Earl of Balfour is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Peerage of the United Kingdom

The Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain...

. It was created in 1922 for the prominent Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician Arthur Balfour

Arthur Balfour

Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...

. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

 from 1902 to 1905 and Foreign Secretary from 1916 to 1919. The earldom was created with remainder failing male issue of his own 1) to his younger brother the Right Honourable Gerald William Balfour and the heirs male of his body, failing which to 2) his nephew Francis Cecil Campbell Balfour

Francis Cecil Campbell Balfour

Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Cecil Campbell Balfour was a British military officer and colonial administrator....

 and the heirs male of his body, and failing which to 3) his nephew Oswald Herbert Campbell Balfour and the heirs male of his body. The latter two were the sons of his deceased youngest brother Colonel Eustace James Anthony Balfour. Balfour was made Viscount Traprain, of Whittingehame in the County of Haddington, at the same time as he was given the earldom. This title is also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created with similar remainder.

Balfour never married and was succeeded according to the special remainders by his younger brother Gerald, the second Earl. He was also a Conservative politician and notably served as Chief Secretary for Ireland

Chief Secretary for Ireland

The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...

, as President of the Board of Trade and as President of the Local Government Board

President of the Local Government Board

The President of the Local Government Board was a ministerial post, frequently a Cabinet position, in the United Kingdom, established in 1871. The Local Government Board itself was established in 1871 and took over supervisory functions from the Board of Trade and the Home Office, including the...

. This line of the family failed on the death of his grandson, the fourth Earl, in 2003. He had four daughters but no sons and was succeeded by his second cousin once removed, the fifth Earl and present holder of the titles (April 2010). He is the grandson of the aforementioned Francis Cecil Campbell Balfour, nephew of the first Earl.

The family seat is Burpham Lodge, near Arundel

Arundel

Arundel is a market town and civil parish in the South Downs of West Sussex in the south of England. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Worthing east southeast, Littlehampton to the south and Bognor Regis to...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

.

Earls of Balfour (1922)

• Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour
  Arthur Balfour
  Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
  
   (1848–1930)
• Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour
  Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour
  Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour PC , known as Gerald Balfour until 1930, was a British nobleman and Conservative politician.-Background and education:...
  
   (1853–1945)
• Robert Arthur Lytton Balfour, 3rd Earl of Balfour
  Robert Balfour, 3rd Earl of Balfour
  Robert Arthur Lytton Balfour, 3rd Earl of Balfour was the son of Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour.Robert was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge and on 12 February 1925, he married Jean Lily West Roundel Cooke-Yarborough and they had four children:*Gerald Arthur James Balfour, 4th...
  
   (1902–1968)
• Gerald Arthur James Balfour, 4th Earl of Balfour
  Gerald Arthur James Balfour, 4th Earl of Balfour
  Gerald Arthur James Balfour, 4th Earl of Balfour was the son of Robert Arthur Lytton Balfour, 3rd Earl of Balfour and Jean Lily West Roundel Cooke-Yarborough. He married Natasha Georgina Anton, daughter of Captain George Anton, on 14 December 1956.Balfour was educated at Eton. He took part in the...
  
   (1925–2003)
• Roderick Francis Arthur Balfour, 5th Earl of Balfour (b. 1948)

The heir presumptive

Heir Presumptive

An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...

is the present holder's brother The Hon.Charles George Yule Balfour (b. 1951)

The heir presumptive's heir apparent is his son George Eustace Charles Balfour (b. 1990)