Biography of Marquis of Lansdowne:- A great British politician: He successively held the positions of Lord of the Treasury, Undersecretary of State for War, Undersecretary of India, and Governor General of Canada, Viceroy of India, Secretary of War and Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
The eldest son of the fourth Marquess of Lansdowne, Henry Charles was educated in the elitist college of Eton. In 1866, after the death of his father, he acceded to the marquisate and to the title of viscount of Clanmaurice.
A member of the Liberal Party, in 1868, Gladstone appointed him Lord of the Treasury, a position he left to take over the under-secretary of war between 1872 and 1874, and later from India in 1880.
Biography of Marquis of Lansdowne
- First Holder:- William Petty-Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne
- Armorial Moto:- Virtute non verbis (By courage, not words)
- Seat(s):- Bowood House
- Former Seat(s):- Lansdowne House
- Peerage:- Peerage of Great Britain
- Present Holder:- Charles Petty-FitzMaurice, 9th Marquess of Lansdowne
- Heir Apparent:- Simon Petty-Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry
Three years later, in 1883, he was appointed Governor of Canada, and remained in office until 1888, at which time he reached an agreement with the most independent rebel Indian tribes, to which he granted the right to speak French language to facilitate the acceptance of British rule.
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In spite of its liberal affiliation, under the new cabinet of the conservative Salisbury was named virrey of India, between 1888 and 1893, where it carried out an enormous reformist work at all the levels of the colony, administrative, judicial, military and cultural, Consolidating even more if the colony fits.
It founded an imperial library and a file, abolished the armed presidential system, abruptly closed all mints that coined silver freely and without any control, reorganized the police force, completely reformed the legislation Of the councils providing their members with rights to discuss municipal financial policy, and significantly increased the rail network and irrigation systems in the countryside.
His entire period as governor was marked by peace with the surrounding states, except for a brief period of wars he held with the independent state of Manipur, whose leader Tikendrajit was eventually taken prisoner and executed.
He also succeeded in converting the independent kingdom of Sikkim, whose boundaries reached the foothills of Tibet, into a British protectorate in 1888. In 1892, the Afghan territories of Hunza and Nagar were annexed to the Hindu colony.
Named for Salisbury in 1895, Secretary of War, his performance was not very fortunate by the way he led the Boer War in South Africa. After a remodeling of the conservative cabinet carried out in the year 1900, Henry Charles acceded to the position of Secretary of Foreign Affairs after happening to the conservative party, position that returned to play under the presidency of the also conservative Balfour, between years 1902 and 1905.
A period in which he brought to a successful conclusion the rapprochement with France , which later led to the creation of the Cordial Entente.
From 1906 to 1910 Lansdowne served as head of the conservative minority in the House of Lords. Minister without Portfolio between 1915 and 1916, with the Government of Asquith, the following year published his only work under the title of Lansdowne’s Letter.
