Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1808–1879) was a baron of the Habsburg Empire and head of the London branch of the prominent Rothschild banking family in the mid-nineteenth century. Apart from his financial undertakings he was also known as a philanthropist. Elected to parliament for the first time in 1847, he was not permitted to take his seat as the first Jewish member of parliament until 1858, owning to his ‘disability’ to swear the Christian oath that parliament required until that year. A pamphlet in 1847 suggested that ‘Rothschild stands in the same position to the Jews as O’Connell did in reference to the Catholics; and a similar victory awaits his speedy and tranquil efforts’. Rothschild served as a reticent member of parliament. In his fifteen years in the House of Commons, his only oral contribution—a short parliamentary question to the chancellor of the exchequer—was recorded in 1860. Nevertheless, he was re-elected three times as an MP for the City of London.
