In the struggle that followed, Albert's patriotism was put beyond a doubt, and the animosities of the past were forgotten.

But the war had another consequence, less gratifying to the royal couple: it crowned the ambition of Lord Palmerston.

In 1855, the man who five years before had been pronounced by Lord John Russell to be "too old to do much in the future," became Prime Minister of England, and, with one short interval, remained in that position for ten years..