National Galleries of Scotland

Lord Byron nicknamed the young George Gordon `Athenian Aberdeen? on account of his ardent admiration of Greece, but he soon took his place as a pillar of the establishment, sitting as a Tory peer from 1806. His career was interwoven with the great events of the period: in 1813-14 he undertook various diplomatic missions at the close of the Napoleonic Wars and, as Foreign Secretary, first under Wellington and then under Peel, his skilful negotiations and non-interventionist stance eased relations with both France and America. Gordon was responsible, in 1852, for forming a coalition ministry whose initial widespread support did not survive the disastrous and unpopular Crimean War.