The sixty-seven-year-old Irish peer was among Britain’s most colourful politicians. For many years Palmerston had been known primarily as a ‘man about town’. A wonderful conversationalist, he was in demand at every salon in London. Women in particular found it hard to resist his charms, winning him the nickname ‘Lord Cupid’. He was also a great outdoorsman. Invitations to shooting parties at his estates, Broadlands in Hampshire and Brocket in Hertfordshire, were highly prized. In politics, he served both in Tory and Whig cabinets. His métier was foreign affairs, in which he developed a British
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