Lionel de Rothschild

The Right Honourable Lionel de Rothschild
Member of Parliament for the City of London
In office 1869 – 1874
Member of Parliament for the City of London
In office 1847 – 1868
Personal details
Born	22 November 1808 London, England
Died	3 June 1879 (aged 70) London, England
Resting place	Willesden Jewish Cemetery, Brent, London
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Charlotte von Rothschild (m. 1836)
Religion	Jewish

Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (22 November 1808 – 3 June 1879) was a British banker, politician and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England. He became the first practising Jew to sit as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

Life and career

The son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Hanna Barent Cohen, he was a member of the prominent Rothschild family. He was born in London, where his father had founded the British branch of the Europe-wide family.

In his earlier years, he studied at the University of Göttingen, before embarking on an apprenticeship in the family business in London, Paris and Frankfurt. Lionel was admitted to the family partnership in 1836 at a family gathering in Frankfurt.^[1]

Like his father, he was a Freiherr (Baron) of the Austrian Empire, but unlike his father he used the title in British society. In 1838, Queen Victoria authorized the use of this Austrian title in the United Kingdom.^[2]

Prime Minister Gladstone proposed to Queen Victoria that he be made a British peer. She demurred, saying that titling a Jew would raise antagonism and furthermore it would be unseemly to reward a man whose vast wealth was based on what she called "a species of gambling" rather than legitimate trade. However, in 1885 the Queen did raise Rothschild's son Nathan to the peerage; he became the first Jewish member of the House of Lords.^[3]

Banker

Rothschild was responsible for raising large sums for the government, especially in the Crimean war, and for philanthropic relief of the victims of the Great Irish Famine. On 1 January 1847, he founded the British Relief Association, alongside Stephen Spring Rice, John Abel Smith and other notable aristocrats. The Association went on to raise £500,000, and was the largest private provider of relief during the Irish Famine and Highland Potato Famine. In 1861, in protest at the suppression of the Polish uprisings, he (initially) refused to contract a loan to Russia.^[4] His most famous undertaking was financing the government's purchase of the Suez Canal shares from Egypt for £4 million.^[5]

Parliament

Lionel Nathan de Rothschild introduced in the House of Commons on 26 July 1858 by Lord John Russell and Mr John Abel Smith by Henry Barraud, 1872.

Lionel de Rothschild, by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, 1835

In 1847, Lionel de Rothschild was first elected to the British House of Commons as one of four Members of Parliament for the City of London constituency. Because Jews were at that point still barred from sitting in the chamber due to the Christian oath required to be sworn in, Prime Minister Lord John Russell introduced a Jewish Disabilities Bill to remove the problem with the oath. In 1848, the bill was approved by the House of Commons but was twice rejected by the House of Lords. After being rejected again by the Upper House in 1849, Rothschild resigned his seat and stood again winning in a by-election to strengthen his claim.

In 1850, he entered the House of Commons to take his seat but refused to swear on a Christian Bible asking to use only the Old Testament. This was permitted but when omitting the words "upon the true faith of a Christian" from the oath he was required to leave.

In 1851, a new Jewish Disabilities Bill was defeated in the House of Lords. In the 1852 general election, Rothschild was again elected but the next year the bill was again defeated in the upper house.

Finally, in 1858, the House of Lords agreed to a proposal to allow each house to decide its own oath. On 26 July 1858, Rothschild took the oath with covered head, substituting "so help me, Jehovah" for the ordinary form of oath, and thereupon took his seat as the first Jewish member of Parliament. He was re-elected in general elections in 1859 and 1865, but defeated in 1868; he was returned unopposed in a by-election in 1869 but defeated a second time in the general election in 1874.

Personal life and family

A patron of thoroughbred horse racing, under the assumed name of Mr Acton, his colt "Sir Bevys" won the 1879 Epsom Derby.^[6]

In 1836, Lionel de Rothschild married his first cousin Baroness Charlotte von Rothschild (1819–1884), the daughter of Baron Carl Mayer Rothschild of the Rothschild banking family of Naples. They had the following children:

1. Leonora (1837–1911)
2. Evelina (1839–1866)
3. Nathan Mayer (1840–1915)
4. Alfred Charles (1842–1918)
5. Leopold (1845–1917)

Illness and death

Lionel de Rothschild suffered from gout for more than 20 years, and used a wheelchair. Nevertheless, he continued to work, entertain guests and travel back and forth to his country home. He suffered a seizure on 3 June 1879 and died the next morning at his city home at 148 Piccadilly in London, aged 70. His body was interred in the Willesden Jewish Cemetery in the North London suburb of Willesden.^[7][8]:80[6]

See also

• History of the Jews in England
• Electoral firsts in the United Kingdom

Notes

1. There had been Members of Parliament of Jewish origin since Sampson Gideon in 1770, but all had been obliged to convert to Christianity.

References

1. "Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1808-1879) - Rothschild Family". Retrieved 21 July 2016.
2. Bulletins of State Intelligence, 1838, p. 220
3. Loades 2003.
4. J. F. Kutolowsky, "British Economic Interests and the Polish Uprising, 1861-1864." The Polish Review. Vol 29, no. 4, (1984), p. 9.
5. Wilson 1988.
6. "Death of Baron Rothschild". The Cornishman (48). 12 June 1879. p. 7.
7. "The Late Baron Lionel de Rothschild". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 4 June 1879. p. 10.
8. Roth 1939.

Sources

• Loades, David, ed. (2003). Reader's guide to British history (2nd ed.). New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 1138–1139. ISBN 1579582427.

• Roth, Cecil (2010) [1939]. The Magnificent Rothschilds (facsimile reprint ed.). Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1164500780.

• Wilson, Derek (1988). Rothschild: A Story of Wealth and Power. Andre Deutsch Ltd. ISBN 978-0233979991.

Further reading

• Davis, Richard (1983). The English Rothschilds. Collins. ISBN 978-0002162128.

• Ferguson, Niall (1998). The World's Banker: The history of the House of Rothschild (2 vols.). W & N. ISBN 978-0297815396.

• Weintraub, Stanley (2003). Charlotte and Lionel: A Rothschild Love Story. Simon & Schuster Ltd. ISBN 978-0743219914.

• See also the list of references at: Rothschild banking family of England

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lionel de Rothschild
• Portraits of Lionel de Rothschild at the National Portrait Gallery, London