Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery

Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery (27 July 1851 – 19 November 1890) was the daughter of Mayer de Rothschild

Mayer Amschel de Rothschild

Mayer Amschel de Rothschild of the English branch of the Rothschild family was the fourth and youngest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild . He was named Mayer Amschel Rothschild, for his grandfather, the patriarch of the Rothschild family.-Life:Known to his family as "Muffy", he was born in New Court,...

and his wife Juliana, née Cohen

Cohen (surname)

Cohen is a Jewish surname of biblical origins . It is a very common Jewish surname, comparable to 'Smith' in an English-language context....

. Upon the death of her father in 1874 she became the richest woman in Britain

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

.

During the final quarter of the 19th century her husband, the 5th Earl of Rosebery

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who...

, was one of the most celebrated figures in Britain, an influential millionaire and politician, whose charm, wit, charisma and public popularity gave him such standing that he "almost eclipsed royalty." Yet his Jewish wife, during her lifetime regarded as dull, overweight and lacking in beauty, remains an enigmatic figure largely ignored by historians and often regarded as notable only for financing her husband's three ambitions: to marry an heiress, win the Epsom Derby

Epsom Derby

The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...

, and become Prime Minister

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...

(the second and third of these possibly apocryphal ambitions were achieved after her death). In truth, she was her husband's driving force and motivation.

Her marriage into the aristocracy, while controversial at the time, gave her the social cachet in an antisemitic society that her vast fortune could not. She subsequently became a political hostess and philanthropist

Philanthropy

Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...

. Her charitable work was principally in the sphere of public health and causes associated with the welfare of working-class Jewish women living in the poorer districts of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Having firmly assisted and supported her husband on his path to political greatness, she suddenly died in 1890, aged 39, leaving him, distraught and bereft of her support, to achieve the political destiny which she had plotted. His premiership of the United Kingdom was shambolic, and lasted barely a year. For over thirty years following her death, he wandered in a political wilderness, directionless and exceedingly eccentric, until his own death in 1929.

Early years

Hannah de Rothschild was born in 1851 into a world of great wealth and luxury. She was the granddaughter of Nathan Mayer Rothschild

Nathan Mayer Rothschild

Nathan Mayer, Freiherr von Rothschild , known as Nathan Mayer Rothschild, was a London financier and one of the founders of the international Rothschild family banking dynasty...

, who had founded N M Rothschild & Sons

N M Rothschild & Sons

N M Rothschild & Sons is a private investment banking company, belonging to the Rothschild family...

, the English branch of the Rothschilds' banking empire. Niall Ferguson states in his History of the House of Rothschild that by the mid-19th century the Rothschilds

Rothschild family

The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...

regarded themselves as the nearest thing the Jews of Europe

History of the Jews in Europe

Judaism in Europe has a long history, beginning with the conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean by Pompey in 63 BCE, thus beginning the History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, though likely Alexandrian Jews had migrated to Rome slightly before Pompey's conquest of the East.The pre-World War...

had to a royal family

Royal family

A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...

, and the equals of royalty. Whether or not this was strictly true, the many Rothschild homes and their art collections, in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, certainly rivalled those of the crowned heads of Europe.

Hannah de Rothschild's father Baron Meyer de Rothschild married his cousin

Cousin marriage

Cousin marriage is marriage between two cousins. In various jurisdictions and cultures, such marriages range from being considered ideal and actively encouraged, to being uncommon but still legal, to being seen as incest and legally prohibited....

Julia Cohen in 1850. The marriage provided the impetus for Meyer to create what he described as "an enduring monument," a country house of monumental proportions. His daughter Hannah, aged just six months, laid the foundation stone on 31 December 1851. Throughout her life, Mentmore Towers

Mentmore Towers

Mentmore Towers is a 19th century English country house in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. The house was designed by Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, in the revival Elizabethan and Jacobean style of the late 16th century called Jacobethan, for the banker and...

was to be a fixed and pivotal point.

Within a few years of the mansion's completion, attracted by the good hunting and proximity to London, Hannah's relatives began to build estates nearby, all within a carriage drive of each other; thus, Hannah grew up in an almost private world of unimaginable splendour and security. Pevsner

Nikolaus Pevsner

Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...

has described this enclave of Rothschild properties as "the most conspicuous and significant aspect of Victorian architecture in Buckinghamshire." In addition to Mentmore, Baron and Baroness Meyer de Rothschild had a large house in London, 107 Piccadilly

Piccadilly

Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...

; The Zenaide, a luxurious yacht

Yacht

A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...

moored in the South of France; and other smaller properties visited only seasonally and occasionally.

As an only child growing up in what were, in all but name, palaces, her childhood appears to have been quite lonely. She was a companion to her hypochondria

Hypochondria

Hypochondriasis or hypochondria refers to excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness. This debilitating condition is the result of an inaccurate perception of the body’s condition despite the absence of an actual medication condition...

c mother and, in later life, a hostess with her father during her mother's long periods of indisposition. She was indulged by both parents and her formal education was neglected in favour of music and singing lessons, subjects in which she was accomplished. Her parents were very protective of her, attempting to ensure that she was never exposed to the risk of sickness or even the sight of poverty. As a result, she was never allowed to enter the cottages on the Rothschilds' estates. A cousin, who seems to have disliked her, claims that Hannah was so sheltered that the phrase "the poor" was just a meaningless euphemism to her. This is likely to be an exaggeration, as from her teens onwards she used much of her fortune to improve the lot of the poor, in housing and education. Whatever the faults of her education, she possessed great confidence, impressing her Rothschild relations, who noted her poise and competence when she hosted a large house party at Mentmore for the Prince of Wales

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

while only 17 years of age.

Mayer Amschel de Rothschild died in 1874, leaving his daughter not only Mentmore (with its priceless art collection), his London mansion, and innumerable investments, but also the sum of two million pounds sterling

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

in cash. Thus, Hannah de Rothschild became the wealthiest woman in England.

Betrothal

Hannah de Rothschild was first introduced to her future husband, the 28-year-old Earl of Rosebery

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

, by Lady Beaconsfield, the wife of Benjamin Disraeli, at Newmarket Racecourse

Newmarket Racecourse

The town of Newmarket, in Suffolk, England, is the headquarters of British horseracing, home to the largest cluster of training yards in the country and many key horse racing organisations. Newmarket Racecourse has two courses - the Rowley Mile Course and the July Course. Both are wide, galloping...

. The Disraelis were close friends and neighbours of the Rothschilds in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

.

Archibald, 5th Earl of Rosebery, born in 1847, had inherited his title from his grandfather

Archibald Primrose, 4th Earl of Rosebery

Sir Archibald John Primrose, 4th Earl of Rosebery KT, PC, FRS was a British Member of Parliament.Archibald Primrose was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, gaining his MA in 1804...

in 1868, when aged 21, together with an income of £30,000 a year. He owned 40,000 acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s (160 km²) in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, and land in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, and Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. His father

Archibald Primrose, Lord Dalmeny

Archibald Ronald Primrose, Lord Dalmeny was an English-born Scottish cricketer.Primrose was born in London and was styled Lord Dalmeny as the heir apparent of his father Lord Rosebery, but he predeceased him in 1931. Like his father, he represented Middlesex...

had died when he was eight and he had been brought up by his mother, who had subsequently married Harry Powlett, 4th Duke of Cleveland

Harry Powlett, 4th Duke of Cleveland

Harry George Powlett, 4th Duke of Cleveland KG , born Harry George Vane and known as Lord Harry George Vane from 1827 to 1864, was an English Whig statesman. He was the third son of William Vane, 3rd Earl of Darlington, who would later be created Duke of Cleveland...

. His mother was a distant figure, and their relationship was always strained. The Earls of Rosebery

Earl of Rosebery

Earl of Rosebery is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1703 for Archibald Primrose, 1st Viscount of Rosebery, with remainder to his issue male and female successively...

, whose family name was Primrose, were old, if undistinguished, members of the Scottish aristocracy. Rosebery was considered to be strikingly handsome and immensely cultivated. He was highly intelligent, and a brilliant future was forecast for him by his tutors at both Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

and Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

.

As early as 1876, there were rumours of an engagement. However, several hurdles had to be overcome before a marriage could take place. While the Jewish Rothschilds were accepted into society, and indeed were close friends of some members of the royal family including the Prince of Wales, as elsewhere in Europe, antisemitic feelings were prevalent in the upper echelons of society and particularly so amongst those closest to the Queen at court, where following the death of the Prince Consort

Prince Albert

Prince Albert was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria.Prince Albert may also refer to:-Royalty:*Prince Albert Edward or Edward VII of the United Kingdom , son of Albert and Victoria...

in 1861 the Rothschilds became pointedly excluded. The Queens equerry

Equerry

An equerry , and related to the French word "écuyer" ) is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually upon a Sovereign, a member of a Royal Family, or a national...

Arthur Edward Hardinge

General Sir Arthur Edward Harding KCB CIE was Governor of Gibraltar.-Military career:Born the second son of Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge and educated at Eton College, Hardinge was commissioned into the 41st Regiment of Foot in 1844. He was quickly appointed Aide-de-Camp to his father,...

referred to the Rothschild's dining tables as "resplendent with the Hebrew gold" going so far as to say a visiting Russian royal needed a "corrective" visit to Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

following acceptance of Rothschild hospitality. Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

herself expressed antisemitic views in 1873 when it was proposed that Lionel de Rothschild

Lionel de Rothschild

Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was a British banker and politician.-Biography:The son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Hanna Barent Cohen, he was a member of the prominent Rothschild family....

be elevated to the peerage the Queen refused and expressed a reluctance to make a Jew a peer — saying "to make a Jew a peer is a step she could not consent to" and furthermore stated to give "a title and mark of her approbation to a Jew". Lord Spencer

John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer

John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer KG, PC , known as Viscount Althorp from 1845 to 1857 , was a British Liberal Party politician under and close friend of British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone...

advised the Prince and Princess of Wales against attending a Rothschild ball with the words "The Prince ought only to visit those of undoubted position in Society." However, this did not prevent the Prince from accepting Rothschild's invitations and gifts privately. While one could be friends with Jews and accept their hospitality, their social status was still not sufficiently elevated to include marriage into the peerage without unfavourable comment.
Rosebery's own mother was horrified at the thought of a Jewess, even a Rothschild, in the family. Rosebery too felt there was an impassable barrier of faith; at this time, it was inconceivable that any children could be reared as Jews

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

. Although it has been stated that Rosebery himself was devoid of any antisemitic views, this was not always true, especially in later life.

This factor also worked in reverse; while Hannah de Rothschild was keen to marry Rosebery, she was also aware of many obstacles, the foremost being that she was devoted to her faith, and to leave it would be a severe moral wrench. Another obstacle was the Rothschild family itself: it was their custom to marry cousins

Cousin marriage

in order to keep their fortune within the family. Ironically, Hannah herself had opposed the marriage of her cousin Annie de Rothschild to the Christian Eliot Yorke

Eliot Yorke

The Hon. Eliot Douglas Thomas Yorke , was a British Conservative Party politician.-Background:Yorke was the third son of Vice-Admiral the Hon. Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, second son of Charles Yorke, second son of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke. His mother was Elizabeth Weake Rattray, daughter of...

, the son of the Earl of Hardwicke

Charles Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke

Admiral Charles Philip Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke PC , was a British naval commander and Conservative politician.-Background:...

, in 1866. In fact, she was to be the third daughter of the family's English branch to marry outside of the Jewish faith, but such was the fame of the bridegroom and the resultant publicity that the Jewish elders and press felt an example needed to be made. The Jewish Chronicle announced its "most poignant grief" at the prospect, and cryptically added, "If the flame seize on the cedars, how will fare the hyssop on the wall: if the leviathan is brought up with a hook, how will the minnows escape," demonstrating what a threat to the social fabric of the Jewish faith the Jewish elders saw in the prospect of such a marriage. The quotation, originally from the Babylonian Talmud, can be taken to mean that the elders and respected members and more notable members of the Jewish faith should set a good example by strictly following the teachings of the Jewish articles of faith which frown upon marriage to members of other religions.

The formal engagement of marriage was announced on 3 January 1878, a day Rosebery forever afterwards regarded as sacred. Writing to a friend in January 1878, Rosebery described his wife as "very simple, very unspoilt, very clever, very warm-hearted and very shy...I never knew such a beautiful character." The marriage was celebrated in London on 20 March 1878 at the Board Room of Guardians in Mount Street, and also in a Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

ceremony at Christ Church in Down Street, Piccadilly

Piccadilly

. In order to show "official" disapproval, no male member of the Rothschild family attended the ceremonies. However, any shortcomings in the guest list were compensated for by the guest of honour—the Prince of Wales—and Disraeli, who gave the bride away.

Marriage

For the first few years following their marriage, the Roseberys resided in London in the Piccadilly house Lady Rosebery had inherited from her father. However, as the couple's social and political interests increased from 1882, they leased the larger Lansdowne House

Lansdowne House

Lansdowne House is a building to the southwest of Berkeley Square in central London, England. It was designed by Robert Adam as a private house and for most of its time as a residence it belonged to the Petty family, Marquesses of Lansdowne. Since 1935, it has been the home of the Lansdowne Club....

. Lansdowne House was one of the finest of the aristocratic palaces in London, well suited to be the home of the political salon which Hannah Rosebery was to establish. Here political and social leaders of the day mixed with royalty, authors such as Henry James

Henry James

Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....

and Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

, and other prominent social and intellectual figures of the time. Henry James, an occasional guest in the Roseberys' homes, delivered one of the most unflattering condemnations of Lady Rosebery describing her as "...large, coarse, Hebrew-looking with hair of no particular colour and personally unattractive".

The Roseberys divided their year among their various homes: London for the social season and parliament, Mentmore at weekends to entertain both political and shooting house-parties. In August the household would move north to Dalmeny for the grouse shooting. In between, occasional days and the weeklong Derby meeting

Epsom Derby

would be spent at their home "The Durdans" in Epsom

Epsom

Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...

. Though small by comparison to their other homes, this mansion was described by Henry James as the most homely and comfortable of the Roseberys' many homes and as a delightful house full of books and sporting pictures, with just a few Gainsboroughs

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...

and Watteaux

Antoine Watteau

Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement...

. Together the Earl and Countess of Rosebery added greatly to not only the Mentmore collection but also to that housed at Dalmeny House

Dalmeny House

Dalmeny House is a Gothic revival mansion located in an estate close to Dalmeny on the Firth of Forth, to the north-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was designed by William Wilkins, and completed in 1817.Dalmeny House is the home of the Earl and Countess of Rosebery. The house was the first in...

, Rosebery's Scottish seat, amassing a great library of rare and continental volumes and a collection of artefacts formerly belonging to the Emperor Napoleon I

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

Relationship with Rosebery

Published commentators on the Roseberys claim their marriage was happy, and there is no known evidence that Hannah was anything other than happy in her marriage, and quite a lot to suggest she was indeed blissfully happy. However, much evidence suggests that Rosebery, while professing to be happy, was at times irritated and bored by Hannah, who was always keen to accommodate his every whim.
There were times when Lady Rosebery's devotion to her husband was tested. Rosebery may have not been antisemitic before his marriage; however, the acerbic wit for which he was famous led him to make remarks that could have been taken in such a way, once his marriage had secured the Rothschild fortune. Rosebery seems to have disliked his first son, who he claimed looked "Jewish." On seeing his son for the first time he remarked "Le Jew est fait, rien ne vas plus," which must have been disconcerting for the child's very Jewish mother. Rosebery, who has been described as febrile and supercilious, replied in a letter of congratulations on the birth of his heir from Mary Gladstone

Mary Gladstone

Mary Drew , was a political secretary, writer and hostess. She was the daughter of the British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, and achieved notability as his advisor, confidante and private secretary...

: "I cannot pretend to be much excited by an event which occurs to almost every human being and which may cause me a great deal of annoyance." Rosebery then left his newborn child and wife (who was again pregnant) for a year-long tour of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. On another occasion, when the Roseberys were travelling in India

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

, Rosebery is reported to have announced "I will travel ahead, Hannah and the rest of the heavy baggage will follow the next day."

While the marriage was based on warmth and esteem on Rosebery's side and adoration on Hannah's, it seems that Rosebery often found his wife's devotion irritating, and this sometimes caused him to be impatient with her. He was often abrupt with her in public. She, by contrast, was completely enraptured by him, and would frequently ignore her neighbours at a dinner party in order to listen to her husband's conversation further down the table, a faux pas

Faux pas

A faux pas is a violation of accepted social norms . Faux pas vary widely from culture to culture, and what is considered good manners in one culture can be considered a faux pas in another...

almost considered a crime in Victorian society. Those who saw the couple alone at home "could not doubt the affection as well as the comprehension that united them."

However, at times Rosebery's behaviour could be eccentric. Gladstone remarked that Rosebery was, perhaps, rather too concerned with his health. Early in the marriage Rosebery decided to renovate the small ruined Barnbougle Castle

Barnbougle Castle

Barnbougle Castle is a much-altered tower house on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, between Cramond and South Queensferry. It lies within the Dalmeny Estate, and is the property of the Earl of Rosebery. It is about north of Dalmeny House, the main house on the estate...

(the original Rosebery family seat), close to, and within sight of, Dalmeny House. Once renovation was complete in 1882, Rosebery used it as a private retreat from his family, and began to spend his nights there alone. Always an insomniac, he claimed that the "stillness of the waters [the nearby Firth of Forth

Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...

] were conducive to sleep." Books were his passion, and he assembled a huge library in the small castle. Thus Rosebery was able to lead a life at Dalmeny with his wife, but also quite apart from her.

During their marriage the Roseberys travelled extensively, usually without their children. In September 1883 the couple left their children in the care of the nannies and nursery maids, supervised by Rosebery's sister Lady Leconfield, for a long tour of America and Australia. Lady Rosebery owned large investments in North America, including ranches in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

and mines in Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

. Their arrival in New York was widely reported, and a full and flattering description of Lady Rosebery was reported in The Herald

The Herald (Glasgow)

The Herald is a broadsheet newspaper published Monday to Saturday in Glasgow, and available throughout Scotland. As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 47,226, giving it a lead over Scotland's other 'quality' national daily, The Scotsman, published in Edinburgh.The 1889 to 1906 editions...

. The newspaper went on to describe Rosebery as looking like a prosperous farmer. Lady Rosebery was very taken with California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, from where she wrote: "The inhabitants are very entertaining... the women are very handsome, think nothing of dresses costing £80, "fix up" their faces very frequently and are generally divorced." Having toured and been fêted in America, the party moved on to Australia via Honolulu. In Australia, Rosebery chose to indulge his habit of solitude, installing his wife in a hotel in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, while he went off alone to tour the outback

Outback

The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...

.
Rosebery's frequent absences from his wife fuelled gossip that he was a secret homosexual. It has been claimed that the inscrutable air that Rosebery wore was a mask to disguise his secret homosexual life. The worry of this illegal secret, it was claimed, and fear of exposure, caused his insomnia and bouts of depression. It was even whispered that his Barnbougle Castle retreat was really a venue for clandestine assignations with young men. Rosebery's possible homosexuality has been much discussed in recent times. Nothing conclusive has ever been found one way or the other, but it is possible that he had homosexual experiences while in the care of a paedophile housemaster at Eton in his youth. No evidence exists that his wife was aware of these rumours against her husband, or even that she would have understood them, bearing in mind her sheltered upbringing and limited education. Comprehensive sex education was not part of a 19th-century upper-class girl's schooling. The more public and precise accusations of Rosebery's homosexuality by the Marquess of Queensberry

John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry

John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry GCVO was a Scottish nobleman, remembered for lending his name and patronage to the "Marquess of Queensberry rules" that formed the basis of modern boxing, for his outspoken atheism, and for his role in the downfall of author and playwright Oscar...

did not occur until three years after Lady Rosebery's death.

The relationship between the couple appears at times to have been almost that of a mother and child. Rosebery, a self-centred, reserved man, prone to depression, pessimism and insecurity, had a difficult relationship with his mother who had been distant and openly preferred his younger brother. Lady Rosebery, an orphan and only child, appears to have been desperate to lavish affection. Once upon entering a book shop she told her children they were entering a toy shop, and when the disappointed children pointed out the obvious she replied "to your father this is a toy shop." Lord Rosebery's friend Edward Hamilton

Edward Walter Hamilton

Sir Edward Hamilton was political diarist and one time private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone when in 1880 when Gladstone became Prime Minister for the second time...

recorded her "notable faculty of getting other people to work and quickening their energies." It seems she was the driving force of the relationship, with her feet firmly on the ground. She made herself the link between the world and her "thin skinned and neurotic" husband. While her husband sulked or withdrew with hurt pride from a situation, she came to the forefront to plead his case or cause. If she was aware of his faults she gave no indication of it.

Children

The marriage produced four children: Lady Sybil Primrose, born in 1879; Lady Margaret Primrose, born in 1881; the heir Harry Primrose, Lord Dalmeny

Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery

Albert Edward Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery and 2nd Earl of Midlothian , known by his third name of Harry, was a UK politician who briefly served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1945...

(later 6th Earl of Rosebery), born in 1882; and finally the Honourable Neil Primrose

Neil James Archibald Primrose

Captain The Honourable Neil James Archibald Primrose PC, MC , was a British Liberal politician and soldier. The second son of Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, he represented Wisbech in parliament from 1910 to 1917 and served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1915 and as...

, born the same year as his elder brother.

As a mother, Lady Rosebery was presented with a dilemma: she was in fact already practically a mother to her husband who had no great feeling for a proximity to small babies. This was particularly evident in June 1880 when shortly after the birth of their first child Sybil, Rosebery wished to visit Germany for three months, to take a cure at a German spa

Spa

The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but are...

(he was recovering from what is now thought to have been a nervous breakdown). His wife dutifully accompanied him. However, Rosebery, clearly aware of his wife's frustrated maternal instincts, reported that Hannah savoured every detail of the daily letters from London concerning the baby, and that she never complained at the forced separation.

More revealing is a comment Lady Rosebery herself made to her husband, "I sometimes think it is wrong that I have thought less of the children in comparison to you" shortly before her death in 1890, suggesting that when a choice between her children and husband was forced on her, she always chose her husband. However, the same comment also hints that she was not unaware that her choice was at the cost of her children.

When assessing Lady Rosebery's behaviour to her children it should be remembered that she lived in an era of plentiful nannies

Nanny

A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...

, wet nurse

Wet nurse

A wet nurse is a woman who is used to breast feed and care for another's child. Wet nurses are used when the mother is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cultures the families are linked by a special relationship of...

s, nursemaid

Nursemaid

A nursemaid or nursery maid, is mostly a historical term of employment for a female servant in an elite household. In the 21st century, the position is largely defunct, owing to the relatively small number of households who maintain large staffs with the traditional hierarchy.The nursery maid...

s and governess

Governess

A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...

es which the upper classes employed as the norm. These people were employed regardless of the mother's affection towards her children; it was inconceivable that a countess would nurse her own children, and to do so would have been breaking social conventions. Hence her seeming lack of attention to her children was not unusual – she was following the upper class conventions and "stiff upper lip

Stiff upper lip

One who has a stiff upper lip displays fortitude in the face of adversity, or exercises great self-restraint in the expression of emotion. The phrase is most commonly heard as part of the idiom "keep a stiff upper lip", and has traditionally been used to describe an attribute of British people ,...

" philosophies of her era. However, in spite of their prolonged absences from their children, the Roseberys do not appear to have been very distant or remote figures in the earliest stages of their children's lives. Margot Asquith

Margot Asquith

Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith , born Emma Alice Margaret Tennant, was an Anglo-Scottish socialite, author and wit...

records how Rosebery loved to play and romp on the floor with the children.

Politics

It has been said of Hannah de Rothschild that she grew up with a good sense and presence of mind, enabling her to deputise for her mother on grand social occasions at Mentmore and in London. This gave her confidence and the experience to be the perfect political wife. Marriage to her altered Rosebery's status, too: while his wife acquired Christian respectability and a title, Rosebery moved from being one of many wealthy and capable young noblemen to being one with unfathomable riches. This, coupled with his good looks, appealed to the public's imagination and gave him glamour.

From the outset of the marriage, political members of the Rothschild family took an interest in Rosebery, and he was soon acclaimed as one of the rising hopes of the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

. As a hereditary peer

Hereditary peer

Hereditary peers form part of the Peerage in the United Kingdom. There are over seven hundred peers who hold titles that may be inherited. Formerly, most of them were entitled to sit in the House of Lords, but since the House of Lords Act 1999 only ninety-two are permitted to do so...

, he already had a seat in the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

and had made his maiden speech

Maiden speech

A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...

there on attaining his majority

Age of majority

The age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as it is conceptualized in law. It is the chronological moment when minors cease to legally be considered children and assume control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thereby terminating the legal control and legal responsibilities of...

. But brilliant as he was, Rosebery tended to lethargy and boredom. Lord Granville

Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville

Granville George Leveson Gower, 2nd Earl Granville KG, PC FRS , styled Lord Leveson until 1846, was a British Liberal statesman...

in fact considered Rosebery's wife to be the more ambitious of the pair, and even advised her "If you keep him up to the mark, [he] is sure to have his page in history." The subtle driving of her often languid and lethargic husband to achieve his "page in history" was to become her raison d'être. Rosebery's secretary Thomas Gilmour noted: "She is thoroughly genuine and very tender and devoted to Lord Rosebery, it is easy to see that she is very proud of him, and she is a woman of considerable force of character and great energy, she may prove to be a powerful ally in his political career." Rosebery was not a natural politician. He was an idealist who disliked the rancour of politics, in fact "his innate dislike of politics was something Lady Rosebery always fought against." However, he was a gifted orator, and this was an era when platform speaking was beginning to replace House of Commons debate. On a tour of America before his marriage, Rosebery had been impressed by the campaigning of prospective political candidates; in Britain little had changed in that respect since the husting

Husting

A husting originally referred to a physical platform from which representatives presented their views or cast votes before a parliamentary or other election body...

s of the 18th century. He realised how an electorate could be swayed by a candidate touring his prospective constituency, aided by a well thought-out series of events, rallies and advertising, with the candidate's ideal and attractive family smiling by his side. Thus Lady Rosebery not only pushed and encouraged him behind the scenes but was now to become an encouraging and conspicuous figure by his side. In this way it could be said she was the first openly "political wife" in Britain.
This first became evident in the great campaign to re-elect Gladstone. Known today as the Midlothian campaign

Midlothian campaign

The Midlothian campaign was a series of foreign policy speeches given by William Ewart Gladstone. It is often cited as the first modern political campaign. It also set the stage for Gladstone's comeback as a politician...

, it was masterminded by the Roseberys. Rosebery used his influence to have Gladstone invited to stand as parliamentary candidate for Midlothian

Midlothian (UK Parliament constituency) (1708-1918)

Edinburghshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918....

, where Rosebery's Dalmeny estate was situated. Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...

had nominally retired from politics after losing his Greenwich

Greenwich (UK Parliament constituency)

Greenwich was a parliamentary constituency in South-East London, which returned Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1997 by the first past the post system.-History:...

seat in 1874, when Disraeli had been swept to power. The campaign was based at Dalmeny where Lady Rosebery hosted a series of large political house parties

House party

A house party in the English-speaking world is typically a type of party where medium to large groups of people gather at the residence of the party's host. In modern usage, a house party is typically associated with teenage or young adult crowds, loud music, dancing, and the consumption of alcohol...

throughout the long campaign. The Tories

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

were later to claim that Rosebery had paid for Gladstone's campaign. Rosebery later admitted to spending £50,000.

The Roseberys' house party would leave Dalmeny and tour the major cities of Midlothian, with Gladstone and the speakers often addressing vast crowds from the back of an American-designed Pullman car specially acquired by Rosebery for the purpose. The scenes at these meetings have been described as something between a carnival and an evangelist's revival meeting. While in the grounds of Dalmeny House itself, the public were treated to a great firework display.

Throughout all this, Gladstone was supported not only by the popular and charismatic Rosebery but also by an array of well-dressed women including Lady Rosebery and Gladstone's daughter Mary. These fashionable people — the celebrities of their day (newspapers at the time gave many column inches each day to the doings of the upper classes) — were as much a crowd-puller as the political speakers, and Rosebery's planning used that to full effect. One meeting was so packed that many were fainting: 70,000 people applied for tickets in a hall capable of holding 6,500. Lady Rosebery reported, "I had never heard Archie (Lord Rosebery) speak in public politically before, but after the first minute I felt I could never be nervous at his making a speech the audience show him great affection." [sic] However it was not just Gladstone and Rosebery the huge crowds had come to see, but also the dutifully supporting and smiling families. Lady Rosebery went on to describe how "They (the crowds) patted me on the back till my shoulders were sensitive." Thus in Rosebery's first serious involvement in politics, Disraeli was defeated and the newly elected MP for Midlothian became Prime Minister for the second time (the caretaker liberal leader Lord Hartington retired in favour of Gladstone). It was also obvious that Lady Rosebery was a very evident and valuable political electioneering asset. As the Marquess of Crewe put it "she had cut her spurs."

Her political mettle and ambitions for her husband were however to be more severely tested following the Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

victory. Rosebery was, as expected, offered a position in Government by Gladstone. It had been rumoured that the position of Viceroy of Ireland

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

or a cabinet place would be proffered, but it turned out to be the job of Under Secretary of the India Office

India Office

The India Office was a British government department created in 1858 to oversee the colonial administration of India, i.e. the modern-day nations of Bangladesh, Burma, India, and Pakistan, as well as territories in South-east and Central Asia, the Middle East, and parts of the east coast of Africa...

. Rosebery immediately declined the post, giving as his reason that it would appear that he was being repaid for running Gladstone's campaign (as though the Viceregal position would not). When pressed further he cited ill health—he had been suffering from scarlet fever

Scarlet fever

Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...

during the Midlothian campaign and now also appeared to be suffering a minor nervous breakdown. Political leaders urged Lady Rosebery to influence him, but she defended his decision, while stressing that his deterioration in health was only temporary. She had to be careful—if it appeared her husband had declined the offer on the grounds that it was too lowly, it would give substance to the claims being made that he was conceited and petulant. Whatever the truth, and it may be Rosebery's own explanation that he "disliked hard work," Lady Rosebery continued to solicit Gladstone for a job for Rosebery within the cabinet. In August 1880, when Gladstone told her firmly that "There is nothing I can give him," she claimed she had not been seeking a cabinet post and Gladstone had misunderstood her. At the same time she was canny enough to mention that Sir William Harcourt

William Vernon Harcourt (politician)

Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman. He served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies and held the offices of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone before becoming Leader of...

and Sir Charles Dilke

Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet

Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet PC was an English Liberal and reformist politician. Touted as a future prime minister, his aspirations to higher political office were effectively terminated in 1885, after a notorious and well-publicised divorce case.-Background and education:Dilke was the...

, both radicals opposed to Gladstone's policies, were "visiting them" and "thoughtful." Lady Rosebery also began to befriend those politicians such as Lord Northbrook

Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook

Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook PC, GCSI, FRS , was a British Liberal politician and statesman...

who empathised with her husband, while others such as Lord Granville and Lord Hartington

Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire

Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire KG, GCVO, PC, PC , styled Lord Cavendish of Keighley between 1834 and 1858 and Marquess of Hartington between 1858 and 1891, was a British statesman...

she identified as aloof. She dismissed Lord Spencer

John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer

with "I can never look on him as a great motive power, besides he does not mention Archie [Rosebery] to me." This was the same Lord Spencer who had advised the Prince and Princess of Wales against visiting the homes of wealthy Jews.

Finally her soliciting paid off and in 1881, Rosebery was offered a government position acceptable to him, that of Under Secretary at the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

with special responsibility for Scotland

Scotland

. He had sought the position feeling that Scotland was neglected by the Liberal Government who were more interested in Ireland. However, immediately upon assuming the job he began to demand a place in the cabinet. The office he sought was that of Lord Privy Seal

Lord Privy Seal

The Lord 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...

, a position Gladstone refused on account of Rosebery's inexperience in Government. It appeared that Rosebery was showing his true colours and he was accused of behaving like a spoilt child, with doubts cast over the honourableness of his reasons for refusing the Under Secretaryship of the India Office. Lady Rosebery, "conscious of her husband's supreme ability," wanted him in the cabinet and was furiously agitating her husband's discontent until Rosebery threatened to resign his Home Office position. Lady Rosebery had an angry row with Gladstone's wife, where Mrs Gladstone pointed out that if Rosebery resigned he would have nothing but horse racing to interest him, and that Lady Rosebery should be patient as her husband was young. Rosebery, accepting that a cabinet place was not going to be forthcoming, resigned from Government. Lady Rosebery, realising further appeal to the Gladstones was pointless, tried a new avenue—Lord Hartington

Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire

, the immensely influential Secretary of State for War

Secretary of State for War

The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...

, who was already quarrelling with Gladstone over the Irish home rule problem, and whom she allegedly met by chance at Preston Railway Station. Inviting him into her carriage for the journey to London, she pleaded her husband's case for three hours to her captive listener. The Roseberys then immediately left England and their children for a long trip to America and Australia. On their return in 1885 Rosebery was appointed Lord Privy Seal, complete with the seat in the cabinet which he sought.
Gladstone resigned as Prime Minister in 1885 following a Government defeat over the Irish home rule question. The new Tory government was led by Lord Salisbury

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British Conservative statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...

. However, as a minority administration it was not expected to last, and a swift return of the former administration was anticipated. During this period serious (if unproven) charges of plotting and ruthless ambition were about to be levelled against Lady Rosebery. Sir Charles Dilke, considered as a likely replacement for Gladstone, and thus a rival to Rosebery in government, was implicated in one of the most scandalous and ruinous divorce cases of the era. Involvement in any divorce was social suicide in the 19th century, but the facts which emerged were enough to ensure it was political suicide as well. A friend of the Roseberys, Donald Crawford

Donald Crawford

Donald Crawford was a United Kingdom Liberal MP. He sat for the constituency of Lanarkshire North-East from 1885 to 1895....

, MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, sued his wife Virginia for divorce naming Dilke as co-respondent

Co-respondent

In English law, a co-respondent is, in general, a respondent to a petition, or other legal proceeding, along with another or others, or a person called upon to answer in some other way.- Divorce :...

. There was little evidence and Dilke denied the charge, which could have been ultimately forgotten, if Virginia had not suddenly decided to sign a confession giving such lurid details that a great scandal was unavoidable. She claimed that not only had Dilke slept with her and taught her "French vices", but also slept with her mother and partaken in a three-in-a-bed orgy with Virginia and a maid. Dilke denied everything, but his hopes of high political office were ruined forever. Dilke claimed the whole thing was an embroidery of lies and conspiracies by his political enemies. Rumours began to circulate that the Roseberys, and Lady Rosebery in particular, were at the bottom of Dilke's misfortune. In his futile quest to exonerate himself, and grasping at rumour, Dilke wrote to Rosebery accusing Lady Rosebery of having paid Virginia to make the confession. An outraged Rosebery denied all on his wife's behalf, while in December 1885 Lady Rosebery's only response on being told of Virginia Crawford's confessions was: "Dilke's behaviour is very astonishing in some reports, though it is not an actual surprise to me." Early the following year Gladstone was returned to power and Rosebery was appointed Foreign Secretary

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...

in Gladstone's third but brief term of office. Dilke's political career was ruined, and for years afterwards he continued to expound the Rosebery conspiracy theory. Nothing was ever proven against Lady Rosebery and no tangible evidence exists to substantiate the claim.

The impartiality demanded by Rosebery's new office forced him to sell many of his business interests, which had come by the way of the Rothschild family, in order to be seen to be avoiding a conflict of interest. However, his wife's ambition and part in his rise to power was not only being recognised in high places, but clearly starting to irritate. On being told that Lady Rosebery was very keen for her husband to become Foreign Secretary, Gladstone replied "She would think herself capable of being Queen of the Realm and think the place only just good enough for her." Rosebery was now on the path to political greatness, but Gladstone's government fell the same year. Lady Rosebery was not to see her husband achieve the highest political office.

Philanthropy

Like many other women of her class and era, Lady Rosebery patronised a great number of charities

Charitable organization

A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...

. Her chief causes appear to have all been connected specifically to the assistance and welfare of women. She was president of the Scottish Home Industries Association, a charity which encouraged Scottish women to work profitably from home making plaid

Plaid (pattern)

For other meanings, see plaid.A plaid is a pattern consisting of crossed horizontal and vertical bands in two or more colors in woven cloth.Common examples of plaid patterns include:*Tartan, the pattern most commonly associated with plaid....

or other items of needlework

Needlework

Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...

and the like. In this way women, especially widowed mothers, remained in their homes able to care for their often large families while still earning an income.

Queen Victoria appointed her president of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses

Queen's Nursing Institute

The Queen’s Nursing Institute is a charity that works to improve the nursing care of people in their own homes in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.-History:...

in Scotland, the beginning of the district nurse

District nurse

District Nurses are senior nurses who manage care within the community, leading teams of community nurses and support workers. Typically much of their work involves visiting house-bound patients to provide advice and care, for example, palliative care, wound management, catheter and continence...

system, which was to revolutionise health care for the rural poor and sick in Britain. She was also interested in general improvements in standards of nursing.

Like many of her Rothschild relatives she was also deeply involved with the welfare of young working-class women of the Jewish faith who inhabited the poorer areas of London

London

, in particular Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...

. There she founded the Club for Jewish Working Girls. She also donated to numerous other charities connected with Jewish causes. However, within a week of her death her husband began to cancel many of these subscriptions, prompting charges of antisemitism.

Her interest in education has been one of her most obvious surviving charitable legacies. She founded schools in all the villages surrounding the Roseberys' estates. The Mentmore estate alone was serviced by three schools founded by her at Wingrave, Cheddington and Mentmore itself. Not only were the children educated at her expense by trained teachers, each was also provided with seasonal gifts of new clothes. Cheddington School remains in its original building with her cypher

Monogram

A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...

on its walls, while Wingrave School, which opened in 1877, survives in new premises.

One of her more pioneering and innovative charitable causes was the oral instruction

Manualism and oralism

Education of the deaf consists of two main approaches: manualism and oralism. Manualism is the education of deaf students using sign language and oralism is the education of deaf students using spoken language...

of what were then called the deaf and dumb

Deaf-mute

For "deafness", see hearing impairment. For "Deaf" as a cultural term, see Deaf culture. For "inability to speak", see muteness.Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was both deaf and could not speak...

Death and legacy

Lady Rosebery died of typhoid at Dalmeny

Dalmeny

Dalmeny is a suburban village and civil parish in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located on the south side of the Firth of Forth, east-southeast of South Queensferry and west-northwest of central Edinburgh; it falls under the local governance of the City of Edinburgh Council.The name Dalmeny is...

in 1890. She fought the disease, but it was found that she was also suffering from Bright's disease

Bright's disease

Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....

, which had weakened her, making it impossible to survive the attack. She was buried in accordance with the rites of the Jewish faith. Rosebery found this particularly hard to bear, and wrote to Queen Victoria of the pain he experienced when "another creed steps in to claim the corpse." It was only after her death that the doctors who had treated her disclosed to Rosebery that her kidney condition would have killed her within two years even if she had not contracted typhoid.

Her funeral was held on 25 November 1890 at Willesden Jewish Cemetery

Willesden Jewish Cemetery

Willesden Jewish Cemetery is a cemetery for Jews in Beaconsfield Road, Willesden, London Borough of Brent. It opened in 1873 on a site. More properly, it is the Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery.-Notable burials:...

. As is the Jewish tradition, the service was attended only by male mourners, who included most members of Gladstone's cabinet

Cabinet of the United Kingdom

The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....

.

There is no evidence that Lady Rosebery drove her husband in order to follow her own political agenda, or that of her family. For her the rewards seem to have been the pleasure of seeing a husband she undoubtedly adored in the high office of which she felt him worthy. There is no doubt that she tempered her husband's more radical views. Immediately following his wife's death Rosebery retired from politics, writing in October 1891 "The sole object of my ambition has disappeared with the death of my wife." Proof of the widespread belief in society that Lady Rosebery was the stable element of the partnership was confirmed shortly after her death, by Queen Victoria, following a then rare public speech by Rosebery, in which he supported Home Rule for Ireland. The Queen was shocked and thought the speech "almost communistic" and went on to attribute Rosebery's "shocking and disappointing" behaviour to the fact that "poor Lady Rosebery is not there to keep him back." While Queen Victoria always personally liked Rosebery, she mistrusted his politics. The Queen had thoroughly liked Lady Rosebery and wrote Rosebery several letters of condolence, likening his loss to the untimely death of her own consort, Prince Albert. It seems that the Queen's antipathy to Jews was confined to elevating them to the peerage. This view had softened by 1885. In 1890 she accepted a luncheon invitation from Lady Rosebery's cousin Ferdinand de Rothschild and toured Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...

albeit eating in a separate dining room to the Jewish members of the party.

Shortly after his wife's death, Rosebery left his grieving children and went alone on a tour of Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Following a visit to El Escorial

El Escorial

The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 45 kilometres northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and...

he wrote on the sepulchral wonders of the building, but added "for the dead alone the Taj

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...

is of course supreme." On his return home he had designed for his wife a Victorian Gothic version of the Taj Mahal in miniature. For the remainder of his life he wore black and used black edged writing paper. Once, when talking with his daughter Sybil, he asked her what mourning she thought her mother would have worn had the situation been reversed. Sybil replied, "She would not have worn any, she would have died at once."

Ronald Munro Ferguson has been quoted in 1912 as saying "many things would have gone otherwise had Lady Rosebery lived. Her loss is today as great a calamity from every point of view as it was at the time of her death."

Widowhood changed Rosebery, both mentally and physically: he aged overnight, and began to refer to himself as an old man. Two years after her death, friends were still concerned that he was suicidal

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

. Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

thought him maimed by her death, and later said of her "she was a remarkable woman on whom Rosebery leaned, she was ever a pacifying and composing element in his life which he was never able to find again because he could never give full confidence to anyone else."

Sir Edward Hamilton

Edward Walter Hamilton

Sir Edward Hamilton was political diarist and one time private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone when in 1880 when Gladstone became Prime Minister for the second time...

, Rosebery's closest friend, wrote:
Her qualities were portrayed in literature when Lady Rosebery was reputed to be the model for Marcella Maxwell in Mrs Humphry Ward's

Mary Augusta Ward

Mary Augusta Ward née Arnold; , was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward.- Early life:...

novels Marcella (1894) and Sir George Tressady (1909). The author lived at Stocks

Stocks House

Stocks House is a large Georgian mansion, built in 1773, that is the largest property in the village of Aldbury, Hertfordshire. It was built by owners of Stocks Farm and used as their family home for many years...

close to Lady Rosebery's home at Mentmore and would certainly have known her, while in the books Marcella's house is based on Hampden House

Hampden House

Hampden House is a country house in the village of Great Hampden, between Great Missenden and Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire. It is named after the Hampden family. The Hampdens are recorded as owning the site from before the Norman conquest...

, also in Buckinghamshire.
The Liberals did not return to office until 1892. Lord Rosebery was eventually persuaded to enter government, becoming once again Foreign Secretary serving under Gladstone as Prime Minister. In 1894 on Gladstone's retirement he achieved his wife's ambitions and became Prime Minister, but by this time Lady Rosebery had been dead for four years. Without her, Rosebery was a shadow of his former self, taking huge doses of morphine to combat insomnia and nerves. His Prime Ministership lasted barely a year, marred by problems and difficulties. For the remainder of his life and without his wife, as Queen Victoria phrased it, "to hold him back", he became more and more eccentric and controversial in his decisions. His final years were blighted by ill health and a self-enforced seclusion in Scotland. He died in 1929.

Before their marriage and his full-time entry into politics, Rosebery's future wife had written with extraordinary foresight and ambition to him: "I work only to help you, if you are Prime Minister, let me imitate Montagu Corry

Montagu Corry, 1st Baron Rowton

Montagu William Lowry-Corry, 1st Baron Rowton KCVO, CB, PC, DL , also known as "Monty," was a British philanthropist and public servant, best known for serving as Benjamin Disraeli's private secretary from 1866 until the latter's death in 1881.-Background and education:Born in London, Lowry-Corry...

." Corry had been Disraeli's influential private secretary on whom he had relied. Rosebery only ever trusted his wife. Without her to calm and order his life he was a neurotic wreck.

Lady Rosebery's eldest son, Harry

Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery

, who was less successful in politics than his father and brother, distinguished himself by becoming captain of Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...

and owning two Epsom Derby-winning horses. He succeeded his father as 6th Earl of Rosebery and died in 1974. Margaret married her father's old friend and biographer the Marquess of Crewe

Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe

Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe KG, PC , known as The Lord Houghton from 1885 to 1895 and as The Earl of Crewe from 1895 to 1911, was a British statesman and writer....

. Such was still the fame of her parents that London traffic was brought to a standstill on her wedding day in 1899. Lady Crewe became one of the first women magistrate

Magistrate

A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...

s in Britain; she died in 1955. Lady Sybil

Sybil Grant

Lady Sybil Myra Caroline Grant was a British writer, designer and artist. She was the eldest child of Archibald "Archie" Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery and his wife Hannah...

has been summarized by one of her father's biographers: "Even more eccentric than her father, she spent much of her time living in a caravan." Neil

Neil James Archibald Primrose

, the second of the Roseberys' sons, entered politics and a promising future was foretold for him. However, on the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

he joined the army, and was killed leading a charge at Gezer

Gezer

Gezer was a Canaanite city-state and biblical town in ancient Israel. Tel Gezer , an archaeological site midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is now an Israeli national park....

in 1917.
Of Hannah Rosebery's homes, the lease on Lansdowne House was surrendered shortly before her death, when the Roseberys purchased 38 Berkeley Square. This property was transformed into one of London's most luxurious town houses. However, Lady Rosebery did not live to see the work completed. Her son Harry sold the house in 1938, and it was demolished. A year later a bomb landed on the empty site during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The Durdans was bequeathed to her daughter, Sybil, in 1929 and was sold together with its contents in 1955. Lord and Lady Rosebery's library there was given to the nation at this time. Mentmore, the grandest of the Roseberys' homes, was sold by Lady Rosebery's grandson, the 7th Earl of Rosebery, in 1977, together with the Rothschild art collection, which Lady Rosebery had not only been intensely interested in but had enlarged considerably. She personally catalogued the collection, and prophetically wrote in the preface "In time to come, when, like all collections, this will be dispersed (and I hope this will be long after my death) this book may be of value." Her two-volume work and the collection it described remained so unknown that "Save Mentmore" (a group attempting to halt the sale of Mentmore to keep the collection within Britain) failed largely due to widespread public ignorance of both house and collection. A few pieces of furniture and paintings were taken to Dalmeny, (the only house to remain in the family) where they are displayed today, and three pictures including Drouais

François-Hubert Drouais

François-Hubert Drouais was a French painter and the father of Jean-Germain Drouais.Drouais was born and died in Paris. He specialized in portraits of the French nobility, foreign aristocrats, writers, and other artists. Some of his portraits include Louis XV's last two mistresses, Madame de...

' Madame de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...

were purchased for the National Gallery. The remainder of the collection was dispersed in a week-long sale and is now scattered across the globe. A further sale of the "Continental Library," to which she had added, was conducted in 1995 at the Aeolian Hall

Aeolian Hall (London)

Aeolian Hall located at 135-137 New Bond Street, began life as the Grosvenor Gallery, being built by Sir Coutts Lindsay in 1876, an accomplished amateur artist, with a predeliction for the aesthetic movement, for which he was held up to some ridicule. In 1883, he decided to light his gallery with...

, London

London

by Sotheby's

Sotheby's

Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...

.

Today, Lady Rosebery is a mere footnote in the long history of her husband's family, rather as Consuelo Vanderbilt

Consuelo Vanderbilt

Consuelo Balsan , was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family...

is regarded in the Spencer-Churchill family. Her husband, once one of the "most celebrated figures in Britain," is a minor figure in British history. Thus, Hannah, Countess of Rosebery, in her day celebrated in the worlds of politics, philanthropy, and high society, is largely unknown and forgotten.

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