Lansdowne, Henry Charles Keith Petty Fitzmaurice, 5th marquess of, 1845–1927, British stateman. A Liberal until 1886, he joined the Conservatives because of Gladstone's Irish policy. During his term as governor-general of Canada (1883–88) a beginning was made to settle disputes over the North American fisheries, and Riel's rebellion was suppressed (see Riel, Louis). He then was viceroy of India (1888–94) and war secretary in the cabinet (1895–1900). As foreign secretary he sought to end Britain's comparative diplomatic aloofness by concluding an alliance with Japan (1902), the Anglo-French Entente (1904; see Triple Alliance and Triple Entente), and arbitration treaties with the United States. He was a member of the coalition government during World War I, and in 1917 sought to hasten the end of the war by having published in a newspaper a letter which set forth terms on which the Allies would make peace.
See biography by T. W. L. Newton (1929).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish History: Biographies
