Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, Fifth Marquess of Lansdowne

British statesman

• Born: January 14, 1845
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: June 3, 1927
• Place of death: Newtown Anmer, Clonmel, Ireland

Lansdowne was instrumental in forming major alliances for Great Britain with Japan in 1902 and with France in 1904. It was as secretary of war and as foreign secretary he made his greatest contributions.

Early Life

Lord Lansdowne was born in Lansdowne House, Berkeley Square, London. His father, the fourth marquess of Lansdowne, was at that time known as the earl of Shelburne because the third marquess was still alive. The Petty-Fitzmaurices, his family’s name, had long been prominent in Anglo-Irish affairs but had spent little time in Ireland for the past century. Lansdowne’s father, who became the fourth earl in 1863, sat in Parliament and was chair of the Great Western Railway but was generally content to occupy positions rather than build on them. His mother, Emily, the fourth earl’s second wife, had inherited large estates in Scotland from her mother.

The young Lord Clanmaurice (as Lansdowne was known until his father succeeded to the marquessate in 1863, at which point he became Lord Kerry) was educated at a private school until the age of thirteen, when he entered Eton. There he was anything but a devoted student, concentrating mainly on rowing. His parents removed him for a year before his taking the entrance exams for Balliol College, Oxford. He entered Balliol in 1864 and studied earnestly but was only able to rate second when he left in 1867.

Lansdowne’s father, the fourth marquess, died in 1866, while Lansdowne was still studying at Balliol. The new marquess of Lansdowne found it ordained that he should enter politics, and because he was the leader of a great Whig family and one of the largest landowners in the country, the way was paved for him. Perhaps because he had shown no interest in politics, his bearing was not such as would stimulate confidence in oratorical abilities. His reserved character, coupled with a long head and large nose sitting atop a slight body, led many to doubt that his tenure in public life would be a long one. Lansdowne remained devoted to his mother until her death in 1895, writing to her at least once each week, pouring out to her his worries and fears. In 1869, Lansdowne married Lady Maud Hamilton, the youngest daughter of the duke of Abercorn, and with her he had two daughters and two sons, the elder, Henry, succeeding him as sixth marquess and the younger, Charles, who was killed in action in 1914.

Life’s Work

In 1869, the year of his marriage, Lansdowne was appointed a junior lord of the treasury, being transferred in 1872 to the position of undersecretary of war. In 1874, however, William Ewart Gladstone’s government fell, and it was not until the Liberals again gained power in 1880 that Lansdowne took a post in government, this time that of undersecretary of state for India. Circumstances intervened at this juncture, however, to separate Lansdowne and the Liberal leader. Gladstone initiated his new Irish policy, and Lansdowne, as one of the largest landowners in Ireland, felt compelled to oppose him. He therefore resigned his post, thus becoming the target for Irish agitators. This opposition he felt keenly. He also believed it unjust, as he could not be labeled an absentee landlord, having for several years made his principal seat at Derreen. Nevertheless, a concerted and successful attempt by his tenants to withhold rents soon placed him in financial difficulties and necessitated his return to public life.

In 1883, Gladstone again offered Lansdowne a position, that of governor-general of Canada. Lansdowne’s tenure in that post was relatively undisturbed, broken only by Louis Riel’s abortive rebellion in 1885 and the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886. In 1887, the Conservative Lord Salisbury asked Lansdowne to succeed Lord Dufferin as viceroy of India, and Lansdowne took up the reins of government there late in 1888. Again, his term in office was remarkably quiet despite the formation of the Indian National Congress and various minor frontier disturbances. Lansdowne returned to England in 1894.

Lansdowne was named secretary of war in Lord Salisbury’s government in 1895, chiefly in an attempt to take advantage of his well-known tact. The onerous task of retiring the seventy-six-year-old duke of Cambridge from the post of commander in chief demanded the velvet touch that all admitted belonged to Lansdowne. The delicate job completed, he was then faced with the Boer War. Criticism of the secretary of war mounted with British defeats, although Lansdowne could not be blamed for the incompetence of British field commanders. Nevertheless, he stepped down in 1900.

Lord Salisbury immediately offered him the office of foreign secretary. Initially, Lansdowne was a tremendous success in the post. In 1901, he met with the Japanese ambassador, Count Hayashi, and the two career diplomats produced the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902, in which each country pledged to maintain the status quo in the Far East against the aggressive moves of Germany, France, and Russia. The treaty assured Japan that Great Britain would come to its aid if Japan were attacked by two of the Great Powers. This promise helped Japan immeasurably in the Russo-Japanese War .

During his time as foreign secretary, Lansdowne also faced problems in Persia and Venezuela. British influence in the shah’s domains was on the wane and the Russians were in the ascendant. The outbreak of war between Japan and Russia, however, temporarily distracted the czar’s ministers. Lansdowne again received criticism in 1902 for a proposed joint Anglo-German blockade of Venezuela as a response to piracy and misgovernment. The American government threatened to intervene by force to prevent the seizure of Venezuelan assets, and British public opinion was overwhelmingly critical of any alliance with Germany.

Again, Lansdowne triumphed just when it seemed his public career was over. From 1902 to 1904, Lansdowne and members of the French government were engaged in talks designed to reduce tensions arising from imperial conflicts. By 1904, the Anglo-French Entente was a reality. The French recognized British rights in Egypt, and their effective control over Morocco was also acknowledged. The basis of the anti-German alliance had been laid.

In 1903, Lord Salisbury died, and Lansdowne became the Conservative leader in the House of Lords. As such, he coordinated the opposition to the 1909 budget and to the emasculation of the Lords’ veto power. He was unsuccessful in both attempts but continued to lead the Lords until 1916. After that year, he withdrew more and more from public life. In 1919, an attack of rheumatic fever signaled the beginning of a decline in his health. He died on June 3, 1927, while at the house of his youngest daughter at Newtown Anmer, Clonmel, Ireland.

Significance

Lansdowne was not personally ambitious, but the position into which he was born compelled him to be politically active. Aloof, soft-spoken, and more interested in sport than society, he nevertheless served his country for more than fifty years. His social connections perhaps stood him in better stead than his administrative abilities, but it would be wrong to underrate his service in India and Canada simply because little took place while he was in office.

It was as secretary of war and as foreign secretary that Lansdowne made his greatest contributions. While he may be to blame in part for the fiasco of the Boer War, there is little doubt that his experience with German policy during the crisis led to his desire to begin to take Great Britain out of its political isolation. The Japanese and French alliances helped to set the stage for the debacle of World War I, although these were regarded at the time as major steps forward in stabilizing world affairs.

Lansdowne took a great interest in Ireland, and his defection from the Liberal Party over Gladstone’s Irish policy was certainly a great blow to the Whigs, not so much because of his talents but because the Lansdowne name was one to take seriously. The onset of the Irish troubles also reduced his personal revenue to almost nothing, and that, as much as anything else, was responsible for his accepting the posts in Canada and Ireland.

Finally, Lansdowne’s dilemma was that of the traditional landowning peer in the late nineteenth century. The vulnerability of an income based on land rents was revealed, and the hostility toward landlords, which resulted in the burning of Lansdowne’s estate at Derreen in 1922, revealed to the aging marquess that not only his time but also the time of his class was passing.

Bibliography

Barker, Dudley. Prominent Edwardians. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1969. A biographical sketch that is at times hilariously irreverent and at other times simply scurrilous. The chapter on Lansdowne contains almost no dates, although the general outline of the marquess’s career is clear. Reads easily and should be used to balance Wodehouse and Lord Newton’s hagiography.

Dangerfield, George. The Damnable Question: A Study in Anglo-Irish Conflict. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976. Covers Anglo-Irish relations from 1800, with special attention to the years of World War I. Lansdowne’s role in the formation of Irish policy is documented. Good account of the conflict that in many ways lay at the center of Lansdowne’s life.

Davis, Richard W., ed. Leaders in the Lords: Government Management and Party Organization in the Upper Chamber, 1765-1902. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, for the Parliamentary History Yearbook Trust, 2003. A history of the British House of Lords to 1902, with a chapter on Lansdowne. Ninth in a series of special issues sponsored by the academic journal Parliamentary History.

Jenkins, Roy. Mr. Balfour’s Poodle: An Account of the Struggle Between the House of Lords and the Government of Mr. Asquith. London: Heinemann, 1954. Highly focused account of the constitutional struggle of 1911-1912. Well researched and entertaining; important for understanding the swan song of Lansdowne’s career.

Joll, James. The Origins of the First World War. London: Longman, 1984. This short introductory survey to the origins of World War I places Lansdowne’s policies while foreign secretary into the greater context of European politics and diplomacy. Very clearly organized and written.

Wodehouse, Thomas, and Lord Newton. Lord Lansdowne: A Biography. London: Macmillan, 1929. An older work that nevertheless contains much information vital to an understanding of Lansdowne’s career. Biased in favor of Lansdowne in the sense that his reluctance to make decisions is portrayed as an asset.