Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

Early political career

At Eton, Rosebery notably attacked Charles I of England for his despotism, and went on to praise his Whig forebears – his ancestor, James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, was a minister to George I of Great Britain. Benjamin Disraeli often met with Rosebery in the 1870s to try to recruit him for his party, but this proved futile. Disraeli's major rival, William Ewart Gladstone, also pursued Rosebery, with considerable success.

As part of the Liberal plan to get Gladstone to be MP for Midlothian, Rosebery sponsored and largely ran the Midlothian Campaign of 1879. He based this on what he had observed in elections in the United States. Gladstone spoke from open-deck trains, and gathered mass support. In 1880, he was duly elected Member for Midlothian and returned to the premiership.^[19][20]

Rosebery served as Foreign Secretary in Gladstone's brief third ministry in 1886. He served as the first chairman of the London County Council, set up by the Conservatives in 1889. Rosebery Avenue in Clerkenwell is named after him.^[21][22] He served as President of the first day of the 1890 Co-operative Congress.^[23]

In 1892 he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Garter. Rosebery's second period as Foreign Secretary, 1892–1894, predominantly involved quarrels with France over Uganda. To quote his hero Napoleon, Rosebery thought that "the Master of Egypt is the Master of India"; thus he pursued the policy of expansion in Africa. He helped Gladstone's Second Home Rule Bill in the House of Lords; nevertheless it was defeated overwhelmingly in the autumn of 1893.^[24] The first bill had been defeated in the House of Commons in 1886.^[25]

Prime Minister

Rosebery became a leader of the Liberal Imperialist faction of the Liberal Party and when Gladstone retired, in 1894, Rosebery succeeded him as Prime Minister, much to the disgust of Sir William Harcourt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the more left-wing Liberals. Rosebery's selection was largely because Queen Victoria disliked most of the other leading Liberals. Rosebery was in the House of Lords, but Harcourt controlled the House of Commons, where he often undercut the prime minister.^[26]

Rosebery's government was largely unsuccessful, as in the Armenian crisis of 1895–96. He spoke out for a strongly pro-Armenian and anti-Turkish policy.^[27] Gladstone, a prime minister in retirement, called on Britain to intervene alone. The added pressure weakened Rosebery.^[28]

His designs in foreign policy, such as an expansion of the fleet, were defeated by disagreements within the Liberal Party. He angered all the European powers.^[29]

The Unionist-dominated House of Lords stopped the whole of the Liberals' domestic legislation. The strongest figure in the cabinet was Rosebery's rival, Harcourt. He and his son Lewis were perennial critics of Rosebery's policies. There were two future prime ministers in the Cabinet, Home Secretary H. H. Asquith, and Secretary of State for War Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Rosebery rapidly lost interest in running the government. In the last year of his premiership, he was increasingly haggard: he suffered insomnia due to the continual dissension in his Cabinet.^[30]

On 21 June 1895, the government lost a vote in committee on army supply by just seven votes. While this might have been treated merely as a vote of no confidence in Secretary for War Campbell-Bannerman, Rosebery chose to treat it as a vote of censure on his government. On 22 June, he and his ministers tendered their resignations to the Queen, who invited the Unionist leader, Lord Salisbury, to form a government. The following month, the Unionists won a crushing victory in the 1895 general election, and held power for ten years (1895–1905) under Salisbury and Arthur Balfour. Rosebery remained the Liberal leader for another year, then permanently retired from politics.

Later life

Marriage

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On 20 March 1878, 31-year-old Rosebery married 27-year-old Hannah de Rothschild (1851–1890), only child and sole heiress of the Jewish banker Mayer Amschel de Rothschild, and the wealthiest British heiress of her day. Her father had died four years previously in 1874, and bequeathed to her the bulk of his estate. The wedding was held (registered) at the office of the Board of Guardians in Mount Street, London. Later the same day, the marriage was blessed at a Christian ceremony in Christ Church, Down Street, Piccadilly. The Prince of Wales and the Queen's cousin, the army commander Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, were among the guests who attended the ceremony.^[42]

The marriage was a happy one. In January 1878, Rosebery had told a friend that he found Hannah "very simple, very unspoilt, very clever, very warm-hearted and very shy ... I never knew such a beautiful character." Hannah's death in 1890 from typhoid, compounded by Bright's disease, left him distraught.

More than a decade after his wife's death, in July 1901, it was speculated that Rosebery intended to marry the widowed Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany, widow of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria.^[43] Princess Helena was also the sister of Queen Emma of the Netherlands. However, Rosebery never remarried.

Progeny

By his wife Hannah de Rothschild, Rosebery had two sons and two daughters, with whom, according to Margot Asquith, he loved to play:

• Albert Edward Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery known as Harry (8 January 1882 – 30 May 1974) he married Lady Dorothy Grosvenor (granddaughter of Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster through his third son Lord Henry Grosvenor) on 15 April 1909 and was divorced from her in 1919. They had two children. He married Hon. Eva Isabel Bruce (daughter of Henry Campbell Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare) on 24 June 1924. They had two children.
• Neil James Archibald Primrose (14 December 1882 – 18 November 1917), who married Lady Victoria Stanley (daughter of Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby) on 7 April 1915. They had one daughter: Ruth Wood, Countess of Halifax.
• Lady Sybil Primrose (18 September 1879 – 25 February 1955), who married General Sir Charles Grant on 28 March 1903. They had one son.
• Lady Margaret "Peggy" Etrenne Hannah Primrose^[44] (1 January 1881 – 13 March 1967), who married Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe on 20 April 1899. They had a son, who died in childhood, and a daughter: Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe. As Lady Crewe, she became one of the first seven women appointed as magistrates in 1919 following the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919.^[45]

Sexuality

Throughout his life, it was rumoured that Rosebery was homosexual or bisexual. He was a notorious misogynist, and liked to surround himself with younger men.^[46]

As a student at Eton, beyond his close relationship with his tutor, William Johnson Cory, he likely had feelings for at least one fellow student, Frederick Vyner. He was devastated by Vyner's murder at the hands of Greek brigands in 1870, keeping the anniversary sacred for the rest of his life.^[47]

Like Oscar Wilde, he was hounded by John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry for his association with Francis Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig, Queensberry's first born son^[48] – who had become his private secretary in 1892 when Rosebery became Foreign Secretary. A few months later he arranged for Drumlanrig, who was 26 at the time, to be made a junior member of the government with a seat in the House of Lords.^[49]

During the preliminary hearing of the case against Wilde, a letter from Queensberry was produced referring to him as 'a damned cur and coward of the Rosebery type'.^[50]

On 18 October 1894, sixteen months after his ennoblement, Drumlanrig died from injuries received during a shooting party. The inquest returned a verdict of "accidental death", but his death was rumoured potentially to be suicide or murder.^[51] It was speculated at the time^[52] that Drumlanrig may have had a romantic, if not sexual, relationship with Rosebery.

The suggestion was that Queensberry had threatened to expose the Prime Minister if his government did not vigorously prosecute Wilde for the latter's relationship with Drumlanrig's younger brother, Lord Alfred Douglas. Queensberry believed, as he put it in a letter, that "Snob Queers like Rosebery" had corrupted his sons, and he held Rosebery indirectly responsible for Drumlanrig's death.^[53] He claimed to have evidence of Rosebery's transgressions but that was never confirmed.^[54]

Using a minor defeat in Parliament that did not warrant such action, Rosebery resigned from the Premiership on 22 June 1895. This was a few months after the death of Drumlanrig and not quite a month after Wilde was convicted on 25 May, his life and reputation destroyed by a man who was also pursuing Rosebery for the same reason he was after Wilde. In August 1893, Queensberry had followed Rosebery to the spa town of Bad Homburg with the declared intention of giving him a horse-whipping, and had to be dissuaded by the Prince of Wales who was also staying there.^[49]

In his recollections, Rosebery wrote: "I cannot forget 1895. To lie awake night after night, wide awake, hopeless of sleep, tormented of nerves, and to realise all that was going on, at which I was present, so to speak, like a disembodied spirit, to watch one's own corpse, as it were day after day, is an experience which no sane man would repeat."^[50]

Sir Edmund Backhouse wrote in his unpublished memoirs that he had been one of Rosebery's lovers – although it has been suggested that many of Backhouse's claims were dubiously made.^[55]

Robert Rhodes James, who wrote a biography of Rosebery in 1963 (when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain), makes no mention of homosexual relationships at all, while for Leo McKinstry, who was writing in 2005, the evidence that Rosebery was homosexual is circumstantial. Michael Bloch, in 2015, has, however, no doubt that Rosebery was at least romantically interested in men, making him one of the four figures presented in the first chapter of his book on homosexual and bisexual British politicians of the 20th century. In his view, any remaining evidence (of which he gives a long list) can only be circumstantial in any case, considering Rosebery's paranoid taste for secrecy.^[56]

Horse racing

As a result of his marriage to Hannah de Rothschild, Rosebery acquired the Mentmore Towers estate and Mentmore stud near Leighton Buzzard which had been built by Mayer Amschel de Rothschild. Rosebery built another stable and stud near Mentmore Towers at Crafton, Buckinghamshire, called Crafton Stud.

Rosebery won several of the five English Classic Races. His most famous horses were Ladas who won the 1894 Derby, Sir Visto who won it in 1895 (Rosebery was Prime Minister on both occasions), and Cicero in 1905.

Football

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Rosebery became the first president of the London Scottish Rugby Football Club in 1878, also developed a keen interest in association football and was an early patron of the sport in Scotland. In 1882 he donated a trophy, the Rosebery Charity Cup, to be competed for by clubs under the jurisdiction of the East of Scotland Football Association. The competition lasted over sixty years and raised thousands of pounds for charities in the Edinburgh area.

Rosebery also became Honorary President of the national Scottish Football Association, with the representative Scotland national team and Honorary President of Heart of Midlothian. The national team occasionally forsook their traditional dark blue shirts for his traditional racing colours of primrose and pink. This occurred nine times during Rosebery's lifetime, most notably for the 1900 British Home Championship match against England, which the Scots won 4–1. These colours were used for the away kit of the Scotland national team in 2014^[58][59] and were Heart of Midlothian's away colours for season 2016/17.

Place-name tributes

The Oatlands area in the South Side of Glasgow was laid out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, contemporary with Rosebery's most prominent period. The area is much changed since it was originally laid out, but several of the original street names had an association with him or areas around his estate to the northwest of Edinburgh: Rosebery Street, Dalmeny Street, Queensferry Street, Granton Street and Cramond Street.^[64]

In London, Rosebery Avenue, running between Holborn and Clerkenwell, was named after him, in recognition of his service as the London County Council's first chairman.^[65]

Rosebery, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, is named after him. A major street, Dalmeny Avenue, runs through the area. Rosebery, Tasmania is also named after him, via the name of a mining company. Dalmeny, New South Wales, a suburb on the New South Wales South Coast, is named after him. Roseberry Avenue in the suburb of South Perth, Western Australia, is also named after him. The former township of Rosebery in South Australia (now part of Collinswood) was named for him, as was modern-day Rosebery Lane in Collinswood.^[66] Rosebery in the north west of Victoria, some 15 km south of Hopetoun is also named after him.

Rosebery House, Epsom College, in Epsom, is named after him. Rosebery School sits on an area of land given to the borough by Lord Rosebery.

In October 1895 Lord Rosebery opened the new Liberal Club on Westborough, in Scarborough, only months after resigning as Prime Minister. The building now houses a Wetherspoons, which is named in his honour.