Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, ( 21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881 ) was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure.

In this feud, Disraeli was aided by his warm friendship with Queen Victoria, who came to detest Gladstone during the latter's first premiership in the 1870s.

In 1876 Disraeli was raised to the peerage as the Earl of Beaconsfield, capping nearly four decades in the House of Commons.

Before and during his political career, Disraeli was well known as a literary and social figure, although his novels are not generally regarded as a part of the Victorian literary canon.

His father groomed him for a career in law, and Disraeli was articled to a solicitor in 1821.

In 1824, Disraeli toured Belgium and the Rhine Valley with his father and later wrote that it was while travelling on the Rhine that he decided to abandon the law: " I determined when descending those magical waters that I would not be a lawyer.

The paper was a failure, in part because the mining " bubble " burst in late 1825, which ruined Powles and Disraeli.

Before he entered parliament, Disraeli was involved with several women, most notably Henrietta, Lady Sykes ( the wife of Sir Francis Sykes, 3rd Bt ), who served as the model for Henrietta Temple.

It was Henrietta who introduced Disraeli to Lord Lyndhurst, with whom she later became romantically involved.

" Further, at the time Gallomania was published, Disraeli was in fact electioneering in High Wycombe in the Radical interest.

The other great party, the Whigs, was anathema to Disraeli: " Toryism is worn out & I cannot condescend to be a Whig.

Though he initially stood for election, unsuccessfully, as a Radical, Disraeli was a Tory by the time he won a seat in the House of Commons in 1837 representing the constituency of Maidstone.

Although a Conservative, Disraeli was sympathetic to some of the demands of the Chartists and argued for an alliance between the landed aristocracy and the working class against the increasing power of the merchants and new industrialists in the middle class, helping to found the Young England group in 1842 to promote the view that the landed interests should use their power to protect the poor from exploitation by middle-class businessmen.

Although Disraeli forged a personal friendship with John Bright, a Lancashire manufacturer and leading Radical, Disraeli was unable to convince Bright to sacrifice principle for political gain.

" Looking on from the House of Lords, the Duke of Argyll wrote that Disraeli " was like a subaltern in a great battle where every superior officer was killed or wounded.

" If the remainder of the Conservative Party could muster the electoral support necessary to form a government, then Disraeli was now guaranteed high office.

Disraeli spoke in favour of the measure, arguing that Christianity was " completed Judaism ," and asking of the House of Commons " Where is your Christianity if you do not believe in their Judaism?

" While Disraeli did not argue that the Jews did the Christians a favour by killing Christ, as he had in Tancred and would in Lord George Bentinck, his speech was badly received by his own party, which along with the Anglican establishment was hostile to the bill.

Bentinck, then still Conservative leader in the Commons, joined Disraeli in speaking and voting for the bill, although his own speech was a standard one of toleration.

Even as these intrigues played out, Disraeli was working with the Bentinck family to secure the necessary financing to purchase Hughenden Manor, in Buckinghamshire.

The first opportunity for the protectionist Tories under Disraeli and Stanley to take office came in 1851, when Lord John Russell's government was defeated in the House of Commons over the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851.

" (" Grand Old Man ", or, according to Disraeli, " God's Only Mistake ").

After producing a Vindication of the English Constitution, and some political pamphlets, Disraeli followed up Vivian Grey with a series of novels, The Young Duke ( 1831 ), Contarini Fleming ( 1832 ), Alroy ( 1833 ), Venetia and Henrietta Temple ( 1837 ).

Although nominally a Conservative, Disraeli was sympathetic to some of the demands of the Chartists and argued for an alliance between the landed aristocracy and the working class against the increasing power of the middle class, helping to found the Young England group in 1842 to promote the view that the rich should use their power to protect the poor from exploitation by the middle class.

David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, named Disraeli as his favourite Conservative and some commentators and MPs have suggested that Cameron's ideology contains an element of one nationism.

When the Cabinet met on 16 February 1867, Disraeli voiced his support for some extension of the suffrage, providing statistics amassed by Robert Dudley Baxter, showing that 330, 000 people would be given the vote and all except 60, 000 would be granted extra votes.

By the 1880s he was denouncing " the new Toryism " ( that is, the " social reformist wing " of the Liberal party – the wing to some extent hostile to Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, this faction of the Liberal party Spencer compared to the interventionist " Toryism " of such people as the former Conservative party Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli ).

In opposition he did not take as prominent a part as previously, but when Disraeli ( by then created Earl of Beaconsfield ) died in 1881, there were some Conservatives who considered that his claim to lead the party was better than that of Lord Salisbury.

The influence of Benjamin Disraeli may have had some effect on this change, but it was in the main due to the altered politics of the middle and commercial classes, to which the Jews chiefly belonged.

Derby's health, however, had been in decline for some time, and he finally resigned in February and advised Queen Victoria to send for Disraeli.

Attesting to its fragile and narrow political base, Young England died with scarcely an obituary some few years after 1847, when Disraeli effectively withdrew from the Parliamentary coalition.

Although Bentinck and Disraeli did not prevent the repeal of the Corn Laws, they did succeed in forcing Peel's resignation some weeks later over the Irish Coercion Bill.

A Liberal, he opposed Benjamin Disraeli, and was a strong supporter of Irish Disestablishment, but refused to follow Gladstone in accepting Home Rule.

Disraeli saw the situation as a matter of British imperial and strategic interests, keeping to Palmerston's policy of supporting the Ottoman Empire against Russian expansion.

The book provides an alternate history of Gladstone, in which he killed Disraeli in a duel and assisted British forces in colonial expansion.

British public reaction was generally one of dismay, fuelled by the public prints, but the government of Benjamin Disraeli continued its policy of support for the Ottoman Empire, an ally in the Crimean War and a bulwark against possible Russian expansion in the area.

The government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, conferred the additional title upon her by an Act of Parliament, reputedly to assuage the monarch's irritation at being, as a mere Queen, notionally inferior to her own daughter ( Princess Victoria was the wife of the reigning German Emperor ); the Indian Imperial designation was also formally justified as the expression of Britain succeeding as paramount ruler of the subcontinent the former Mughal ' Padishah of Hind ', using indirect rule through hundreds of princely states formally under protection, not colonies, but accepting the British Sovereign as their suzerain.

These visits enabled him to meet and take the measure of his adversaries Napoleon III, and the British Prime Minister Palmerston and Foreign Secretary Earl Russell, and also of the British Conservative politician Disraeli, later to be Prime Minister in the 1870s – who later claimed to have said of Bismarck's visit " Be careful of that man – he means every word he says ".

The title was first referred to on government documents during the administration of Benjamin Disraeli but did not appear in the formal British Order of precedence until 1905.

Disraeli, who expanded the Empire to protect British interests abroad, cultivated the image of himself ( and the Conservative Party ) as " Imperialist ", making grand gestures such as conferring the title " Empress of India " on Queen Victoria in 1876.

Two especially important figures in this period of British history are the prime ministers Gladstone and Disraeli, whose contrasting views changed the course of history.

* May 16 – British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rejects the Berlin Memorandum.

* January 23 – Benjamin Disraeli orders the British fleet to the Dardanelles.

Disraeli Gears is often considered to be the band's defining effort, successfully blending psychedelic British rock with American blues.

When Benjamin Disraeli, future British Prime Minister, visited the city in 1830, he described it as " a city of palaces built by gentlemen for gentlemen ," and remarked that " Valletta equals in its noble architecture, if it does not excel, any capital in Europe ," and in other letters called it " comparable to Venice and Cádiz " and " full of palaces worthy of Palladio.

Astor did occasionally meet with Nazi officials in keeping with Neville Chamberlain's policies, and it is true that she distrusted and disliked British Foreign Secretary ( later Prime Minister ) Anthony Eden, stating that the more she saw of him the " more certain " she was that he would " never be a Disraeli ".

The film stars George Arliss as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Mary Anne Disraeli, 1st Viscountess Beaconsfield ( 11 November 1792 – 15 December 1872 ) was a British peeress and society figure, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

In 1929, Warner persuaded British stage and screen actor George Arliss to play the title role in a remake of the 1921 United Artists film, Disraeli, a project that turned out to be a box-office hit.

* Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister, attended Higham Hall School in Walthamstow, as did William Shore, later father of Florence Nightingale

One nation conservatism was first conceived by the Conservative British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who presented his political philosophy in two novels – Sybil, Or The Two Nations ( 1845 ) and Coningsby – published in 1845 and 1844 respectively.

The Conservative Party's 2010 manifesto contained a section on " One World Conservatism "— a commitment to spend 0. 7 % of national income on well-targeted aid — and David Cameron, the current leader of the party and British Prime Minister, named Disraeli as his favourite Conservative.

British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria

Benjamin D ' Israeli ( 1730 – 1816 ) was an English merchant and financier, grandfather of the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield.

; 1851: Correspondence between Lord Stanley, whose father became British Prime Minister the following year, and Benjamin Disraeli, who became Chancellor of the Exchequer alongside him, records Disraeli's proto-Zionist views: " He then unfolded a plan of restoring the nation to Palestine – said the country was admirably suited for them – the financiers all over Europe might help – the Porte is weak – the Turks / holders of property could be bought out – this, he said, was the object of his life ...." Coningsby was merely a feeler – my views were not fully developed at that time – since then all I have written has been for one purpose.