Thomas Babington Macaulay was born in Leicestershire, England on October 25, 1800. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University. He became a lawyer, but continued to be interested in politics. He became a member of Parliament and rose to the peerage in 1857. Although he held a number of important cabinet posts, the effects of his sweeping educational reform, while in India, are his most enduring contribution to the Whig government. His main literary work was his multi-volume The History of England. He died on December 28, 1859.