Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury,
PCHer Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. Its members are largely senior politicians, who were or are members of either the House of Commons or House of Lords of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.The Privy Council, the...
(born September 30, 1946), is a British
ConservativeThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
politician. During the 1990s, he was Leader of the House of Lords under his
courtesy titleA courtesy title is a form of address in systems of nobility used by children, former wives and other close relatives of a peer. These styles are used 'by courtesy' in the sense that the users do not themselves hold substantive titles...
of
Viscount Cranborne. He is currently the Chancellor of the
University of HertfordshireThe University of Hertfordshire is a university based largely in Hatfield, in the county of Hertfordshire, England, from which the university takes its name. It is home to HIBT, an on campus pathway provider to the University...
.
House of Commons
Lord Cranborne attended
Eton CollegeEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent boarding school for boys aged approx. 13 to 19. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and
Christ Church, OxfordThis article is about the Oxford college. For other uses, see Christ Church or Christchurch .Christ Church , is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
and became a merchant banker before going to work on the family estates. He was selected, unexpectedly, as Conservative candidate for South Dorset in 1976, where his family owned lands, despite the presence of several former MPs on the shortlist. He spoke at the 1978 Conservative Party conference to oppose sanctions on
RhodesiaWhen the former colony of Northern Rhodesia changed its name to Zambia on independence in 1964, the colony of Southern Rhodesia changed its name to just plain 'Rhodesia'. The change had not yet been officialy ratified when Rhodesia declared itself independent on 11 November 1965...
. He won the seat in the 1979 general election, the seventh consecutive generation of his family to sit in the Commons, and in his first speech urged
Ian SmithIan Douglas Smith GCLM ID served as the Prime Minister of the British self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 11 November 1965 and as the first Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 11 November 1965 to 1 June 1979 during white minority rule. Smith unilaterally declared...
to stand aside in favour of
Abel MuzorewaBishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia from the Internal Settlement to the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979...
.
He attracted a general reputation as a right-winger, especially on matters affecting the
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
, but confounded this reputation when he co-wrote a pamphlet in 1981 which said that the fight against unemployment ought to be given more priority than the fight against inflation. He took an interest in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, and when
Jim PriorJames Michael Leathes Prior, Baron Prior, PC, known as Jim Prior, is a British politician, and was Conservative Member of Parliament for Lowestoft and for the renamed constituency of Waveney....
announced his policy of 'Rolling Devolution', resigned an unpaid job as assistant to
Douglas HurdDouglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC , is a senior British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995...
.
Lord Cranborne became known as an anti-communist through activities in support of Afghan refugees in Pakistan in the early 1980s, and sending food parcels to
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. (In fact until the early years of the 21st century a charity shop was run on his Hatfield estate which was solely to raise money for this cause and also to fund Polish orphanages.) He was involved in efforts to fund the Afghan resistance. His strong opposition to any involvement by the
Republic of IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
in Northern Ireland led him to oppose the
Anglo-Irish AgreementThe Anglo-Irish Agreement was an agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland which aimed to bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland...
and contributed to his decision to retire from the House of Commons in 1987.
House of Lords
After the 1992 general election,
John MajorSir John Major, KG, CH, ACIB , is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Leader of the Conservative Party. He held these posts from 1990 to 1997....
utilised a
writ of accelerationA writ in acceleration, commonly called a writ of acceleration was a type of writ of summons to the House of Lords that enabled the eldest son and heir apparent of a peer with multiple peerage titles to attend the British House of Lords or Irish House of Lords, using one of his father's subsidiary...
to call Lord Cranborne up to the House of Lords in one of his father's junior baronies. Lord Cranborne was summoned as Baron Cecil of Essendon (his father's most junior dignity), though continued to be known by his courtesy style of Viscount Cranborne. This is the last time a writ of acceleration has been issued, and because of the provisions of the House of Lords Act of 1999, abolishing the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, any future use of the writ of acceleration is highly unlikely.
He served for two years as a junior defence minister before being appointed as
Lord Privy SealThe Lord Privy Seal or Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the traditional sinecure offices of state...
and
Leader of the House of LordsLeader of the House of Lords is a function in the British government that is always held in combination with a formal Cabinet position, most often Lord President of the Council, Lord Privy Seal or Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Leader of the House takes charge of the government's...
in 1994. When Major resigned to fight for re-election as Conservative Party Leader in July 1995, Lord Cranborne led his re-election campaign. He was recognised as one of the few members of the Cabinet who were personally loyal to Major, but continued to lead the Conservative Peers after Labour won the 1997 general election.
When the new Prime Minister
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
proposed the removal of the hereditary element in the House of Lords, Lord Cranborne negotiated a pact with the government to retain a small number (later set at ninety-two) of hereditary peers for the interim period. For the sake of form this amendment was formally proposed by
Lord WeatherillBruce Bernard Weatherill, Baron Weatherill, PC, DL was an English politician, and Speaker of the British House of Commons.-Tailor:...
, Convenor of the Cross-Bench Peers. However, Lord Cranborne gave his party's approval without consulting the Leader,
William HagueWilliam Jefferson Hague is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Richmond , Shadow Foreign Secretary and Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet...
, who knew nothing and was embarrassed when Blair told him of it in the House of Commons. Hague then sacked Lord Cranborne, who accepted his error, saying that he had "rushed in, like an ill-trained spaniel".
All former Leaders of the House of Lords who were hereditary peers accepted Life Peerages to keep them in the House in 1999. Lord Cranborne, who had received the title
Baron Gascoyne-Cecil, of Essendon in the County of
RutlandRutland is a county of mainland England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire, and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, remained active on the backbenches, until the House adopted new rules for declaration of financial interests which he believed were too onerous. He took 'Leave of Absence' on November 1, 2001. He was therefore out of the House when he succeeded his father as 7th Marquess on July 11, 2003.
Personal life: ancestry, lineage, and family
Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil was born on 30 September 1946 as the eldest child and first-born son of the Honourable Robert and Mollie Gascoyne-Cecil, who became Viscount and Viscountess Cranborne in 1947, when his great-grandfather the 4th Marquess of Salisbury (son and heir of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, thrice Prime Minister) died on 4 April.
His father the 6th Marquess succeeded his father, the 5th Marquess of Salisbury (1893-1972), and generally eschewed a political career unlike his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. The
3rd Marquess of SalisburyRobert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , known as Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and as Viscount Cranborne from 1865 until 1868, was a British statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...
(1830-1903) had been a late Victorian Prime Minister; the
4th Marquess of SalisburyJames Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury KG, GCVO, CB, PC , known as Viscount Cranborne from 1868 to 1903, was a British statesman.-Background and education:...
(1861-1947) had been Tory Leader of the House of Lords; the
5th Marquess of SalisburyRobert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury KG, PC , known as Viscount Cranborne from 1903 to 1947, was a British Conservative politician.-Background:...
(1893-1972) had been also a leading Conservative politician in the House of Lords. The Marquesses of Salisbury were descended from the 1st Marquess, a courtier and favorite of King
George III of the United KingdomGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
, who was himself a descendant of
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of SalisburySir Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC , son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and half-brother of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter....
and one of the men who brought about the accession of King
James I of EnglandJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
. Robert Cecil was himself a younger son of Elizabeth's courtier-advisor
William Cecil, 1st Baron BurghleyWilliam Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG, was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign , twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572.-Early life:Cecil was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire in...
, the descendant of a Welsh soldier David Cyssell - the family name is still pronounced "Siss-el" not "Sess-il".
His mother Marjorie "Mollie" Olein Wyndham-Quin was a descendant of Windham Wyndham-Quin, 5th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl on her father's side, and of
George Bridgeman, 4th Earl of BradfordGeorge Cecil Orlando Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford DL, JP was a British soldier and peer.The elder son of the 3rd Earl of Bradford and Selina Louisa Forester, Bridgeman was educated at Harrow School, and served in the 1st Life Guards and the Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry, reaching the rank of...
, via her maternal grandmother. Lady Salisbury is a noted gardener, who has advised several other beginning gardeners including
Charles, Prince of WalesCharles, Prince of Wales is the eldest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1952, he has been heir apparent to the thrones of the Commonwealth realms. After earning a bachelor of arts from Trinity College, Cambridge, Charles served a tour of duty with Royal Navy...
.
His parents had seven children, of whom four sons and a daughter survive, although two sons predeceased them.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil began using Robert as his preferred Christian name from his 21st birthday. In 1970, aged 23, he married Hannah Stirling, niece of Lt Col
David StirlingColonel Sir Archibald David Stirling DSO OBE was a Scottish laird, mountaineer, World War II British Army officer, and the founder of the Special Air Service.-Life before the war:...
(a co-founder of the
SASThe Special Air Service is a special forces regiment within the British Army which has served as a model for the special forces of other countries. The SAS forms a significant section of United Kingdom Special Forces alongside the Special Boat Service , Special Reconnaissance Regiment , and the...
) and a descendant of the Lords Lovat, Scottish Catholic aristocrats. The marriage was initially opposed by his family, mostly because Miss Stirling was Roman Catholic.
During the 1970s, Lord and Lady Cranborne had two sons and three daughters (including twins), of whom the two elder daughters are married. Until recently, they lived at Cranborne Manor, Dorset. The family seat is
Hatfield HouseHatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house was built in 1611 by Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury and Chief Minister to King James I and has been the home of the Cecil...
, once home to Queen
Elizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
which was given the family by
James I of EnglandJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
in exchange for the Cecil family house Theobalds, which the king liked better. The Salisbury family is very wealthy, with land in Dorset, Hertfordshire, and in London; and with heirlooms at Hatfield House.
He ranked 325th in the
Sunday Times Rich List 2008The Sunday Times Rich List 2008 was published on 27 April 2008.Since 1989 the UK national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times has published an annual magazine supplement to the newspaper called the Sunday Times Rich List...
, with an estimated wealth of £250m in property.
The Marquess of Salisbury's heir is his elder son Robert Edward "Ned" William Gascoyne-Cecil, called Viscount Cranborne (b. 1970). The heir is currently unmarried, though he does have a daughter born out of wedlock in 2001.. The younger son Lord James has recently married.
Titles
- Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Esquire (1946-1947)
- The Hon. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (1947-1972)
- Viscount Cranborne (1972-1979)
- Viscount Cranborne MP (1979-1987)
- Viscount Cranborne (1987-1994)
- The Rt Hon. Viscount Cranborne, PC (1994-2003)
- The Most Hon. The Marquess of Salisbury, PC (2003-)
External links
- http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/salisbury.html
- http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/cc4aq/cecil02.htm
- The young elite 1-10
- http://www.publications.parliament.uk/cgi-bin/newhtml_hl?DB=semukparl&URL=/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo981202/debtext/81202-18.htm#81202-18_spnew3
Offices held