Rosebery, Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th earl of [key], 1847–1929, British statesman. He succeeded his grandfather as earl in 1868. A Liberal, Rosebery was undersecretary for home affairs (1881–83), entered the cabinet as lord privy seal (1885), and served (1886, 1892–94) as foreign secretary. His imperialist views brought him into frequent conflict with the prime minister, William Gladstone, but he was able to secure the establishment of a British protectorate in Uganda. When Gladstone retired in 1894, it was expected that Sir William Harcourt would succeed him, but Queen Victoria called on Rosebery to become prime minister. That caused a split in the Liberal party, and Rosebery was forced to resign in 1895. He became the leader of the Liberal Imperialist division of the party, but retired from politics in 1905 when Henry Campbell-Bannerman was chosen as Liberal prime minister. He wrote a number of historical monographs, including William Pitt (1891), Napoleon: The Last Phase (1900), and Chatham (1910).
See biographies by his son-in-law, the 1st marquess of Crewe (1931), and R. R. James (1963).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish History: Biographies
