The Marquess of Salisbury

Peter Stansky & William Abrahams describe how, after Tennyson’s death, the problem of finding a new Poet Laureate perturbed successive British governments.

The gifted third son of the last Victorian Prime Minister was described as having ‘one foot in the Middle Ages and the other in the League of Nations’, as his descendant, Hugh Cecil, finds out.

A.P. Ryan introduces the Grand Old Man of the nineteenth century Conservative Party.

Graham Goodlad asks whether Lord Salisbury deserves his reputation as one of the great Victorian Prime Ministers.

The third Marquess of Salisbury resigned on 11 July 1902.

Andrew Roberts argues that Lord Salisbury, the British Prime Minister most identified with imperialism at its acme, in reality saw the Empire as a mixed blessing at best.