Marquess of Salisbury is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain, held by a branch of the Cecil family.

In 1603 he was raised to the Peerage of England as Baron Cecil, of Essendon in the County of Rutland, and the following year he was created Viscount Cranborne.

He represented Weymouth in the House of Commons and also served as Captain of the Honourable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners and as Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire and Dorsetshire.

His great-grandson, the fourth Earl, converted to Roman Catholicism and in 1689 the House of Commons decided to impeach him for high treason.

Lord Salisbury is also remembered as an adherent of the policy of "splendid isolation", the desire to keep Great Britain out of European affairs and alliances.

Like his father he was regarded as a staunch Conservative and bitterly opposed the Parliament Act 1911, which sought to curtail the powers of the House of Lords.

Although he briefly represented Bournemouth West in Parliament he did not take such an active role in national politics as his predecessors.

Salisbury managed to obtain a compromise with the Labour government of Tony Blair, whereby 92 selected hereditary peers were allowed to remain on an interim basis.

Lord Eustace Cecil, fourth son of the second Marquess, was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army and Member of Parliament.

The traditional burial place of the marquesses is the Salisbury Chapel in St Etheldreda Church, Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Robert Edward William Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne (b.

He was born into a Welsh family, the third son of Richard Cecil ap Philip Seisyllt of Alt-yr-Ynys on the border of Herefordshire and Monmouthshire but settled near Stamford, Lincolnshire.