remainder of the war. This perceived betrayal by the Austrians insured the Tsar's undying enmity, but proved not enough to satisfy the western powers. As the conflict dragged on into 1855, Buol sent another ultimatum to Russia, this time demanding that it accede to the French and British terms, or face a war with Austria. This time the Russians, now under Tsar Alexander II, acceded, and preliminary peace accords were signed at Vienna later that year. Buol's policy in the Crimean War had managed to keep Austria out of the war, but had left it badly isolated. Russia, Austria's only reliable ally, had been completely alienated, while the French and British had not been impressed by Austria's failure to come into the war on their side, and continued to oppose Austrian influence in the Italian Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia. The French, eager to form an entente with the Russians in the wake of the war, also took it upon themselves to oppose Austrian projects in the Balkans. The Prussians, as always, demanded a high price in terms of Austrian acquiescence to Prussian domination of northern Germany, in exchange for any support for their German neighbors. The consequences of this were to make themselves clear in 1859. Now Camillo di Cavour, the Prime Minister of Sardinia-Piedmont, anxious to goad the Austrians into a war in which he knew he would have French support, engaged in a series of provocations against the Austrian position in Italy. Although Buol and the Austrians initially seemed unperturbed, to the extent that Cavour and his ally, Emperor Napoleon III of France, feared they would not be able to have their war, Buol soon gave them what they wanted by a clumsy ultimatum demanding Piedmontese demobilization. The Sardinian War which followed would prove disastrous for the Austrian position in Italy, but Buol himself was already dismissed in May 1859, for the missteps which had brought about the war. Buol spent the rest of his life in retirement and died in 1865 in Vienna, aged 68. Personal life and issue On 26 Apr 1830 he married in Mannheim Princess Caroline von Isenburg und Büdingen zu Birstein (1809–1861), daughter of Prince Karl Theodor von Isenburg und Büdingen zu Birstein (1778–1823) and his wife, Baroness Marie Magdalene von Herding (1789–1859). They had 2 daughters: Countess Josephine Caroline Alexandrine Marie von Buol-Schauenstein (1835–1916), married to Lensgreve Otto Poul Julius Gustav Blome; had