At the head of a weak government, Perceval faced a number of crises during his term in office, including an inquiry into the Walcheren expedition, the mental illness and incapacity of King George III, economic depression, and Luddite riots.

He overcame those crises, successfully pursued the Peninsular War in the face of opposition defeatism, and won the support of the Prince Regent.

[1] His father, a political adviser to Frederick, Prince of Wales and King George III, served briefly in the cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty.

They set up home together in lodgings over a carpet shop in Bedford Row, later moving to Lindsey House, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

[6] Perceval's family connections obtained a number of positions for him: Deputy Recorder of Northampton, and commissioner of bankrupts in 1790; surveyor of the Maltings and clerk of the irons in the mint– a sinecure worth £119 a year – in 1791; and counsel to the Board of Admiralty in 1794.

He acted as junior counsel for the Crown in the trial of Thomas Paine for seditious libel (1792), and the prosecution of John Horne Tooke for high treason (1794).

As attorney general, Perceval was involved with the prosecution of radicals Edward Despard and William Cobbett, but was also responsible for more liberal decisions on trade unions, and for improving the conditions of convicts transported to New South Wales.

[7] During his period in opposition, Perceval used his legal skills to defend Princess Caroline, the estranged wife of the Prince of Wales, during the "delicate investigation".

The princess had been accused of giving birth to an illegitimate child, and the Prince of Wales ordered an inquiry, hoping to obtain evidence for a divorce.

He had a bonfire of The Book at Lindsey House, and large sums of government money were spent on buying back stray copies.

[13] On the resignation of Grenville, the Duke of Portland put together a ministry of Pittites and asked Perceval to become Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.

[19] As leader of the House of Commons, he had to deal with a strong opposition, which challenged the government over the conduct of the war, Catholic emancipation, corruption, and Parliamentary reform.

The country was plunged into political crisis in the summer of 1809 as Canning schemed against Castlereagh, and the Duke of Portland resigned following a stroke.

[26] The radical MP Sir Francis Burdett was committed to the Tower of London for having published a letter in William Cobbett's Political Register which denounced the government's exclusion of the press from the inquiry.

[27] As Chancellor, Perceval continued to find the funds to finance Wellington's campaign in the Iberian Peninsula, whilst contracting a lower debt than his predecessors or successors.

[28] King George III had celebrated his Golden Jubilee in 1809; by the following autumn he was showing signs of a return of the illness that had led to the threat of a Regency in 1788.

The King assented to the Regency Bill on 5 February, the Regent took the royal oath the following day and Parliament formally opened for the 1811 session.

[29] The session was largely taken up with problems in Ireland, the bullion controversy in England (a bill was passed to make bank notes legal tender), and military operations in the Peninsula.

[7] When the restrictions on the Regency expired in February 1812, the King still showed no signs of recovery, and the Prince Regent decided, after an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Grey and Grenville to join the government, to retain Perceval and his ministers.

[30] The opposition meanwhile was mounting an attack on the Orders in Council, which had caused a crisis in relations with the United States and were widely blamed for depression and unemployment in England.

[33] At first it was feared that the shot might signal the start of an uprising, but it soon became apparent that the assassin – who had made no attempt to escape – was a man with an obsessive grievance against the government and had acted alone.

That same morning an inquest was held at the Cat and Bagpipes public house on the corner of Downing Street and a verdict of willful murder was returned.

Perceval was the last British prime minister to wear a powdered wig tied in a queue, and knee-breeches according to the old-fashioned style of the 18th century.

[42] Although not considered an inspirational leader, he is generally seen as a devout, industrious, principled man who at the head of a weak government steered the country through difficult times.

A contemporary MP Henry Grattan, used a naval analogy to describe Perceval: "He is not a ship-of-the-line, but he carries many guns, is tight-built and is out in all weathers".

[44] Perceval was mourned by many; Lord Chief Justice Sir James Mansfield wept during his summing up to the jury at Bellingham's trial.

[47] The memorial in Westminster Abbey, by the sculptor Richard Westmacott, has an effigy of the dead Perceval with mourning figures representing Truth, Temperance and Power in front of a relief depicting the aftermath of the assassination in the House of Commons.

In addition, there are three books about his assassination, one by Mollie Gillen, one by David Hanrahan, and the latest by Andro Linklater entitled Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die.

Perceval's assassination inspired poems such as Universal sympathy on the martyr'd statesman (1812): Such was his private, such his public life, That all who differ'd in polemic strife, Or varied in opinion with his plan, Agreed with one accord to love the man.

In Peter Plymley's Letters Smith writes: If I lived at Hampstead upon stewed meats and claret; if I walked to church every Sunday before eleven young gentlemen of my own begetting, with their faces washed, and their hair pleasingly combed; if the Almighty had blessed me with every earthly comfort–how awfully would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the sword over the cabins of the poor, brave, generous, open-hearted peasants of Ireland!American historian Henry Adams suggested that it was this picture of Perceval that stayed in the minds of Liberals for a whole generation.