I beg to acknowledge the gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen to make use of papers in the Royal Archives at Windsor.

This book involves an attempt to break through the level of explanatory generalisation about politics established by a number of Edwardian writers and subsequently too often accepted as an undemanding norm. As such, it is based overwhelmingly and in unrepentant detail on the private papers of the individuals involved. For permission to consult, and quote from, their collections of manuscripts I have therefore particularly to thank the Duke of Beaufort; the Duke of Bedford; the Duke of Buccleuch; the Duke of Devonshire and the Trustees of the Ghatsworth Settlement; the Duke of Newcastle; the Marquess of Bute; Earl Fitzwilliam and the Wentworth Woodhouse Trustees; the Earl of Harrowby and the Trustees of the Harrowby MSS Trust; the Earl of Lonsdale; the Earl of Mansfield; Earl and Countess Waldegrave; Col Sir John Carew-Pole, Bt; Mr Michael Bond; Mrs D. C. Bruton; Captain J. D. G. Fortescue; Mr R. Money-Kyrle; Mr Victor Montagu; Mr Jasper More; Mr D. W. H. Neilson; Mr F. H. M. FitzRoy Newdegate; Mr D. G. D. Ryder; Mr A. B. Starky; Mr L. G. Stopford-Sackville; and Mr Simon Wingfield-Digby.