Edward Marjoribanks, 2nd Baron Tweedmouth

Edward Marjoribanks, 2nd Baron Tweedmouth KT, PC ( July 8th, 1849 *, † September 15, 1909 ) was a British statesman.

Family

Marjoribanks married on June 9, 1873 Lady Fanny Octavia Louise Spencer - Churchill ( 1853-1904 ), a daughter of John Spencer - Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, and sister of Lord Randolph Churchill. The marriage went forth a son, Dudley Churchill Marjoribanks, the title and rank of Baron Tweedmouth inherited after the death of his father.

Lord Randolph's son Winston Churchill, whose political advancement sponsored Marjoribanks, was, together with that from 1905 to 1908 the Liberal government Campbell - Bannerman and Asquith on. From March to September 1908 both men were even together in the Cabinet ( Churchill as Minister of Commerce and Marjoribanks as Lord President of the Council). In addition, Marjoribanks had contributed to the change of party of his nephew in April 1904 by the Conservative to the Liberal Party by running once this principle of encouraging in talks to turn his back on the Conservatives in favor of the Liberals, and the second by the fact that it is within the Liberal Party the ground for his relatives prepared by he influenced the leaders of the Liberals in favor of a recording of Churchill.

Early life (1849-1875)

Marjoribanks attended boarding school in Harrow. He studied at Christ Church College at the University of Oxford, from which he was expelled because of a student prank. After graduating, he took first traveled extensively and began a career as a lawyer in 1874, he already gave up a year later to devote himself to politics.

Political action (1875-1909)

Marjoribanks was a member of the Liberal Party. After he had in 1875 applied in vain for the first time in a by-election for a House seat, he succeeded in 1880 by a large majority ( 1086 504 votes) as MP for the constituency of Berwickshire to the House of Commons to collect, where he was from as a loyal follower William Ewart Gladstone excelled. In this he sat until he 1894 - when, after the death of his father Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, whose title of nobility went over to him - to the House of Lords, the House of Lords, over changed, in which he sat until his death in 1909. From 1892 to 1894 he officiated also in parallel as a parliamentary secretary to the Treasury, a government office that is regularly occupied by the Chief Whip of the Government Group. From 1886 he served as one of the Whips of the Liberals from 1892 until his entry into the House of Lords in 1894 as Chief Whip.

From 1894 to 1895 he served as successor to Gladstone as Lord Privy Seal and took the same time the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a. From 1905 to 1908 he served as First Lord of the Admiralty ( Admiralty ) and 1908 for several months as Lord President of the Council. He also belonged since 1886 to the Privy Council and was incorporated in 1908 in the Order of the Thistle, the highest Scottish Order.

Parliamentarians and Whip (1880-1894)

Since 1886, Marjoribanks served as one of the Whips ( Group Managing Director) of the Liberal group in the lower house. This was responsible for the task of ensuring compliance with the party discipline by members of the Group and to ensure that this appeared possible complete on voting in the Parliament so that the ruling party could bring their voting strength. In particular, for the Marjoribanks was there - as he himself come - from Scottish constituencies parliamentarians of his party in charge. His position as Whip came to this time of special importance because of the dispute over the planned Gladstone Home Rule for Ireland threatened to split the Liberal Party. In his efforts to hold the Group, Marjoribanks proved so successful that he was in 1892 appointed chief whip of the main Group Managing Director of the Liberals. Gladstone recognized Marjoribanks efficiency with the words: "His very presence Brought sunlight". The magazine Vanity Fair ruled on the end of his career as a Whip the occasion of his entry into the House of Lords in 1894, Marjoribanks was "the best whip the Liberal party ever had".

Minister of Marine and Tweedmouth affair (1905-1908)

Of lasting historical interest is mainly Marjoribanks tenure as First Lord of the Admiralty, which coincided with the ever- accelerating Anglo-German naval rivalry in the decade before the First World War. In his capacity as Secretary of the Navy Marjoribanks is regarded as one of the British opponent of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the creator of the German High Seas Fleet. Marjoribanks and his fleet commander John Arbuthnot Fisher responded to the " German challenge " with a massive upgrade of the British navy. Among other things, they initiated a reorganization of the naval bases, improving the remuneration of Naval Staff and finally the - practically only after Marjoribanks departure from the Admiralty 1908 - realized building known as " dreadnoughts " capital ships in the roads, so they were caught in the crosshairs German criticism.

As part of the so-called Tweedmouth affair of the German Emperor in 1908 tried by a " Tweedmouth Letter" become famous document, to influence the British minister. A step that was seen in the British public as an undue interference in the internal affairs of State of the United Kingdom, contributed to a further deterioration of the German -British relations and also the Daily Telegraph Affair of the following year partially anticipated.

The last few years (1908-1909) and aftermath

Following the resignation of Sir Henry Campbell - Bannerman as prime minister, a cabinet reshuffle was necessary in the spring of 1908. At the insistence of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith budding Marjoribanks resigned as Secretary of the Navy and took over the newly formed Cabinet Asquith the post of Lord President of the Council. Asquith requirement that Marjoribanks could not remain as Secretary of the Navy, was based on the official view that the Secretary of the Navy should hold a seat in the House of Commons and not as Marjoribanks in the upper house. Unofficially, however, it was agreed that Marjoribanks drastically deteriorating health was the real reason for his dismissal. His successor as Minister of Marine was Reginald McKenna. After a stroke in September 1908 Marjoribanks finally stepped back also from the post of Lord President and passed largely into private life.

As a personality Marjoribanks has disappeared almost from the collective memory, as a statesman he was, the family chronicle of the Marjoribanks, 1996 "now almost Entirely forgotten ( even) by historians ." Although he was a great statesman, he was nevertheless as the Secretary of the Navy "honorable failure ( been ), though far from a disaster ."