Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865). British statesman; foreign secretary (1830-34, 1835-41, 1846-51) and prime minister (1855-58, 1859-65). Although he entered parliament as a Tory (1807), he later crossed to the Whigs. As foreign secretary he secured the formation of an independent Belgium (1830). He first became prime minister in 1855, following the mismanagement of the Crimean War. With his bluff personality and nationalistic foreign policy he was known as “the most English minister who ever governed England” and was very popular with the public.
