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Peel won the election of 1841.

Gladstone, as a rising young Tory, was given office. Disraeli, who had expected a government post, was not, and he never forgave Peel for this.

Disraeli saw this as an opportunity. Acting ostensibly as adjutant to Lord George Bentinck, the leader of those with landed interests, he made a series of brilliant attacks on Peel, who replied to them feebly and, as Gladstone said later, with a sort of 'righteous dullness'. Unluckily Gladstone, who, though still a minister, had lost his seat, was not in the House to support his hero.

It was after 1874 that Disraeli's love affair with the Queen began. Her power was limited, but mattered just enough for it to pay a prime minister to be on good terms with her. This Gladstone could never do. He lacked Disraeli's gift of flattery, and some of his ideas were anathema to her, especially in the field of foreign affairs. These clashes of policy and personality came to a head over the eastern question, in 1876-78

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