James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury

James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury, GCB, PC (25 March 1807 – 17 May 1889), styled Viscount FitzHarris from 1820 to 1841, was a British statesman of the Victorian era.

The Right Honourable
The Earl of Malmesbury
GCB PC
The 3rd Earl of Malmesbury, c. 1867
Leader of the House of Lords
In office
27 February 1868 – 1 December 1868
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterBenjamin Disraeli
Preceded byThe Earl of Derby
Succeeded byThe Earl Granville
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office
21 February 1874 – 12 August 1876
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterBenjamin Disraeli
Preceded byThe Viscount Halifax
Succeeded byThe Earl of Beaconsfield
In office
6 July 1866 – 1 December 1868
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Earl of Derby
Benjamin Disraeli
Preceded byThe Duke of Argyll
Succeeded byThe Earl of Kimberley
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office
26 February 1858 – 18 June 1859
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Earl of Derby
Preceded byThe Earl of Clarendon
Succeeded byLord John Russell
In office
27 February 1852 – 28 December 1852
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Earl of Derby
Preceded byThe Earl Granville
Succeeded byLord John Russell
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
11 September 1841 – 17 May 1889
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byThe 2nd Earl of Malmesbury
Succeeded byThe 4th Earl of Malmesbury
Member of Parliament
for Wilton
In office
22 July 1841 – 10 September 1841
Preceded byEdward Baker
Succeeded byJames Agar
Personal details
Born25 March 1807 (2023-10-21UTC16:43:18)
Died17 May 1889 (1889-05-18) (aged 82)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)1 Lady Corisande Emma Bennet (d. 1876)
(2) Susan Hamilton (d. 1935)
Alma materOriel College, Oxford

Background and education

James Howard Harris was born on 25 March 1807 in London, the eldest son and heir of James Harris, 2nd Earl of Malmesbury, and his wife, Harriet Susan Dashwood, daughter of Francis Bateman Dashwood, of Well Vale, Lincolnshire, and his wife, Teresa March, daughter of John March, of Willeslet Park, Cambridgeshire.[1] Having been educated privately, he went to Eton College, a Public school, and Oriel College, Oxford, graduating from the latter in 1828 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[2][3] In the years that followed his graduation, he went travelling around Europe and making acquaintance with aristocratic circles, becoming familiar with Prince Louis Napoleon, who would later become Napoleon III of France.[2]

Family

Harris married, firstly, on 13 May 1876, Lady Corisande Emma Bennet, daughter of Charles Augustus Bennet, 5th Earl of Tankerville, and his wife Corisanda, daughter of Antoine, duc de Gramont and sister of Agenor, duc de Gramont, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs for France in 1870.[4] She died in 1876.[1] After the death of his first wife, Malmesbury married a second time, on 1 November 1880, to Susan Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton of Fyne Court, Somerset.[1]

Political career
Caricature of James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury, by Carlo Pellegrini, c. 1874

In 1841 he had only just been elected to the House of Commons for Wilton as a Conservative, when his father died and he succeeded to the peerage. Malmesbury served as Foreign Secretary under the Earl of Derby in 1852 and again from 1858 to 1859 and was also Lord Privy Seal under Derby and Benjamin Disraeli between 1866 and 1868 and under Disraeli between 1874 and 1876. In 1852 he was admitted to the Privy Council. He was regarded as an influential Tory of the old school in the House of Lords at a time when Lord Derby and Disraeli were, in their different ways, moulding the Conservatism of the period.

In his two brief terms as foreign secretary, Malmesbury pursued a cautious, Conservative policy. His friendship with the exiled Louis Napoleon helped lead to quick British acquiescence in the Prince-President's decision to restore the Empire in 1852, but did not prevent Malmesbury from pursuing a policy relatively sympathetic to Austria during the crisis leading up to the Italian War of 1859. Malmesbury was particularly horrified by the behaviour of Cavour, and at the fact that a small country like Piedmont was able so easily to threaten the European peace.

His long life, and the publication of his Memoirs of an Ex-Minister in 1884, contributed to his reputation. The Memoirs, charmingly written, full of anecdote, and containing much interesting material for the history of the time, remain his chief title to remembrance. Lord Malmesbury also edited his grandfather's Diaries and Correspondence (1844), and in 1870 published The First Lord Malmesbury and His Friends.

Personal life

Lord Malmesbury died childless in May 1889, aged 82, and was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew, Edward Harris.

References

Rex Factor Podcast. S1. Eps. 54-58 (56/57 specifically)

Citations
  1. G.E. Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 5, p. 203
  2. D. Steele, "Harris, James Howard, third earl of Malmesbury (1807–1889)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
  3. J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: 1715–1886, vol. ii, 1887, p. 613
  4. G.E. Cokayne, Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 5, p. 203 ; ODNB

Bibliography
  • Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Malmesbury, James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 493.

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