Although he presided over a large majority, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was overshadowed by his ministers, most notably Herbert Henry Asquith at the Exchequer, Edward Grey at the Foreign Office, Richard Burdon Haldane at the War Office and David Lloyd George at the Board of Trade.

In a break with precedent, Edward asked Campbell-Bannerman's successor, H. H. Asquith, to travel to Biarritz to kiss hands.

In the last year of his life, Edward became embroiled in a constitutional crisis when the Conservative majority in the House of Lords refused to pass the " People's Budget " proposed by the Liberal government of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith.

After the Conservative government of Arthur Balfour fell in December 1905 there was some speculation that Asquith and his allies Richard Haldane and Sir Edward Grey would refuse to serve unless Campbell-Bannerman accepted a peerage, which would have left Asquith as the real leader in the House of Commons.

But in that debate Asquith hinted – to ensure the support of the Irish MPs-that he would ask the King to break the deadlock “ in that Parliament ” ( i. e. hinting that he would ask for the mass creation of peers, contrary to King Edward ’ s earlier stipulation that there be a second election ).

King Edward VII died on 6 May 1910 ( so heated had passions become that Asquith was accused of having " Killed the King " through stress ).

Campbell-Bannerman also faced problems within his own party, through the so called " Relugas Compact " between H. H. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey and Richard Haldane, who planned to force him into the House of Lords, weakening him as Prime Minister and effectively allowing Asquith to govern as Leader of the House of Commons.

Its members included: Lady Diana Manners, the most famous beauty in England ; Duff Cooper who became a Conservative politician and a diplomat ; Raymond Asquith, son of the Prime Minister and a famed barrister ; Maurice Baring ; Patrick Shaw-Stewart, a managing director of Barings Bank and war poet ; Nancy Cunard and her friend Iris Tree ; Edward Horner and Sir Denis Anson.

Haldane was an ally of Herbert Henry Asquith and Sir Edward Grey-on the Liberal Imperialist wing of the party, followers of Lord Rosebery rather than of Sir William Harcourt.

After the Conservative government of Arthur Balfour fell in December 1905 there was some speculation that Herbert Henry Asquith and his allies Haldane and Sir Edward Grey would refuse to serve unless Campbell-Bannerman accepted a peerage, which would have left Asquith as the real leader in the House of Commons.

Raymond Bonham Carter, second son of Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, was a banker and the father of the noted actress Helena Bonham Carter and of Edward Bonham Carter.

* Julian Edward George Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith ( 1916-2011 )

Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, considered still a moderate in 1911, was willing to “ study the map of Africa in a pro-German spirit .” Britain further recognized that Germany really had little of value to offer in territorial transactions, however, advice to Grey and Prime Minister H. H. Asquith hardened by early 1914 “ to stop the trend of what the advisers considered Germany ’ s taking and Britain ’ s giving .”

During the 1900s and 1910s, many Liberal politicians took up the ideology of Liberal Imperialism, led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer ( H. H. Asquith ), the Secretary of State for War ( Richard Haldane ) and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ( Sir Edward Grey ).

Lord Loreburn's disagreements with Lord Haldane, Sir Edward, Asquith, and eventually Lloyd George became more prominent, and it seemed that the Imperialists would get their way and force British military action onto the Continent.

Julian Edward George Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith KCMG ( 22 April 1916 – 16 January 2011 ) was a British colonial administrator.

* The end of Nicholas Meyer's 1993 novel The Canary Trainer tie into " His Last Bow ", with Edward Grey and H. H. Asquith approaching Holmes to request he come out of retirement to investigate a man named Von Bork.

He was the brother of Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner and Margot Asquith ( and hence the brother-in-law of H. H. Asquith ) and the half-brother of Baroness Elliot of Harwood.

The Liberal Party from Earl Grey to Asquith ( 1963 )

However, the plot ( called the " Relugas Compact " after the Scottish lodge where the men met ) collapsed when Asquith agreed to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Campbell-Bannerman ( Grey became Foreign Secretary and Haldane Secretary of State for War ).

Campbell-Bannerman saw off both of these issues by immediately dissolving Parliament and calling a general election, whilst offering the positions of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for War to Asquith, Grey and Haldane respectively, which all three accepted.

He was appointed as Governor General of Canada in 1911 by his nephew, King George V, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom H. H. Asquith, to replace the Earl Grey as viceroy, occupying the post until succeeded by the Duke of Devonshire in 1916.

Asquith, Lloyd George, Grey, Churchill, and Haldane thought they could force the rest of the Cabinet into their eventual goals, but they were sorely mistaken.

Grey circulated the paper to the Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman, Asquith, Ripon and Morley but there is no evidence either way that any of them either read or were influenced by the argument.

At this time the Liberal Party was badly split as Herbert Henry Asquith, Richard Burdon Haldane and others were supporters of the war and formed the Liberal Imperial League.

It was at Lincoln's Inn that in 1882 Asquith met Richard Haldane, whom he would appoint as Lord Chancellor in 1912.

Haldane ( 1892 – 1964 ), but in her youth her paternal uncle Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, twice Lord Chancellor ( from 1912-1915 under Herbert Henry Asquith, and in 1924 during the first Labour government of Ramsay Macdonald ), was better known.

He was so depressed at the tone of class warfare – although Asquith told him that party rancour had been just as bad over the First Home Rule Bill in 1886 – that he introduced the Prince of Wales to War Minister Haldane as " the last King of England ".

By autumn 1915, with Asquith ’ s Coalition close to breaking up over conscription, he was blamed for the failure to bring in that measure and for the excessive influence which civilians like Churchill and Haldane had come to exert over strategy, allowing ad hoc campaigns to develop in Sinai, Mesopotamia and Salonika.

Future Liberal Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, described him as one of the three or four greatest men of the 19th century, while Lord Haldane described him as the strongest man the British House of Commons had seen in 150 years.

As the war progressed, Haldane moved increasingly close to the Labour Party but he was held back by his ties to the Liberal Party and to Asquith.

Many of Esher ’ s recommendations were implemented under the new Liberal governments of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Herbert Henry Asquith by Haldane, Secretary of State for War, assisted by Esher's protege the young Major-General Douglas Haig.

During the election campaign Lloyd George talked of " guarantees " and Asquith of " safeguards " that would be necessary before forming another Liberal government, but the King informed Asquith that he would not be willing to contemplate creating peers ( to give the Liberals a majority in the Lords ) until after a second general election.

During the election campaign Lloyd George talked of “ guarantees ” and Asquith ( in his Albert Hall Speech, December 1909 ) of “ safeguards ” which would be necessary before forming another Liberal government, but in fact the King informed Asquith that he would not even be willing to contemplate creating peers until after a second General Election.

He became a Knight Bachelor in 1910 and was active in Liberal politics, forming a strong friendship with Asquith.

Following a Cabinet split on 25 May 1915, caused by the Shell Crisis ( or sometimes dubbed ' The Great Shell Shortage ') and the failed offensive at the 1915 Battle of Gallipoli, Asquith became head of a new coalition government, bringing senior figures from the Opposition into the Cabinet.

* 1908 – H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman

This shift was best exemplified by the Liberal government of Herbert Henry Asquith and his Chancellor David Lloyd George, whose Liberal reforms in the early 1900s created a basic welfare state.

Asquith and his followers moved to the opposition benches in Parliament and the Liberal Party was split once again.

Lloyd George and the Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law wrote a joint letter of support to candidates to indicate they were considered the official Coalition candidates – this " coupon " as it became known was issued against many sitting Liberal MPs, often to devastating effect, though not against Asquith himself.

But instead of trying to force the opportunity to form a Liberal government, Asquith decided instead to allow Labour the chance of office in the belief that they would prove incompetent and this would set the stage for a revival of Liberal fortunes at Labour's expense.

* 1906 – Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet ( which included amongst its members H. H. Asquith, David Lloyd George, and Winston Churchill ) embarks on sweeping social reforms after a Liberal landslide in the British general election.

* 1915 – The last British Liberal Party government ( led by Herbert Henry Asquith ) falls.

This led to the Shell Crisis of 1915 which brought down both the Liberal government and Premiership of H. H. Asquith.

During the Great War the Liberal Party split into those led by former Premier Herbert Henry Asquith and the new Premier David Lloyd George.

In his first major speech after he had lost his seat in the 1918 general election, Asquith said: " That is the purpose and the spirit of Liberalism, as I learned it as a student in my young days, as I was taught it both by the precept and the example of the great Liberal statesman Mr Gladstone ... that remains the same today.

Asquith replied to this speech at the National Liberal Club: "... keep faithful to your old traditions ... Think, in a situation such as this, and with appeals such as those which have been made to our fellow Liberals outside, what would have been the attitude of Mr Gladstone.

* May 17 – The last purely Liberal government in the United Kingdom ends when Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith forms an all party coalition.

The King was displeased at Liberal attacks on the peers, including Lloyd George's Limehouse speech and Churchill's public demand for a general election ( for which Asquith apologised to the King's adviser Lord Knollys and rebuked Churchill at a Cabinet meeting ).

Although old-age pensions had already been introduced by Asquith as Chancellor, Lloyd George was largely responsible for the introduction of state financial support for the sick and infirm ( known colloquially as " going on the Lloyd George " for decades afterwards ) — legislation often referred to as the Liberal reforms.

The fall of Asquith as Prime Minister split the Liberal Party into two factions: those who supported him and those who supported the coalition government.

( The independent Liberal parliamentary leadership was briefly taken over by the unknown Donald Maclean until Asquith, who had lost his seat like other leading Liberals, returned to the House at a by-election ).