To be born into a great family that has served the nation since the times of the first Elizabeth may be sufficient explanation of the continued prominence of family members in government and in the affairs of the Conservative party. Yet, as we discover more of the part played in our own affairs by our genetic make-up, it is permissible to wonder whether there is some persisting blend of inherited talent and environment that continues to propel the Cecils into the forefront of political life. The 6th Marquess, largely thanks to illness, was something of an exception, but even he became an MP and subsequently contributed to right wing politics as President of the Monday Club and as a member of the House of Lords.
The first Cecil that can be traced was elected to the Commons as the Member for Stamford after fighting for Henry VII at Bosworth, but the family owes its prominence to Elizabeth I's close adviser, William, Lord Burghley. Both his sons were elevated into the peerage, but it was the descendants of the younger son, Robert, first Earl of Salisbury, successively first minister to Elizabeth and to James I, who contributed more to English political life. The 7th Earl was elevated to the Marquessate for his political services and his son served in the two brief Derby Governments in 1852 and 1858-9. However, it was the infusion of Gascoyne genes in the 19th century that led to the most remarkable accentuation of the Cecil contribution to national politics. Robert, the 3rd Marquess, was elevated to the Cabinet by Disraeli, and subsequently became Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister.
Two of his sons, the 4th Marquess and his brother, Lord Robert Cecil, served in the Cabinet and he was succeeded as Prime Minister by his nephew, Arthur Balfour. The 5th Marquess had already been elevated to the peerage in his own right to lead the Lords during the Second World War and he served in the postwar Cabinets of Churchill, Eden and Macmillan, before resigning in 1957. If his son preferred running the family estates to an active political life, his grandson more than compensated through service in John Major's Cabinet as leader of the Lords, like his grandfather a peer in his father's lifetime.