by Frank Eyck Research Fellow,
St. Antony's College, Oxford rhe Bedchamber Crisis of I839-when the Queen, by refusing to dismiss members of her household with Whig affiliations, effectively prevented the formation of a Tory administration-is notorious. Much less is known of the way in which Prince Albert was instrumental in effecting the smooth transfer of power from Melbourne to Peel two years later.
In this programme Frank Eyck , who has been studying the Prince Consort's papers in the Royal Archives at Windsor, argues that it was Albert who first established the idea of the impartiality of the Crown in British politics, thus meeting Peel's claim that ' the political and private character of the Queen' should not be separated.