Arthur Balfour

The Right Honourable Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC (25 July 1848–19 March 1930) was a British statesman and the thirty-third Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Later Career

After the disaster of 1905 Balfour remained party leader, and made the controversial decision, with Lord Lansdowne, to use the heavily Unionist House of Lords as an active check on the Liberal party. Numerous pieces of reforming legislation were vetoed or mangled by amendment between 1906 and 1909, leading David Lloyd George to remark that the Lords had become "not the watchdog of the Constitution, but Mr. Balfour's poodle." The issue was eventually forced by the Liberals with Lloyd George's famous People's Budget, provoking the constitutional crisis that eventually led the Parliament Act of 1911, which eliminated the Lord's veto power. Exhausted, Balfour resigned as party leader after the crisis, and was succeeded by Andrew Bonar Law.

Related Topics:
Lord Lansdowne - House of Lords - David Lloyd George - Liberals - Parliament Act - Andrew Bonar Law

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He remained an important figure within the party, however, and when the Unionists joined Asquith's coalition government in May 1915, Balfour succeeded Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty. When Asquith's government collapsed in December, 1916, Balfour became Foreign Secretary in Lloyd George's new war cabinet, but was not included in the Cabinet, and was frequently left out of the loop. Balfour's service as Foreign Secretary was most notable for the issuance of the so-called Balfour Declaration of 1917, a letter to Lord Rothschild promising the Jews a "national home" in Palestine. Balfour resigned as foreign secretary following the Versailles Conference in 1919, but continued on in the government (and now, the cabinet) as Lord President of the Council until 1922, when he, along with most of the Conservative leadership, resigned with Lloyd George's government following the Conservative back-bencher revolt that put Law into office.

Related Topics:
Asquith - Winston Churchill - First Lord of the Admiralty - Foreign Secretary - Balfour Declaration - Palestine - Lord President of the Council - 1922

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In 1922 Balfour was created Earl of Balfour and in 1925 once again returned to the Cabinet, serving as Lord President of the Council in Stanley Baldwin's second government. Balfour died in 1930.

Related Topics:
Lord President of the Council - Stanley Baldwin

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Lord Balfour's estate was probated 76,433 pounds sterling on August 27, 1930.

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