Lord Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton

His Excellency The Right Honourable The Earl of Lytton GCB GCIE PC
Earl of Lytton(Bhand Takka), photo by Nadar
British Ambassador to France
In office 1887–1891
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Preceded by	The Viscount Lyons
Succeeded by	The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava
Viceroy and Governor-General of India
In office 12 April 1876 – 8 June 1880
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Preceded by	The Earl of Northbrook
Succeeded by	The Marquess of Ripon
Personal details
Born	8 November 1831 (1831-11-08)
Died	24 November 1891(1891-11-24) (aged 60)
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Edith Villiers (d. 1936)
Alma mater	University of Bonn

Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton GCB GCSI GCIE PC (8 November 1831 – 24 November 1891) was an English statesman and poet (under the pen name Owen Meredith). He served as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880, during which time Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.

An accomplished and popular diplomat, Lytton was afforded the rare tribute – especially for an Englishman – of a state funeral in Paris, although as Viceroy of India he has been criticised for his handling of the Great Famine of 1876–78 and the Second Anglo-Afghan War. His son Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, who was born in India, returned as Governor of Bengal and was briefly acting Viceroy.

He was a son of the novelists Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton and Rosina Doyle Wheeler (the daughter of the early women's rights advocate Anna Wheeler). His parents split up when he was a small boy, and the separation was acrimonious. His mother, who under the laws of the time lost access to her children, caricatured his father in 1839 novel Cheveley, or the Man of Honour. (See Women in the Victorian era.) Many years later, when he was a young man, his father had his mother placed under restraint as insane, which led to public outcry and her liberation a few weeks later. She chronicled this in her memoirs.