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John Singleton Copley, Jr., Baron Lyndhurst (1772-1863), was a major figure in nineteenth-century British politics yet one of very few important politicians of his day not to have a modern biography until now. Although historians have relegated Lyndhurst to a minor role, the three-times Lord Chancellor of England remained an influential force until his nineties. A mentor of the young Benjamin Disraeli, Lyndhurst presided over the House of Lords and was also a leading member of the Cabinet. Lord Lyndhurst: The Flexible Tory, is perhaps the first nonpartisan biography of a man who was controversial among his contemporaries, being labeled an opportunist, a careerist, and a turncoat. Although Lyndhurst claimed to have burned his personal papers, author Dennis Lee located them at Cambridge University, at the Glamorgan County Hall in Cardiff, Wales, and among private collections.
Based on the diaries of Henry Herbert Molyneux, fourth Earl of Carnarvon, this book sheds new light on Conservative politics in the second half of the nineteenth century. Few political diaries of this scale and significance have survived and they reveal him to be a shrewd observer of events.