English aristocrat and politician Archibald Primrose the 5th Earl of Rosebery, was BOTD in 1847. His father, the, son of the 4th Earl, died before Archibald was four, making him heir to the title. He studied at Eton College and later at Oxford University, but left without receiving a degree. In 1868, aged 21, he succeeded to the earldom, inheriting extensive estates in Scotland. He joined the Liberal Party, serving in the governments of Lord Gladstone as under-secretary of state in the Home Office, and later as Lord Privy Seal and secretary for foreign affairs. In 1878, he married the banking heiress Hannah de Rothschild in 1878, with whom he had four children, remaining together until her death from typhoid in 1890. In 1894, he succeeded Gladstone as Prime Minister. His premiership was a disaster, beset with infighting and the failure of all proposed legislation, leading to his resignation in 1895. He eventually distanced himself from the Liberal Party, retiring to write a series of political biographies. His resignation is thought to have been prompted by a sex scandal involving his parliamentary private secretary Lord Francis Douglas. In 1894, Francis died in a hunting accident that may have been suicide. Francis’ father, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry, led a sustained vendetta against Rosebery, accusing him of corrupting Francis and threatened to expose him as a sodomite unless the government prosecuted Oscar Wilde, the lover of Queensberry’s younger son Lord Alfred Douglas. Rosebery’s resignation, timed just three months after Francis’ death and a month after Wilde’s conviction for gross indecency, was arguably an attempt to avoid exposure and career ruin. Rosebery died in 1929, after the death of his eldest son and a prolonged illness. He was 82.