Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury

Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, Baron Gascoyne-Cecil, KG, KCVO, PC, DL (born 30 September 1946) is a British Conservative politician. From 1979 to 1987 he represented South Dorset in the House of Commons, and in the 1990s he was Leader of the House of Lords under his courtesy title of Viscount Cranborne. Lord Salisbury lives in one of England's largest historic houses, the 17th-century Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, and currently serves as Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire.

The Most Honourable The Marquess of Salisbury KG KCVO PC DL
Lord Salisbury in 2013
Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 October 2005
Preceded by	The Lord MacLaurin of Knebworth
Leader of the Opposition in the Lords Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
In office 2 May 1997 – 3 December 1998
Leader	John Major William Hague
Preceded by	The Lord Richard
Succeeded by	The Lord Strathclyde
Leader of the House of Lords Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 20 July 1994 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	The Lord Wakeham
Succeeded by	The Lord Richard
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence
In office 22 April 1992 – 20 July 1994
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Kenneth Carlisle & The Earl of Arran
Succeeded by	The Lord Henley
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
as a hereditary peer 29 April 1992 – 11 November 1999
Preceded by	The 6th Marquess of Salisbury
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
as a life peer 17 November 1999 – 8 June 2017
Member of Parliament for South Dorset
In office 3 May 1979 – 18 May 1987
Preceded by	Evelyn King
Succeeded by	Ian Bruce
Personal details
Born	(1946-09-30) 30 September 1946
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Hannah Stirling ​ (m. 1970)​
Children	5
Parent	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury (father)
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford

Early life

Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil was born on 30 September 1946, the eldest child and first-born son of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury. His younger brother was the journalist Lord Richard Cecil, who was killed covering the conflict in Rhodesia in 1978.

Lord Cranborne attended Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, and became a merchant banker before going to work on the family estates.

Political career

House of Commons

Lord Cranborne was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for South Dorset in 1976, where his family owned land, despite there being on the shortlist several former members of parliament who had lost their seats in the two 1974 elections. At the 1978 Conservative Party conference he spoke in opposition to British sanctions against Rhodesia. He won the South Dorset seat at the 1979 general election, becoming the seventh consecutive generation of his family to sit in the House of Commons. In his maiden speech, he urged Ian Smith, prime minister of Rhodesia, to stand aside in favour of Abel Muzorewa.

Cranborne gained a general reputation as a right-winger, especially on matters affecting the Church of England, but confounded this reputation when he co-wrote a pamphlet in 1981 which said that the fight against unemployment ought to be given more priority than the fight against inflation. He took an interest in Northern Ireland, and, when Jim Prior announced his policy of 'Rolling Devolution', resigned an unpaid job as assistant to Douglas Hurd.

Lord Cranborne became known in the early 1980s as an anti-communist, as a supporter of Afghan refugees (from the Soviet invasion of that country) in Pakistan, and for sending food parcels to Poland. Until the early years of the 21st century, a charity shop was run on his Hatfield House estate solely to raise money for these causes, including funds for Polish orphanages. He was involved in efforts to fund the Afghan resistance. His strong opposition to any involvement by the Republic of Ireland in Northern Ireland led him to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement and contributed to his decision to retire from the House of Commons in 1987.

House of Lords

After the 1992 general election, John Major used a writ of acceleration to call Lord Cranborne up to the House of Lords in one of his father's junior titles. Thus, Lord Cranborne was summoned to Parliament as Baron Cecil, of Essendon in the County of Rutland (his father's most junior dignity), although he continued to be known by his courtesy style of Viscount Cranborne. This is the most recent time a writ of acceleration has been issued, and due to the provisions of the House of Lords Act 1999, abolishing the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, any future use of the writ of acceleration is highly unlikely.

He served for two years as a junior defence minister before being appointed as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords in 1994. Lord Cranborne was appointed by the Queen as Privy Counsellor (PC) on 21 July 1994. Funding for opposition parties in the House of Lords, known as Cranborne Money, began during his leadership. When Major resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party in an attempt to test his authority as leader in July 1995, Lord Cranborne led his re-election campaign. He was recognised as one of the few members of the Cabinet who were personally loyal to Major, but continued to lead the Conservative Peers after Labour won the 1997 general election.

When the new Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed the removal of the hereditary element in the House of Lords, Lord Cranborne negotiated a pact with the Labour government to retain a small number of hereditary peers (later set at 92) for what was intended to be an interim period. For the sake of form this amendment was formally proposed by Lord Weatherill, Convenor of the Cross-Bench Peers. However, Lord Cranborne gave his party's approval without consulting the party leader, William Hague, who knew nothing and was embarrassed when Blair told him of it in the House of Commons. Hague then sacked Lord Cranborne, who accepted his error, saying that he had "rushed in, like an ill-trained spaniel".

All former Leaders of the House of Lords who were hereditary peers accepted life peerages to keep them in the upper house in 1999. Lord Cranborne, who had received the title Baron Gascoyne-Cecil, of Essendon in the County of Rutland, remained active on the backbenches until the House of Lords adopted new rules for declaration of financial interests which he believed were too onerous. He took "Leave of Absence" on 1 November 2001. He was therefore out of the House of Lords when he succeeded his father as the 7th Marquess of Salisbury on 11 July 2003.

In January 2010, Lord Salisbury and Owen Paterson, the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, hosted secret talks at Hatfield House, involving the DUP, the UUP and the Conservative Party. These talks prompted speculation that the Conservatives were attempting to create a pan-unionist front to limit Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party at the 2010 general election.

In September 2012, Lord Salisbury, in his role as Chairman of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and became a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO).

He retired from the House of Lords on 8 June 2017, the date of the snap general election. He was appointed a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG) on 27 February 2019.

Other interests

Salisbury is a Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, and the current president of the Friends of the British Library and of the Friends of Friendless Churches.

Lord Salisbury is the chairman of the Constitution Reform Group (CRG), a cross-party pressure group which seeks a new constitutional settlement in the UK by way of a new Act of Union. The group backed the Act of Union Bill 2017–19, introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Lord Lisvane in the House of Lords on 9 October 2018, when it received a formal first reading; its passage through Parliament was terminated by the ending of the parliamentary session in October 2019.

Lord Salisbury writes for The Spectator and the Centre for Policy Studies under the informal name of Robert Salisbury. He is the chairman of Reaction.

In 2020, Lord Salisbury published a book entitled William Simpson and the Crisis in Central Asia, 1884–5. It is a non-fiction book on the Victorian war artist William Simpson, and his involvement with the Afghan Boundary Commission, a surveying project which nearly triggered a war with Tsarist Russia in 1885. The book was privately published as a contribution to the Roxburghe Club, and is illustrated by a set of sketches by Simpson, now owned by Lord Salisbury.

Since 2023, Lord Salisbury is the chairman of the London Defence Conference, held in partnership with King's College London.

Marriage and children

In 1970, aged 23, he married Hannah Stirling, niece of Colonel Sir David Stirling (a co-founder of the SAS) and a descendant of the Lords Lovat, Scottish Catholic aristocrats. The marriage was initially opposed by his family, chiefly because Stirling was a Catholic.

During the 1970s, Lord and Lady Cranborne had two sons and three daughters (including twins); the two elder daughters are now married. Until recently, they lived at Cranborne Manor, Dorset. The family seat is Hatfield House, once home to Queen Elizabeth I of England, which was given to the family by James I of England in exchange for the Cecil family house Theobalds. The Cecils are landowners in Dorset, Hertfordshire and London, and the 7th Marquess ranked 352nd in the Sunday Times Rich List 2017, with an estimated net worth of £335m (of which the paintings at Hatfield accounted for £150m).

The Marquess of Salisbury's heir is his elder son Robert Edward "Ned" William Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne (born 1970). He was a page of honour to the Queen from 1983 to 1986. The heir is unmarried, though he does have a daughter born in 2001. The younger son, Lord James, has married and fathered one son, Thomas Richard James (born 2009).

Cecil family tree, including earls of Exeter and Salisbury (1605) and marquesses of Exeter (1801) and Salisbury

David Cecil c. 1460–c. 1540 Richard Cecil c. 1495–1553 Baron Burghley, 1571 William Cecil 1520–1598 1st Baron Burghley Mildred Cooke 1526–1589 Earl of Exeter, 1605 Baron Cecil, 1603 Viscount Cranborne, 1604 Earl of Salisbury (5th creation), 1605 Thomas Cecil 1542–1623 1st Earl of Exeter, 2nd Baron Burghley Robert Cecil 1563–1612 1st Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Viscount Wimbledon and Baron Cecil of Putney, 1625 William Cecil 1566–1600 2nd Earl of Exeter, 3rd Baron Burghley Richard Cecil 1570–1633 Edward Cecil 1572–1638 1st Viscount Wimbledon and Baron Cecil of Putney Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk 1561–1626 1st Earl of Suffolk Barony Cecil of Putney and viscounty Wimbledon extinct, 1638 David Cecil c. 1600–1643 3rd Earl of Exeter, 4th Baron Burghley William Cecil 1591–1668 2nd Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Catherine c. 1590–1673 John Cecil 1628–1678 4th Earl of Exeter, 5th Baron Burghley Charles Cecil 1619–1660 styled Viscount Cranborne John Manners 1604–1679 8th Earl of Rutland John Cecil c. 1648–1700 5th Earl of Exeter, 6th Baron Burghley James Cecil 1648–1683 3rd Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Margaret d. c. 1682 John Cecil 1674–1721 6th Earl of Exeter, 7th Baron Burghley James Cecil 1666–1694 4th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Thomas Tufton 1644–1729 6th Earl of Thanet John Cecil c. 1700–1722 7th Earl of Exeter, 8th Baron Burghley Brownlow Cecil 1701–1754 8th Earl of Exeter, 9th Baron Burghley James Cecil 1691–1728 5th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Anne 1693–1757 Brownlow Cecil 1725–1793 9th Earl of Exeter, 10th Baron Burghley James Cecil 1713–1780 6th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Wills Hill 1718–1793 1st Marquess of Downshire Marquess of Exeter (2nd creation), 1801 Marquess of Salisbury, 1789 Henry Cecil 1725–1793 1st Marquess of Exeter, 10th Earl of Exeter, 11th Baron Burghley James Cecil 1743–1823 1st Marquess of Salisbury, 7th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Emily 1750–1835 Brownlow Cecil 1795–1867 2nd Marquess of Exeter, 11th Earl of Exeter, 12th Baron Burghley James Brownlow William Gascoyne-Cecil 1791–1868 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, 8th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon William Allen Cecil 1825–1895 3rd Marquess of Exeter, 12th Earl of Exeter, 13th Baron Burghley James Emilius William Evelyn Gascoyne-Cecil 1821–1865 styled Viscount Cranborne Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil 1830–1903 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, 9th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, 1923 Brownlow Henry George Cecil 1849–1898 4th Marquess of Exeter, 13th Earl of Exeter, 14th Baron Burghley Mary Rothes Margaret Cecil 1857–1919 2nd Baroness Amherst of Hackney William Cecil 1854–1943 James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil 1861–1947 4th Marquess of Salisbury, 10th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 1864–1958 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood Viscounty Cecil of Chelwood extinct, 1958 William Thomas Brownlow Cecil 1876–1956 5th Marquess of Exeter, 14th Earl of Exeter, 15th Baron Burghley William Amherst Cecil 1886–1914 Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil 1893–1972 5th Marquess of Salisbury, 11th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon David George Brownlow Cecil 1905–1981 6th Marquess of Exeter, 15th Earl of Exeter, 16th Baron Burghley William Martin Alleyne Cecil 1909–1988 7th Marquess of Exeter, 16th Earl of Exeter, 17th Baron Burghley William Alexander Evering Cecil 1912–1980 3rd Baron Amherst of Hackney Robert Edward Peter Gascoyne-Cecil 1916–2003 6th Marquess of Salisbury, 12th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon William Michael Anthony Cecil b. 1935 8th Marquess of Exeter, 17th Earl of Exeter, 18th Baron Burghley William Hugh Amherst Cecil 1940–2009 4th Baron Amherst of Hackney Robert Edward Peter Gascoyne-Cecil b. 1946 7th Marquess of Salisbury, 13th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil of Essendon Anthony Cecil b. 1970 styled Lord Burghley Exeter heir apparent Hugh William Amherst Cecil b. 1968 5th Baron Amherst of Hackney 2nd in line to Exeter Robert Edward "Ned" William Gascoyne-Cecil b. 1970 styled Viscount Cranborne Salisbury heir apparent James Richard Gascoyne-Cecil b. 1976 2nd in line to Salisbury

Arms

Coat of arms of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury

Coronet Coronet of a Marquess Crest 1st, Six Arrows in saltire Or, barbed and flighted Argent, bound together with a Belt Gules, buckled and garnished Gold, over the arrows a Morion Cap proper (Cecil); 2nd, A Conger's Head erased and erect Or, charged with an Ermine Spot (Gascoyne) Escutcheon Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Barry of ten Argent and Azure, over all six Escutcheons Sable, three two and one each charged with a Lion rampant of the First, a Crescent Gules for difference(Cecil); 2nd and 3rd, Argent, on a Pale Sable, a Conger's Head erased and erect Or, charged with an Ermine Spot (Gascoyne) Supporters On either side a Lion Ermine Motto SERO SED SERIO (Late, but in earnest) Orders Order of the Garter circlet (appointed 27 February 2019), with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shame on him who thinks evil of it) Royal Victorian Order (appointed KCVO 2012) Banner The banner of arms used as a Garter banner at St George's Chapel

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Salisbury
• The young elite 1–10
• Debrett's People of Today