Eustace Balfour of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. His paternal grandfather James Balfour was a nabob who had made the family's fortune as a contractor supplying the Royal Navy in India and became a Tory Member of Parliament (MP), while his mother's father was a Conservative cabinet minister in the 1850s. Her brother, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Lord Salisbury, was three times Prime Minister before being succeeded in 1902 by Eustace's elder brother Arthur Balfour. Eustace Balfour was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1873. He then studied architecture under Basil Champneys, the designer of Newnham
Prime minister in whom they placed special trust and who were regarded as the head of the government. Examples were Thomas Cromwell under Henry VIII; William Cecil, Lord Burghley under Elizabeth I; Clarendon under Charles II and Godolphin under Queen Anne. These ministers held a variety of formal posts, but were commonly known as "the minister", the "chief minister", the "first minister" and finally the "prime minister". The power of these ministers depended entirely on the personal favour of the monarch. Although managing the parliament was among the necessary skills of holding high office, they did not depend on a parliamentary majority