Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Baron Macaulay of Rothley

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Baron Macaulay of Rothley

Thomas Babington Macaulay, detail of an oil painting by J. Partridge, 1840; in the National …

(credit: Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London)

(born Oct. 25, 1800, Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, Eng.—died Dec. 28, 1859, Campden Hill, London) English politician, historian, and poet. While a fellow at Cambridge University, Macaulay published the first of his essays, on John Milton (1825), and gained immediate fame. After entering Parliament in 1830, he became known as a leading orator. From 1834 he served on the Supreme Council in India, supporting the equality of Europeans and Indians before the law and inaugurating a national educational system. He reentered Parliament on returning to England in 1838. He published Lays of Ancient Rome (1842) and Critical and Historical Essays (1843) before retiring to private life and beginning his brilliant History of England, 5 vol. (1849–61); covering the period 1688–1702, it established a Whig interpretation of English history that influenced generations.