As a teenager he accompanied his father to the 1876–1877
Constantinople Conference and a year later to the
Congress of Berlin. He lost his seat at the
general election of the latter year. He was elected for
Rochester at a by-election in 1893, continuing as MP there until 1903, and was in command when the battalion saw active service in
South Africa from March to November 1900, during the
Second Boer War. The battalion, numbering 24 officers and 483 men, left
Queenstown on 27 February in the transport
Goorkha, with Lord Cranborne as the senior officer in command, arriving in
Cape Town the following month. He received the
Queen's South Africa Medal and was appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Bath (CB) for his service during the war. In July 1902 he received the
Honorary Freedom of the
borough of Hertford in recognition of his service during the war. He was still in command of the battalion on the outbreak of
World War I. In 1903 he was sworn of the
Privy Council. In December 1908, he was appointed a
deputy lieutenant of
Hertfordshire. From 1906, following his uncle, he served as Chairman of the Canterbury House of Laymen. He continued as a committed and eager member of the
Territorial Army: he was Honorary Colonel of
86th (East Anglian) (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, and of
48th (South Midland) Divisional Engineers. and became one of the most prominent opponents of
Indian Home Rule in the Lords, supporting the campaign waged in the
House of Commons by
Winston Churchill against the Home Rule legislation. Salisbury was part of two parliamentary deputations which called on the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Neville Chamberlain, in the autumn of 1936 to remonstrate with them about the slow pace of British rearmament in the face of the growing threat from Nazi Germany. The delegation was led by
Sir Austen Chamberlain, a former Foreign Secretary and its most prominent speakers included
Winston Churchill,
Leo Amery and
Roger Keyes. The Marquess of Salisbury was
Lord High Steward at the
coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. ==Marriage and children==