Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne - Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury ( born February 3, 1830 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire; † August 22, 1903 ibid ), also known as Lord Robert Cecil (pre 1865) and Viscount Cranborne ( 1865-1868 ), was a British statesman and Prime Minister.
Life and work
Cecil was the second son of James Brownlow William Gascoyne - Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. After an unhappy childhood education at Eton College and studied at Christ Church College, University of Oxford, he was in 1853 as a Conservative Member of Parliament to the House of Commons, elected.
1857 Cecil married Georgina Alderson. His father tried to prevent the marriage of his son, as the bride was " unethical " in his opinion due to their lower social rank. Married life itself was still happy and brought five sons, including the politician Hugh Cecil, and two daughters out. 1866 joined ( due to the death of his elder brother ), as India minister third in the government of Lord Derby Cecil, Viscount Cranborne now the courtesy title led. But already seven months later he resigned because of the rejection of him as too democratically rated Reform Bill out of the cabinet of.
In 1868 he succeeded his late father, the Marquess of Salisbury, and thus a member of the House of Lords was. 1870 he was appointed Chancellor of Oxford University.
In 1874, he returned as Minister of India back in the government of Benjamin Disraeli. Salisbury gradually developed a good relationship with Disraeli, the first he did not like and he distrusted originally, at least in part because Disrealis Jewish origin. At the meeting convened by the UK Conference of Constantinople Opel ( December 1876-January 1877 ), on the topics including the future of the Balkans was discussed, Salisbury led the British delegation. There, he managed to get the Ottoman Empire for the time being to slow the Russian expansionism in the Balkans and in Asia Minor and Cyprus to win for Britain. 1878 Salisbury followed Lord Derby ( son of former Prime Minister ) to the Secretary of State. For his achievements at the Berlin Congress, he received the Order of the Garter.
After Disraeli's death in 1881 began a turbulent period for the Conservatives. Salisbury became chairman of the Conservatives in the House of Lords and fought with the conservative chairman of the House, Sir Stafford Northcote, for supremacy in the party. Salisbury eventually emerged victorious and became 1885-1886 Prime Minister of a minority government. The cleavage of the Liberals on the issue of Irish self-government, however, brought him in 1886 a parliamentary majority, and with an interruption ( 1892-1895 ) he made from 1886 to 1902 the government. From 1895 he was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
Salisbury was during most of his terms of office as Prime Minister and his own foreign minister. He pursued a policy of splendid isolation and imperialism, especially in Africa, where the Fashoda crisis and the Boer War, fell into his tenure. Especially in East and South Africa, he expanded the British Empire. Domestically, he rejected the self-government of Ireland, was otherwise hardly active.
On July 11, 1902 Salisbury resigned for health reasons. His nephew, Arthur James Balfour, became his successor. Salisbury was the last member of the House of Lords, which was prime minister ( with the temporary exception of Alec Douglas -Home, the prime minister took his earldom shortly after his appointment ).
Salisbury dealt extensively with private theology and philosophy, and chemical experiments.
Gascoyne - Cecil found it difficult to recognize the faces of his fellow man, even his relatives when he met with unexpected circumstances. Once, when he was standing during an official Hofzeremonie behind the throne, he saw a young man who smiled at him. "Who is my young friend ," he whispered to his neighbor. "Your eldest son ," answered the neighbor. Obviously, he was affected by a form of prosopagnosia.