Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery (née de Rothschild; 27 July 1851 – 19 November 1890) was the daughter of Baron Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana (née Cohen). After inheriting her father's fortune in 1874, she became the richest woman in Britain. In 1878, Hannah de Rothschild married Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, and was thereafter known as the Countess of Rosebery.
During the final quarter of the 19th century, her husband, the Earl of Rosebery, was one of the most celebrated figures in Britain, an influential millionaire and politician, whose charm, wit, charisma and public popularity gave him such standing that he "almost eclipsed that of Royalty".McKinstry, p. 1. The Countess remains an enigmatic figure, and is often regarded as notable only for financing her husband's three ambitions: to marry an heiress, win The Derby, and become Prime Minister (the second and third of these possibly apocryphal ambitions were achieved after her death).McKinstry, p. 68, footnote 35, explains that there is no written record of the often quoted ambition. It is frequently thought to have been conceived at Eton. The author Robert Rhodes James in his biography of Rosebery (published in 1995; ) has argued that it is apocryphal. McKinstry (p. 540) considers that if it was conceived by Rosebery, he probably told it to Samuel Ward, the American political lobbyist, at a meeting of the Mendacious Club during the 1870s. The ambition is told as fact in Samuel Ward's biography Sam Ward, King of the Lobby by Lately Thomas, published in 1965 (Cambridge, Mass).
Her marriage into the aristocracy, while controversial at the time, gave her the social cachet in an antisemitic society that her vast fortune could not.Young, p. 18, in his authorised biography of Lady Rosebery's son states "Most people at the time (of Hannah Rosebery's marriage) were casually antisemitic, despite the Prince of Wales hob-nobbing with Jewish financiers". She subsequently became a political hostess and philanthropist. Her charitable work was principally in the sphere of public health and causes associated with the welfare of working-class Jewish women living in the poorer districts of London.
Having firmly assisted and supported her husband on his path, she suddenly died in 1890, aged 39.
Early years
Hannah de Rothschild was born in 1851 into a world of great wealth and luxury. She was the granddaughter of Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild, who had founded N M Rothschild & Sons, the English branch of the Rothschilds' banking empire. Niall Ferguson states in his History of the House of Rothschild that by the mid-19th century the Rothschilds regarded themselves as the nearest thing the Jews of Europe had to a royal family, and the equals of royalty.Ferguson, p. 771. The many Rothschild houses and art collections, in England, Austria, France, and Germany, rivalled those of the crowned heads of Europe, Mentmore in particular being one of the most outstanding art collections of its kind anywhere in the world.Mentmore; Sir Frances Watson KCVO; Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co, London, 1977
Hannah de Rothschild's father Baron Meyer Amschel de Rothschild married his cousin Juliana Cohen in 1850. The marriage provided the impetus for Meyer to create what he described as "an enduring monument",Robinson, p. 5. a country house of monumental proportions. His daughter Hannah, aged just five months, helped lay the foundation stone on 31 December 1851.Robinson, SAVE Mentmore for the Nation, p. 5 reports her laying the foundation stone. The ceremony of laying of a foundation stone is purely ceremonial, and merely requires the person chosen to touch the stone with a trowel in hand.
Within a few years of the mansion's completion, attracted by the good hunting and proximity to London, Hannah's relatives began to build estates nearby, all within a carriage drive of each other; thus, Hannah grew up in an almost private world of unimaginable splendour and security. Nikolaus Pevsner described this enclave of Rothschild properties as "the most conspicuous and significant aspect of Victorian architecture in Buckinghamshire". In addition to Mentmore, Baron and Baroness Meyer de Rothschild had a large house in London, 107 Piccadilly, and The Zenaide, a luxurious yacht, upon which Hanna's mother died in 1877, the year before her marriage.Cardiff Times; Saturday 7 February 1874Deirdre, Lady Rosebery, p. 28.Deidre, Lady Rosebery, in her history of Dalmeny House gives the name of the yacht as Zenaide; however, contemporary reports of Baroness Meyer's death name the yacht as Czarina (see:Cheltenham Looker-On – Saturday 17 March 1877). Several items of table silver from the yacht in the Mentmore sale of 1977, were also engraved "Czarina" (See Mentmore Vol II; p. 220). The yacht was later brought by Mr Albert Brassy (See: Northern Whig – Monday 6 September 1886)
She was a companion to her hypochondriac mother and, in later life, a hostess with her father during her mother's long periods of indisposition. Hannah was indulged by both parents and her formal education was neglected in favour of music and singing lessons, subjects in which she was 'skilled' and had a 'decided gift'.Reminiscences, Battersea, Constance, Alpha Edition, 2019. p. 51 Her parents were very protective of her, attempting to ensure that she was never exposed to the risk of sickness or even the sight of poverty. As a result, she was never allowed to enter the cottages on the Rothschilds' estates.McKinstry, p. 69, quotes Hannah's cousin Constance de Rothschild (the wife of Lord Battersea) as saying "She was never allowed to enter a cottage, to go where sickness and sorrow dwelt." Lady Battersea claimed that Hannah was so sheltered that the phrase "'the poor'" was "merely a phraseology for her".McKinstry, p. 70 Whatever the faults of her education, she possessed great confidence, impressing her Rothschild relations, who noted her poise and competence when she hosted a large house party at Mentmore for the Prince of Wales while only 17 years of age. A year later, in 1869, Hannah made her formal entrance into society as a debutante, when she was presented to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace by her mother.London Evening Standard – Wednesday 12 May 1869
Mayer Amschel de Rothschild died in 1874, leaving his daughter not only Mentmore (with its priceless art collection), his London mansion, and innumerable investments, but also the sum of two million pounds sterling in cash (equivalent to £ in present-day terms). Thus, Hannah de Rothschild became the wealthiest woman in England.Cowles, p. 145
Betrothal
Hannah de Rothschild was first introduced to her future husband, the 28-year-old Earl of Rosebery, by Lady Beaconsfield, the wife of Benjamin Disraeli, at Newmarket Racecourse.Crewe, p. 115. The Disraelis were close friends and neighbours of the Rothschilds in Buckinghamshire.The Disraelis owned Hughenden Manor, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. In 1901 Rosebery, in an interview with the Daily Mail, claimed to have met Hannah when their carriages crashed and he 'sprang out and saved her'; however, this version of their meeting is believed to be a romanticised fabrication of Rosebery's.McKinstry, p. 67
Archibald, 5th Earl of Rosebery, born in 1847, had inherited his title from his grandfather in 1868, aged 21, together with an income of £30,000 a year. He owned 40,000 acres (160 km2) in Scotland, and land in Norfolk, Hertfordshire, and Kent.Young p. 18. His father had died when he was eight and he had been brought up by his mother, who had subsequently married Harry Powlett, 4th Duke of Cleveland. His mother was a distant figure, and their relationship was always strained. The Earls of Rosebery, whose family name was Primrose, were old, if undistinguished, members of the Scottish aristocracy. Rosebery was considered to be strikingly handsome and immensely cultivated. He was highly intelligent, and a brilliant future was forecast for him by his tutors at both Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.
As early as 1876, there were rumours of an engagement.Crewe, Vol 1, p. 119. However, several hurdles had to be overcome before a marriage could take place. While the Jewish Rothschilds were accepted into society, and indeed were close friends of some members of the royal family including the Prince of Wales, as elsewhere in Europe, antisemitic feelings were prevalent in the upper echelons of society; this was particularly so among those closest to the Queen at court where, following the death of the Prince Consort in 1861, the Rothschilds became pointedly excluded.Ferguson, p. 772. The Queen's equerry Arthur Edward Hardinge referred to the Rothschilds' dining tables as "resplendent with the Hebrew gold" going so far as to say a visiting Russian royal needed a "corrective" visit to Westminster Abbey following acceptance of Rothschild hospitality. Queen Victoria herself expressed antisemitic views in 1873 when it was proposed that Lionel de Rothschild be elevated to the peerage; the Queen refused, and expressed a reluctance to make a Jew a peer, saying that "to make a Jew a peer is a step she could not consent to" and furthermore stating that to give "a title and mark of her approbation to a Jew" was something she would not do.Two quotes by Queen Victoria from Ferguson, p. 773. Queen Victoria was eventually persuaded to elevate Hannah de Rothschild's cousin Nathaniel de Rothschild to the peerage in 1884. The present Lord Rothschild is his great-grandson. Ferguson p. 774 suggests that although the Queen admitted to an aversion "to making a person of the Jewish religion a peer" her true reasons were as much social and political as religious Lord Spencer advised the Prince and Princess of Wales against attending a Rothschild ball with the words "The Prince ought only to visit those of undoubted position in Society." However, this did not prevent the Prince from accepting Rothschild's invitations and gifts privately. While one could be friends with Jews and accept their hospitality, their social status was still not sufficiently elevated to include marriage into the peerage without unfavourable comment.McKinstry, p. 74 states:"Anti-Semitism was a powerful force in late Victorian England".
Rosebery's own mother was horrified at the thought of a Jewish woman, even a Rothschild, in the family.Young, p. 17. Rosebery too felt there was an impassable barrier of faith.Crewe, Vol 1, p. 118. This factor also worked in reverse; while Hannah de Rothschild was keen to marry Rosebery, she was also aware of many obstacles, the foremost being that she was devoted to her faith, and to leave it would be a severe moral wrench.Crewe, Vol 1, p. 116. Another obstacle was the Rothschild family itself: it was their custom to marry cousins to keep their fortune within the family. Ironically, Hannah herself had opposed the marriage of her cousin Annie de Rothschild to the Christian Eliot Constantine Yorke, the son of the Earl of Hardwicke, in 1866.Ferguson, p. 765. In fact, she was to be the third daughter of the family's English branch to marry outside of the Jewish faith,Cowles, p.146. but such was the fame of the bridegroom and the resultant publicity that the Jewish elders and press felt an example needed to be made. The Jewish Chronicle announced its "most poignant grief" at the prospect, and cryptically added, "If the flame seize on the cedars, how will fare the hyssop on the wall: if the leviathan is brought up with a hook, how will the minnows escape,"Jewish Chronicle, 5 October 1877.