Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

**Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery** (7 May 184721 May 1929) was a British Liberal politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, also known as **Archibald Primrose** (1847–1851), **Lord Dalmeny** (1851–1868).

After an education at Eton and Oxford, Dalmeny succeeded to his grandfather's Scottish earldom in 1868.

## Political career

Becoming involved in politics, he became a Liberal, and was involved in Gladstone's Midlothian campaign, which brought the Liberals back into power in 1880.  In the Liberal administration that followed, Rosebery served in junior offices, including that of Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, before entering the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal in March 1885.

Rosebery became a leader of the Liberal Imperialist faction of the Liberal Party, and in Gladstone's third (1886) and fourth (1892–1894) administrations, Rosebery served as Foreign Secretary.  When Gladstone retired in 1894, Rosebery became his successor as Prime Minister, much to the disgust of the more left-wing Liberals.  Rosebery's government was largely unsuccessful—his designs in foreign policy, such as expansion of the fleet, were defeated by disagreements within the Liberal Party, while the Tory-dominated House of Lords stopped the whole of the Liberals' domestic legislation.  In 1895, Rosebery resigned, and a Conservative government under Lord Salisbury took his place.

Rosebery resigned as leader of the Liberal Party in 1896, and gradually moved further and further from the mainstream of the party, supporting the Boer War and opposing Irish Home Rule, a position which prevented him from taking part in the Liberal government that returned to power in 1905.  In his later years, Rosebery turned to writing, including biographies of Lord Chatham, Pitt the Younger, Napoleon, and Lord Randolph Churchill.  He was also famous for his champion racehorses.

## Roseberry's landholdings

Roseberry was extremely wealthy, even by the standards of the aristocracy before the First World War. He owned 12 houses, all of them grand, and some of huge size.

By marriage, he acquired:
- Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, a huge neo-Renaissance stately home, sold in the 1970s
- Number 40, Piccadilly, in London.
With his fortune, he bought:
- a shooting lodge at Carrington in Midlothian
- a Georgian villa at Postwick in Norfolk
- In 1897, he bought Villa Delahente in Posillipo, overlooking the Bay of Naples, currently an official residence of the President of the Italian Republic, still known as Villa Rosebery
- 38 Berkeley Square, London
- The Durdans, Epsom, where he died in 1929.
As Earl of Rosebery, he was laird of:
- Dalmeny House on the banks of the Firth of Forth (pictured)
- Barnbougle Castle in the grounds of Dalmeny Estate, used by Rosebery (an insomniac) for privacy.
He rented:
- a home in Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh, during World War I
- Lansdowne House, in London, from the Marquess of Lansdowne.

## Rumours

It was rumoured that Rosebery was homosexual or bisexual. Like Oscar Wilde, he was hounded by Queensbury for his association with one of Queensberry's sons. It was Francis Douglas, who was Roseberry's private secretary. The suggestion was that Queensberry had threatened to expose the Prime Minister if his government did not vigorously prosecute Wilde for Wilde's relationship with Francis Douglas's younger brother, Lord Alfred Douglas. Queensberry believed, as he put it in a letter, that "Snob Queers like Rosebery" had corrupted his sons, and he held Rosebery indirectly responsible for Drumlanrig's death.

## Infobox (prime minister)

- **honorific-prefix**: The Right Honourable
- **name**: The Earl of Rosebery
- **image**: The Earl of Rosebery.jpg
- **order**: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- **term start**: 5 March 1894
- **term end**: 22 June 1895
- **monarch**: Queen Victoria, Victoria
- **predecessor**: William Ewart Gladstone
- **successor**: Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, The Marquess of Salisbury
- **order2**: Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition
- **term start2**: 22 June 1895
- **term end2**: 6 October 1896
- **monarch2**: Queen Victoria, Victoria
- **primeminister2**: Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, The Marquess of Salisbury
- **predecessor2**: Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, The Marquess of Salisbury
- **successor2**: William Vernon Harcourt (politician), Sir William Harcourt
- **order3**: Lord President of the Council
- **term start3**: 10 March 1894
- **term end3**: 21 June 1895
- **monarch3**: Queen Victoria, Victoria
- **primeminister3**: Himself
- **predecessor3**: John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, The Earl of Kimberley
- **successor3**: Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire, The Duke of Devonshire
- **order4**: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
- **term start5**: 6 February 1886
- **term end5**: 3 August 1886
- **monarch5**: Queen Victoria, Victoria
- **primeminister5**: William Ewart Gladstone
- **predecessor5**: Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, The Marquess of Salisbury
- **successor5**: Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, The Earl of Iddesleigh
- **term start4**: 18 August 1892
- **term end4**: 10 March 1894
- **monarch4**: Queen Victoria, Victoria
- **primeminister4**: William Ewart Gladstone
- **predecessor4**: Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, The Marquess of Salisbury
- **successor4**: John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, The Earl of Kimberley
- **order6**: Lord Privy Seal, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
- **term start6**: 5 March 1885
- **term end6**: 9 June 1885
- **monarch6**: Queen Victoria, Victoria
- **primeminister6**: William Ewart Gladstone
- **predecessor6**: Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue, 1st Baron Carlingford, The Lord Carlingford
- **successor6**: Dudley Ryder, 3rd Earl of Harrowby, The Earl of Harrowby
- **order7**: First Commissioner of Works
- **term start7**: 13 February 1885
- **term end7**: 9 June 1885
- **monarch7**: Queen Victoria, Victoria
- **primeminister7**: William Ewart Gladstone
- **predecessor7**: George Shaw-Lefevre, 1st Baron Eversley, George Shaw-Lefevre
- **successor7**: David Plunket, 1st Baron Rathmore, David Plunket
- **order8**: Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
- **term start8**: August 1881
- **term end8**: June 1883
- **monarch8**: Queen Victoria, Victoria
- **primeminister8**: William Ewart Gladstone
- **predecessor8**: Leonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith, Leonard Courtney
- **successor8**: J. T. Hibbert
- **office14**: Member of the House of Lords
Lords Temporal, Lord Temporal
- **term start14**: 7 May 1868
- **term end14**: 21 May 1929
Hereditary peerage
- **predecessor14**: Archibald Primrose, 4th Earl of Rosebery, The 4th Earl of Rosebery
- **successor14**: Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery, The 6th Earl of Rosebery
- **birth name**: Archibald Philip Primrose
- **birth place**: Mayfair, Middlesex, England
- **death place**: Epsom, Surrey, England
- **resting place**: Dalmeny Parish Church, Edinburgh, Scotland
- **alma mater**: Christ Church, Oxford
- **parents**: Archibald Primrose, Lord Dalmeny
 Wilhelmina Powlett, Duchess of Cleveland
- **children**: 4, including Lady Sybil Grant, Sybil, Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery, Harry, and Neil Primrose (politician), Neil
- **party**: Liberal Party (UK), Liberal
- **signature**: Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery Signature.svg