stanley who introduced the first of five resolutions calling for the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire within one year and who oversaw the passing of the Abolition of Slavery Bill. He also provided formidable speeches in support of the Reform Bill (despite somewhat lukewarm personal feelings towards the measure).

However, he resigned from the government in 1834 over reform of the Church of Ireland. He formed a moderate Parliamentary group (called the ‘Derby Dilly’ by one critic), which is best characterised as a group of dissident Whigs.  In Parliament, he started to become much closer to the Tories. When Peel won the election in 1841, Stanley joined the government as secretary for War and the Colonies.

In 1844, he accepted a peerage, becoming Lord Stanley, and sitting in the Lords (he became Lord Derby in 1851, upon the death of his father). In December 1845, he resigned from Peel’s government in opposition to the abolition of the Corn Laws.  Stanley then opposed the measures in the House of Lords, losing the fight, but becoming the de facto leader of the Conservative peers. From 1846, he was the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Conservatives in the House of Lords, only resigning from these roles in 1868. Even today, he holds the record as the longest serving Leader of the Conservative Party.

Derby was Prime Minister three times over the two decades that followed (1852, 1858-59, 1866-68). Each premiership was relatively brief and at no point did he command a majority in the House of Commons. He worked with the Conservative leader in the Commons, Benjamin Disraeli, who played a key role in each of his three governments.

Derby’s most important political achievement was the passing of the 1867 Reform Act, which doubled size of the franchise. Other important pieces of legislation included the India Bill of 1858, which ended Company Rule in India, and reestablished the territory as a Crown Colony, and the Jews Relief Act of 1858, which ended the disbarment of Jews to sit in Parliament.

Derby married Emma Caroline Bootle-Wilbraham in 1825. They had three children.

Derby died in 1869.