Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

The Most Honourable
The Marquess of Salisbury

KG GCVO PC
The Most Honourable; The Marquess of Salisbury ; KG GCVO PC
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
	In office; 25 June 1895 – 11 July 1902
Monarchs	Victoria; Edward VII
Preceded by	The Earl of Rosebery
Succeeded by	Arthur Balfour
	In office; 25 July 1886 – 11 August 1892
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	William Ewart Gladstone
Succeeded by	William Ewart Gladstone
	In office; 23 June 1885 – 28 January 1886
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	William Ewart Gladstone
Succeeded by	William Ewart Gladstone
Foreign Secretary
	In office; 2 April 1878 – 28 April 1880
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Earl of Beaconsfield
Preceded by	The Earl of Derby
Succeeded by	The Earl Granville
	In office; 24 June 1885 – 6 February 1886
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	The Earl Granville
Succeeded by	The Earl of Rosebery
	In office; 14 January 1887 – 11 August 1892
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	The Earl of Iddesleigh
Succeeded by	The Earl of Rosebery
	In office; 29 June 1895 – 12 November 1900
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	The Earl of Kimberley
Succeeded by	The Marquess of Lansdowne
Personal details
Born	3 February 1830; Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Died	22 August 1903 (aged 73); Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Georgina Alderson
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford, United Kingdom

"Lord Salisbury" redirects here. For other holders of the title, see Marquess of Salisbury.

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC (3 February 1830 – 22 August 1903), known as Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and as Viscount Cranborne from 1865 until 1868, was a British statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years. He was the first British Prime Minister of the 20th century and the last Prime Minister to head his full administration from the House of Lords.

Life

Lord Robert Cecil was the second son of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. After an unhappy childhood, in which he was sent to Eton College, he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, and on taking his degree was elected a Fellow of All Souls College. He entered the House of Commons as a Conservative in 1853, as MP for Stamford in Lincolnshire. He retained this seat until entering the peerage.

In 1866 Lord Robert, now Viscount Cranborne after the death of his older brother, Salisbury entered the third government of Lord Derby as Secretary of State for India. He resigned the next year over the Reform Bill, which he opposed.

In 1868, on the death of his father, he inherited the Marquessate of Salisbury, thereby becoming a member of the House of Lords. From 1868 and 1871, he was chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, which was then experiencing losses. During his tenure, the company was taken out of chancery, and paid out a small dividend on its ordinary shares.

He returned to government in 1874, serving once again as India Secretary in the government of Benjamin Disraeli. Salisbury gradually developed a good relationship with Disraeli, whom he had previously disliked and distrusted. In 1878, Salisbury succeeded Lord Derby (son of the former Prime Minister) as Foreign Secretary in time to help lead Britain to "peace with honour" at the Congress of Berlin. For this he was rewarded with the Order of the Garter.

Following Disraeli's death in 1881, the Conservatives entered a period of turmoil. Salisbury became the leader of the Conservative members of the House of Lords, though the overall leadership of the party was not formally allocated. So he struggled with the Commons leader Sir Stafford Northcote, a struggle in which Salisbury eventually emerged as the leading figure. He became Prime Minister of a minority administration from 1885 to 1886. Although unable to accomplish much due to his lack of a parliamentary majority, the split of the Liberals over Irish Home Rule in 1886 enabled him to return to power with a majority, and, excepting a Liberal minority government (1892–1895), to serve as Prime Minister from 1886 to 1902.

In 1889 Salisbury set up the London County Council and then in 1890 allowed it to build houses. However he came to regret this, saying in November 1894 that the LCC, "is the place where collectivist and socialistic experiments are tried. It is the place where a new revolutionary spirit finds its instruments and collects its arms".^[1]

Also in 1889 Salisbury's Government passed the Naval Defence Act 1889 which facilitated the spending of an extra £20 million on the Royal Navy over the following four years. This was the biggest ever expansion of the navy in peacetime: ten new battleships, thirty-eight new cruisers, eighteen new torpedo boats and four new fast gunboats. Traditionally (since the Battle of Trafalgar) Britain had possessed a navy one-third larger than their nearest naval rival but now the Royal Navy was set to the Two-Power Standard; that it would be maintained "to a standard of strength equivalent to that of the combined forces of the next two biggest navies in the world".^[2] This was aimed at France and Russia.

Salisbury's expertise was in foreign affairs. For most of his time as Prime Minister he served not as First Lord of the Treasury, the traditional position held by the Prime Minister, but as Foreign Secretary. In that capacity, he managed Britain's foreign affairs, famously pursuing a policy of "Splendid Isolation". Among the important events of his premierships was the Partition of Africa, culminating in the Fashoda Crisis and the Second Boer War. At home he sought to "fight Home Rule with kindness" by launching a land reform programme which helped hundreds of thousands of Irish peasants gain land ownership^{[citation needed]}.

On 11 July 1902, in failing health and broken hearted over the death of his wife, Salisbury resigned. He was succeeded by his nephew, Arthur James Balfour. Salisbury was offered a dukedom by Queen Victoria in 1886 and 1892, but declined both offers, citing the prohibitive cost of the lifestyle dukes were expected to maintain.

When Salisbury died his estate was probated at 310,336 pounds sterling. In 1900 Salisbury was worth £6.56 million, about £374 million in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

Salisbury is seen as an icon of traditional, aristocratic conservatism. The academic quarterly Salisbury Review was named in his honour upon its founding in 1982.

Clement Attlee (Labour Party Prime Minister, 1945-1951) believed Salisbury to be the best Prime Minister of his lifetime.^[3]

After the Bering Sea Arbitration, Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Sparrow David Thompson said of Lord Salisbury's acceptance of the Arbitration Treaty that it was "one of the worst acts of what I regard as a very stupid and worthless life."^[4]

In 1886, Salisbury remarked that the British public would not accept a "black man", such as the Indian Dadabhai Naoroji as an MP^{[citation needed]}.

The British phrase 'Bob's your uncle' is thought to have derived from Robert Cecil's appointment of his nephew, Arthur Balfour, as Minister for Ireland .

Family

Lord Salisbury was the second son of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, a minor Conservative politician. In 1857, he defied his father and married Georgina Alderson. She was the daughter of Sir Edward Alderson, a moderately notable jurist and so of much lower social standing than the Cecils. The marriage proved a happy one. Robert and Georgina had eight children, all but one of whom survived infancy.

Lady Beatrix Cecil († 27 April 1950), married the 2nd Earl of Selborne
Lady Gwendolen Cecil († 28 September 1945), author, and biographer of her father; she never married.
Lady Fanny Cecil († 24 April 1867), died as an infant
James, Viscount Cranborne (23 October 1861–4 April 1947), later 4th Marquess of Salisbury
Lord William Cecil (9 March 1863–23 June 1936)
Lord Robert Cecil (14 September 1864–24 November 1958), later 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
Lord Edward Cecil (12 July 1867–13 December 1918)
Lord Hugh Cecil (14 October 1869–10 December 1956), later 1st Baron Quickswood

Beliefs

Salisbury believed the role of government was to maintain and extend individual freedom, and to avoid interfering in social and economic affairs. He also advocated self help: 'No men ever rise to any permanent improvement in their condition of body or of mind except by relying upon their own personal efforts'.

Lord Salisbury's First Government, July 1885–February 1886

Lord Salisbury – Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the House of Lords
Lord Iddesleigh – First Lord of the Treasury
Lord Halsbury – Lord Chancellor
Lord Cranbrook – Lord President of the Council
Lord Harrowby – Lord Privy Seal
Sir Richard Cross – Secretary of State for the Home Department
Sir Frederick Stanley – Secretary of State for the Colonies
William Henry Smith – Secretary of State for War
Lord Randolph Churchill – Secretary of State for India
Lord George Hamilton – First Lord of the Admiralty
Sir Michael Hicks Beach – Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons
The Duke of Richmond – President of the Board of Trade
Lord John Manners – Postmaster-General
Lord Carnarvon – Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Ashbourne – Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Edward Stanhope – Vice President of the Council

Changes

August 1885 – The Duke of Richmond becomes Secretary for Scotland. Edward Stanhope succeeds him at the Board of Trade. Stanhope's successor as Vice President of the Council is not in the Cabinet.
January, 1886 – The Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland is put into commission. William Henry Smith becomes Chief Secretary for Ireland. Lord Cranbrook succeeds him as Secretary for War, while remaining Lord President.

Lord Salisbury's Second Government, August 1886–August 1892

Cabinet after the reorganisation of January 1887

Further Changes

February 1888 – Sir Michael Hicks Beach succeeds Lord Stanley of Preston as President of the Board of Trade
1889 – Henry Chaplin enters the Cabinet as President of the Board of Agriculture.
October 1891 – Arthur James Balfour succeeds William Henry Smith (deceased) as First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons. William Lawies Jackson succeeds him as Irish Secretary.

Lord Salisbury's Third Government, June 1895–July 1902

Changes

November 1900 – Complete reorganisation of the ministry:

Notes

^ Andrew Roberts, Salisbury: Victorian Titan (Phoenix, 2000), p. 501.
^ Ibid, p. 540.
^ Ibid, p. 836.
^ Public Archives of Canada, Gowan Papers, M-1900, Thompson to Gowan, 20 Sept. 1893

External links

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury on the Downing street website.
"Archival material relating to Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury". UK National Archives.
SalisburyReview.co.uk

Political offices
Preceded by The Earl of Ripon	Secretary of State for India 1866 – 1867	Succeeded by Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt
Preceded by The Duke of Argyll	Secretary of State for India 1874 – 1878	Succeeded by The Viscount Cranbrook
Preceded by The Earl of Derby	Foreign Secretary 1878 – 1880	Succeeded by The Earl Granville
Preceded by The Earl of Beaconsfield	Leader of the Opposition 1881 – 1885	Succeeded by William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by William Ewart Gladstone	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 23 June 1885 – 28 January 1886	Succeeded by William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by The Earl Granville	Foreign Secretary 1885 – 1886	Succeeded by The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by The Earl Granville	Leader of the House of Lords 1885 – 1886	Succeeded by The Earl Granville
Preceded by William Ewart Gladstone	Leader of the Opposition 1886	Succeeded by William Ewart Gladstone
	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 25 July 1886 – 11 August 1892	Succeeded by William Ewart Gladstone
	First Lord of the Treasury 1886 – 1887	Succeeded by W.H. Smith
Preceded by The Earl Granville	Leader of the House of Lords 1886 – 1892	Succeeded by The Earl of Kimberley
Preceded by The Earl of Iddesleigh	Foreign Secretary 1887 – 1892	Succeeded by The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by William Ewart Gladstone	Leader of the Opposition 1892 – 1895	Succeeded by The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by The Earl of Rosebery	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 25 June 1895 – 11 July 1902	Succeeded by Arthur Balfour
Preceded by The Earl of Kimberley	Foreign Secretary 1895 – 1900	Succeeded by The Marquess of Lansdowne
Preceded by The Earl of Rosebery	Leader of the House of Lords 1895 – 1902	Succeeded by The Duke of Devonshire
Preceded by The Viscount Cross	Lord Privy Seal 1900 – 1902	Succeeded by Arthur Balfour
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Herries Frederic Thesiger	Member of Parliament for Stamford 1853 – 1868 With: Frederic Thesiger 1853–1858 John Inglis 1858 Sir Stafford Northcote 1858–1866 Sir John Dalrymple Hay, Bt 1866–1868	Succeeded by Sir John Dalrymple Hay, Bt Viscount Ingestre
Party political offices
Preceded by The Earl of Beaconsfield	Conservative Leader in the Lords 1881 – 1902	Succeeded by The Duke of Devonshire
Preceded by The Earl of Beaconsfield	Leader of the British Conservative Party 1881 – 1902 with Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt (1881–1885)	Succeeded by Arthur Balfour
Academic offices
Preceded by The Earl of Derby	Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1869 – 1903	Succeeded by The Viscount Goschen
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava	Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1895 – 1903	Succeeded by The Lord Curzon of Kedleston
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by James Gascoyne-Cecil	Marquess of Salisbury 1868 – 1903	Succeeded by James Gascoyne-Cecil

[1] Andrew Roberts, Salisbury: Victorian Titan (Phoenix, 2000), p. 501.

[2] Ibid, p. 540.

[3] Ibid, p. 836.

[4] Public Archives of Canada, Gowan Papers, M-1900, Thompson to Gowan, 20 Sept. 1893

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

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Life

Legacy

Family

Beliefs

Lord Salisbury's First Government, July 1885–February 1886

Changes

Lord Salisbury's Second Government, August 1886–August 1892

Cabinet after the reorganisation of January 1887

Further Changes

Lord Salisbury's Third Government, June 1895–July 1902

Changes

Notes

Further reading

External links