Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (14 January 1845 – 3 June 1927), was a British statesman who served successively asGovernor General of Canada,Viceroy of India,Secretary of State for War andSecretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
In 1917, during theFirst World War, he wrote the "Lansdowne letter", advocating in vain a compromise peace. A millionaire, he had the distinction of having held senior positions inLiberal andConservative Party governments.[1]
A great-grandson of British Prime MinisterLord Shelburne (later 1stMarquess of Lansdowne) and the eldest son ofHenry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne, and his wife,Emily, 8th Lady Nairne (née de Flahaut), Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice was born in 1845 atLansdowne House, their family seat in London.[2] His maternal grandfather, CountCharles de Flahaut, was an important French general toNapoleon Bonaparte, and a member of his family. He fought along his side during many battles and later occupied the functions of Ambassador and Senator of the Empire. Through his motherEmily, Lansdowne was half-nephew of EmperorNapoleon III, a step-grandson of QueenHortense Bonaparte, and a great-grandson of PrinceTalleyrand, the Emperor's foreign minister.[3] His maternal great-grandfather,George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, was also the Admiral who preventedNapoleon's escape from France after theBattle of Waterloo, and who received and supervised his final exile toSt. Helena in 1815.[4]
Lord Lansdowne was a member of theFitzmaurice/Petty-Fitzmaurice family, a cadet branch of theHouse of FitzGerald of Ireland.[5][6] He held thecourtesy titleViscount Clanmaurice from birth to 1863 and then the courtesy titleEarl of Kerry until he succeeded asMarquess of Lansdowne in 1866. Upon his mother's death in 1895, he succeeded her as the9th Lord Nairne in thePeerage of Scotland. He was estimated to be the sixteenth richest peer in the United Kingdom, and the fourth largest landowner.[2]
After studying atEton andOxford, he succeeded his father as 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (in thePeerage of the United Kingdom) and 6th Earl of Kerry (in thePeerage of Ireland) at the relatively early age of 21 on 5 June 1866.[1] Heinherited a vast estate (includingBowood House, aWiltshire estate of over 142,000acres) and great wealth.[7] At one of his inherited properties,Derreen House (Lauragh,County Kerry, in the present-dayRepublic of Ireland), Lord Lansdowne started to develop a great garden from 1871 onwards. For most of the rest of his life, he spent three months of the year at Derreen.
Lord Lansdowne entered theHouse of Lords as a member of theLiberal Party in 1866. He served inWilliam Ewart Gladstone's government as aLord of the Treasury from 1869 to 1872 and asUnder-Secretary of State for War from 1872 to 1874. He was appointedUnder-Secretary of State for India in 1880 and, having gained experience in overseas administration, was appointedGovernor General of Canada in 1883, replacingJohn Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, the son-in-law ofQueen Victoria.[1] The present-day town ofLansdowne, inUttarakhand,India, was established in 1887 and named after him.
He was a member and trustee ofBrooks's Club in London, along notable members such asSpencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire ofChatsworth House,Lord Rosebery ofMentmore Towers, and BaronLionel de Rothschild ofTring Park, son ofNathan Mayer ofGunnersbury Park, and grandson ofMayer Amschel, founder of theHouse of Rothschild.[8] His great-grandfather,Lord Shelburne, had previously foundedBoodle's Club, which had as membersAdam Smith, theDuke of Wellington, SirWinston Churchill, andIan Fleming, among others, and is now the second oldest club in the world.[9]
In 1897, he also became a founding trustee of theNational Gallery of British Art, with theEarl of Carlisle ofCastle Howard,Lord Brownlow ofBelton House,Alfred de Rothschild ofHalton House, SirCharles Tennant ofGlen House,John Postle Heseltine ofWalhampton House, and Sir John Murray Scott.[10]
Lord Lansdowne was Governor General during turbulent times in Canada. His Protestant Irish connections made him unpopular with the Catholic Irish element.[11] He was appointed GCMG in January 1884.[12]
Prime Minister SirJohn A. Macdonald's government was in its second term and facing allegations of scandal over the building of the railway (thePacific Scandal), and the economy was once again sliding into recession. TheNorth-West Rebellion of 1885 and the controversy caused by its leader,Louis Riel, posed a serious threat to the equilibrium ofCanadian politics.[13] To calm the situation, he travelled extensively throughoutWestern Canada in 1885 and met many of Canada'sFirst Nations peoples. He publicly objected to the treatment of the Indigenous by Indian Agents, and supported ChiefsCrowfoot andPoundmaker.[14] His experiences in Western Canada gave Lansdowne a great love of the Canadian outdoors and the physical beauty of Canada. He was an avid fisherman and was intensely interested in winter sports. His love of the wilderness and the Canadian countryside led him to purchase a second residence (first Cascapedia House, built in 1880, later renamed Lorne Cottage, and then New Dereen Camp, built in 1884[15]) on theCascapédia River in theGaspé Peninsula, Quebec.[13] The same area was previously used by the past Viceroy of Canada,John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, and his wife,Princess Louise, the daughter ofQueen Victoria.[14]
Lansdowne proved to be an adept statesman in helping to settle a dispute over fishing rights between Canada and theUnited States in 1886–1887.[13] He successfully negotiated a new trade agreement with U.S. PresidentGrover Cleveland (though it later failed to pass in the Senate). He was also a supporter of scientific development and presided over the inaugural session of theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science in 1884. In Quebec, he was very popular, as he spoke French fluently, which gained him the admiration of French-Canadians, and a big round of applause during his first speech.[14] His French came from his maternal grandfather, CountCharles de Flahaut, who had been a French general toNapoleon Bonaparte. Lord Lansdowne also made multiple speeches at theCitadelle of Quebec, nearChâteau Frontenac, and joined the Montreal Winter Carnival, making him and his wife, the first vice-royal couple to skate at that event.[14]
Lansdowne departed Canada "with its clear skies, its exhilarating sports, and within the bright fire of Gatineau logs, with our children and friends gathered round us" to his regret.[13] He gave his wife a great deal of the credit for his success in Canada. One of her happiest and most successful endeavours atRideau Hall was a party that she threw for 400 Sunday school children. Lady Lansdowne was decorated with theOrder of Victoria and Albert and the ImperialOrder of the Crown of India. Lord Lansdowne's military secretary, Lord Melgund, later becameLord Minto and served as Governor General between 1898 and 1904. Parc Lansdowne and Lansdowne Avenue inWestmount, Montreal, next toWestmount Park, was named in his honor, as well as Lansdowne Ridge and Upper-Lansdowne, both located onWestmount's summit next toVilla Sainte-Marcelline andSaint Joseph's Oratory.[16][5]
Lord Lansdowne was appointedViceroy of India the same year that he left Canada. In December 1888 he was appointed GCSI[17] and GCIE[18] The office, which he held from 1888 to 1894,[1] was offered to him by the Conservative prime minister,Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury ofHatfield House, and marked the pinnacle of his career. He worked to reform the army, police, local government and the mint. There was anAnglo-Manipur War in 1890 in whichManipur was subjugated. Lansdowne secured the death penalty for the instigator in the face of considerable opposition from Britain. His attempt in 1893 to curtail trial by jury was, however, overruled by home government. He returned to England in 1894. His policiesexacerbated tensions between Hindu and Muslims.[19]
Upon his return, as aLiberal Unionist, he aligned with theConservative Party. Prime MinisterLord Salisbury appointed Lansdowne to the post ofSecretary of State for War in June 1895. The unpreparedness of theBritish Army during theSecond Boer War brought calls for Lansdowne'simpeachment in 1899. His biographer, P. B. Waite, considers that he was unjustly criticised for British military failures, but ever the good minister, he took full responsibility and said nothing.[1][13]Simon Kerry has argued that due to the lack of Parliamentary interest and political rivalries the War Office and Army were unreformable.[20]
After the Unionist victory in thegeneral election of October 1900, Salisbury reorganised his cabinet, gave up the post ofForeign Secretary and appointed Lansdowne to replace him.[1] Lansdowne remained at the Foreign Office under Salisbury's successorArthur Balfour. As British Foreign Secretary, he approved ofprotectorate CommissionerWilson's1901 Anglo-Ankole agreement in Uganda, he also signed the 1902Anglo-Japanese Alliance at his London home, the back half of which still exists as theLansdowne Club, and negotiated the 1904 Anglo-FrenchEntente Cordiale with French Foreign MinisterTheophile Delcassé.[21]
According to G. W. Monger's summary of the Cabinet debates in 1900 to 1902:
Chamberlain advocated ending Britain's isolation by concluding an alliance with Germany;Salisbury resisted change. With the new crisis in China caused by the Boxer rising and Landsdowne's appointment to the Foreign Office in 1900, those who advocated a change won the upper hand. Landsdowne in turn attempted to reach an agreement with Germany and a settlement with Russia but failed. In the end Britain concluded an alliance with Japan. The decision of 1901 was momentous; British policy had been guided by events, but Lansdowne had no real understanding of these events. The change of policy had been forced on him and was a confession of Britain's weakness.[22]
On 15 June 1903, he made a speech in the House of Lords defending fiscal retaliation against countries with high tariffs and governments subsidising products for sale in Britain (known as 'bounty-fed products', also calleddumping). Retaliation was to be done by threatening to impose tariffs in response against that country's goods. His Liberal Unionists had split from the Liberals, who promotedFree Trade, and the speech was a landmark in the group's slide towardsprotectionism. Landsdowne argued that threatening retaliatory tariffs was similar to getting respect in a room of armed men by showing a big revolver (his exact words were "a rather larger revolver than everybody else's"). The "Big Revolver" became a catchphrase of the day and was often used in speeches and cartoons.[23]
In 1903, Lord Lansdowne became the leader of Unionists (Conservative and Liberal Unionist peers) in the House of Lords.[1][13] This was followed shortly by the Liberal victory in the January 1906 general elections. In his new role as head of the opposition peers, he was instrumental in the Unionist leaderArthur Balfour's plans to obstruct Liberal policies through the Unionist majority in the upper house. Although he and Balfour had some misgivings, he led the Lords to reject thePeople's Budget of 1909. After the Liberals won two elections in 1910 on the pledge to reform the House of Lords and to remove its veto power and after a series of failed negotiations in which Lansdowne was of key importance, the Liberals moved forward to end the Lords veto, if necessary by recommending to the King to create hundreds of new Liberal peers. Lansdowne and the other Conservative leaders were anxious to prevent such an action by allowing the bill, distasteful as they found it, to pass, but soon, Lansdowne found that he could not count on many of the more reactionary peers, who planned on a last-ditch resistance. Ultimately, enough Unionist peers either (like Lansdowne himself) abstained from the vote ("hedgers") or even voted for the bill ("rats") to ensure its passage into theParliament Act 1911.
In the following years, Lansdowne continued as Opposition Leader in the Lords, his stature increasing when Balfour, the party leader in the Commons, resigned and was replaced by the inexperiencedBonar Law, who had never held cabinet office. In 1914, the suffragettesFlora Drummond and Norah Dacre Fox (later known asNorah Elam) besieged Lansdowne's home and argued that Ulster's incitement to militancy had passed without notice, but suffragettes were charged and imprisoned.[24] In 1915, Lansdowne joined the wartime coalition cabinet ofH. H. Asquith as aMinister without Portfolio but was not given a post in theLloyd George government formed the following year, despite Conservative pre-eminence in that government. In 1917, having discussed the idea with colleagues for some time with no response, he published the controversial "Lansdowne letter", which called for a statement of postwar intentions from the Entente Powers, and an end to the war on the basis of a return to thestatus quo ante. He was criticised as acting contrary to cabinet policy.[25][26][27]
Lord Lansdowne died atClonmel, Ireland on 3 June 1927 at the age of 82.[13] The probate on his estate was granted with the value sworn at£1,044,613 (equivalent to about £78,800,000 in 2023) in land and another £233,888 in other assets.[28] His widow died in 1932, and their tombs are in the churchyard atDerry Hill, near theirBowood estate in Wiltshire.[29]
Henry Petty-FitzMaurice marriedLady Maud Evelyn Hamilton, a daughter ofJames Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn and his wife LadyLady Louisa Jane Russell, daughter ofJohn Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford in 1869. The couple had four children:[1]
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Geographic locations:
The town ofLansdowne inIndia
Ontario:Lansdowne Avenue, TorontoOntario: Lansdowne Street,SudburyOntario:Lansdowne Park, OttawaOntario: Lansdowne Street, PeterboroughOntario: Lansdowne Avenue, Sarnia
New Brunswick: Lansdowne Street, CampbelltonNew Brunswick: Lansdowne Street, Fredericton
Quebec: (Upper) Lansdowne Avenue,Westmount
Saskatchewan: Lansdowne Avenue,Imperial
: Mount Lansdowne,Yukon60°30′36″N134°33′20″W / 60.509906°N 134.555459°W /60.509906; -134.555459Lansdowne Road,Kolkata, India.
Lansdowne, Nova Scotia
British Columbia:Lansdowne Road, SaanichSchools:
Ontario:Lansdowne Public School,SudburyOntario: Lord Lansdowne Public School, Toronto
Manitoba: Lansdowne Public School, WinnipegOntario: Lansdowne Public School,SarniaBridge:
Lansdowne Bridge,Rohri,Sindh, Pakistan – a rigid girder bridge built 1879–1887 used by railway trafficBuildings:
Lansdowne Building,Mysore, Karnataka, India, c. 1892 – a market being repaired and restored after a partial collapse in 2012 Lansdowne Court,Kolkata, India – residential development Lansdowne Hall,Cooch Behar, India – Community Hall, Library, Masonic Purposes. now Cooch Behar District Magistrate's OfficeMarket:
Lansdowne Market,Kolkata, India.Station:
Education:
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Under-Secretary of State for India 1880 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for War 1895–1900 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Foreign Secretary 1900–1905 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the House of Lords 1903–1905 | Succeeded by |
| Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords 1903–1916 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Conservative Party 1911–1916 With:Bonar Law | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords 1903–1916 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor General of Canada 1883–1888 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Viceroy of India 1888–1894 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire 1896–1920 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by | Marquess of Lansdowne 1866–1927 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of Scotland | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Nairne 1895–1927 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
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