Prepared for ministerial success, a severe blow was struck to a burgeoning political career: his wife Sybil Marcia, daughter of Sir Frederick Ulric Graham, 3rd Baronet of Netherby, whom he had married on 3 June 1880, died suddenly in September 1887, still only thirty years old.

On 20 April 1899, he married an eighteen-year-old society beauty, Lady Margaret Etrenne Hannah Primrose, daughter of the former Prime Minister Lord Rosebery.

He made a personal friend out of H. H. Asquith, who was his political mainstay in the round of intrigues that intensified during the lead-up to the First World War.

He deplored David Lloyd George's Limehouse Speech in the east end of London in support of the People's Budget.

[3]: 153  Crewe could be haughty and coldly disapproving: alike to Grey he took a dim view of Lloyd George's People's Budget.

But when Churchill circulated a memorandum proposing the abolition of the Lords in 1910, Crewe remained essentially whiggish and cautious, blocking any attempt to change the bicameral relationship.

[4]: 189  The inconclusive outcome of the January 1910 election, which increased Unionist representation in the Commons, caused a wide-ranging debate on the constitutional implications of the Lords' powers.

Crewe was selected to face leading Tory Lord Cromer, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, in negotiation of the provisions of the Veto bill, which would give a whip hand to an elected Commons.

It was his colonial responsibilities from September 1910 as part of his terms as Secretary of State for India (1910–11 and 1911–15), for which he gained the hoped-for promotion in the peerage.

The Delhi Durbar was an invention of his genius for organization, designed to the last detail for the first British monarch in history to pay a visit to India.

Crewe served as Lord President of the Council again from May 1915, coming second in Asquith's rankings[7] and working closely with Lloyd George on currency and exchange rate stabilisation in the budget.

[citation needed] His home at Crewe House, Curzon Street in Mayfair became a centre for war propaganda.

He remained as ever, an Asquithian, declining office under Lloyd George, and after his resignation, he continued to lead the independent Liberal opposition in the House of Lords.

He maintained a leading role in the education sector, serving as Chairman of the Governing Body of Imperial College London (1907–22), and Chancellor of Sheffield University.

He had a very brief ten-week stint as Secretary of State for War in Ramsay MacDonald's National Coalition from August 1931, but did not hold office after the general election.

[8][9][incomplete short citation] Crewe himself tended to hesitate too long time with "pregnant pauses", as his speech became stilted.

[11] Always at ease in London High Society, Crewe hosted the dinner party at which Winston Churchill met Clementine Hozier.

Crewe voiced his support during his time in Parliament for numerous reforms, including old-age pensions,[12] an eight-hour day for miners,[13] and meal provisions for schoolchildren.

His meetings were often spontaneous and informal, but dominated by an aristocratic clique: Lloyd George recalled how in 1912 Crewe had tried at Deeside to resolve Ulster's longstanding problems with Bonar Law over a round of golf.

As Lady Crewe, she became one of the first seven women appointed as magistrates in 1919 following the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919.