Stanhope entered Parliament in 1830, representing the rotten borough of Wootton Basset in Wiltshire until the seat was disenfranchised in 1832.

[4] He served under Sir Robert Peel as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between December 1834 and April 1835, and Secretary to the Board of Control in 1845, but though he remained in the House of Commons till 1852, he made no special mark in politics.

A sculpted bust of Stanhope holds the central place over the entrance of the building, flanked by fellow historians and supporters Thomas Carlyle and Lord Macaulay.

He was also president of the Royal Literary Fund from 1863 until his death, a trustee of the British Museum and founded the Stanhope essay prize at Oxford in 1855.

A new edition of this work was published in London by John Murray, Albemarle St., in 1869, which includes some letters of Prince Charles Edward Stuart.

[2] They had four sons and one daughter: Stanhope survived her by two years and died at Merivale, Bournemouth, Hampshire,[1] in December 1875, aged 70.