第三代索爾斯伯利侯爵羅伯特·蓋斯科因-塞西爾

1854年，罗伯特·塞西尔勋爵首次入选下议院。1

1866年，他加入以德比伯爵为首的保守党政府，出任印度大臣。

1867年，本杰明·迪斯雷利引入扩大选民范围，赋予工人选举权的改革法令，塞西尔辞职抗议。

1868年，他因为父亲逝世，继承侯爵爵位，升入上议院。

1874年，迪斯雷利上台执政，梳士巴利加入政府，再次出任印度大臣。

1878年，他获任为外务大臣，到柏林参加会议，在会上扮演了重要角色，不过，他对迪斯雷利亲奥斯曼的政策有所保留。1880年，保守黨在大選中失利下台。

1881年，迪斯雷利逝世。梳士巴利因此取代了迪斯雷利，出任上議院保守黨領袖，而下議院保守黨領袖則由斯塔福德·諾斯古德爵士（Sir Stafford Northcote）出任。

1885年6月，自由黨黨魁威廉·格萊斯頓辭去首相職務，他因此取代格萊斯頓，上台執政至次年1月。下台後，梳士巴利與自由統一黨（分裂自自由黨）結成了聯盟，以反對格萊斯頓支持的愛爾蘭自治（Irish Home Rule）結果在同年7月的大選中勝出，再次上台執政。

1892年，雖然，自由統一黨在大選中取得了最多選票、最多席位，但是，格萊斯頓仍然能藉助愛爾蘭民族主義政黨的力量上台執政，組成弱勢政府。

1895年，自由黨在大選中遭到失敗，梳士巴利再次出任首相，任內對布爾人宣戰，開始了第二次佈爾戰爭。執政黨聯盟在1900年大選中取得了勝利，他一直擔任首相到1902年。

梳士巴利的繼任人是他的侄子阿瑟·貝爾福。梳士巴利在1903年逝世。

在英國和一些前英屬地國家，會用俚語「鮑伯是你舅舅」（英語：）來表達「這樣就成了」、「一點也不難」或「說明完畢」之類的意思。關於這個句子的由來，有說這是嘲諷阿瑟·貝爾福在1887年靠裙帶關係被索爾斯伯利選為愛爾蘭布政司[2][3] 。

• Adonis, A. Making Aristocracy Work: The Peerage and the Political System in Britain, 1884–1914 (1993).
• Benians, E.A. et al. eds. The Cambridge History of the British Empire Vol. iii: The Empire - Commonwealth 1870–1919' (1959) p. 915 and passim; coverage of Salisbury's foreign and imperial policies; online
• Bentley, Michael. Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain (2001). online edition （页面存档备份，存于）
• Lord Blake and H. Cecil (eds.), Salisbury: The Man and His Policies (1987).
• Bright, J. Franck. A History of England: Period V. Imperial Reaction Victoria 1880–1901 (vol 5, 1904); detailed political narrative; 295pp; online （页面存档备份，存于）; also another copy （页面存档备份，存于）
• Brumpton, Paul R. Security and Progress: Lord Salisbury at the India Office (Greenwood Press, 2002) online edition （页面存档备份，存于）
• Cecil, Algernon. British Foreign Secretaries 1807-1916 (1927) pp 277–314. online
• Cecil, C. Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury (4 volumes, 1921–32). online
•  Chisholm, Hugh (编). . 24 (第11版). London: Cambridge University Press: 72–76. 1911. This is a long biography, written in the context of 1911, with a Conservative point of view.
• Cooke, A.B. and J. Vincent, The Governing Passion: Cabinet Government and Party Politics in Britain, 1885–86 (1974).
• Grenville, J. A. S., Lord Salisbury and Foreign Policy: The Close of the Nineteenth Century (1964).
• Jones, A. The Politics of Reform, 1884 (1972).
• Kennedy, A. L. Salisbury 1830–1903: Portrait of a Statesman (1953).
• Gibb, Paul. "Unmasterly Inactivity? Sir Julian Pauncefote, Lord Salisbury, and the Venezuela Boundary Dispute." Diplomacy and Statecraft 16#1 (2005): 23–55.
• Gillard, D.R."Salisbury's African Policy and the Heligoland Offer of 1890," The English Historical Review, Vol. LXXV, 1960.
• Thomas P. Hughes, "Lord Salisbury's Afghan Policy," （页面存档备份，存于） The Arena, Vol. VI, 1892.
• Jones, Andrew, and Michael Bentley, ‘Salisbury and Baldwin’, in Maurice Cowling. ed., Conservative Essays (Cassell, 1978), pp. 25–40.
• Langer, William L. The Diplomacy of Imperialism: 1890–1902 (2nd ed. 1950), a standard diplomatic history of Europe
• Lowe, C. J.Salisbury and the Mediterranean, 1886–1896 (1965).
• Marsh, P. The Discipline of Popular Government: Lord Salisbury's Domestic Statecraft, 1881–1902 (1978).
• Millman, R. Britain and the Eastern question, 1875–1878 (1979).
• Otte, T. G. "A question of leadership: Lord Salisbury, the unionist cabinet and foreign policy making, 1895–1900." Contemporary British History 14#4 (2000): 1–26.
• Otte, T. G. "'Floating Downstream'? Lord Salisbury and British Foreign Policy, 1878–1902", in Otte (ed.), The Makers of British Foreign Policy: From Pitt to Thatcher (Palgrave, 2002), pp. 98-127.
• Paul, Herbert. A History of Modern England (vol 5, 1906), covers 1885–1895. online
• Penson, Lillian M. "The Principles and Methods of Lord Salisbury's Foreign Policy." Cambridge Historical Journal 5#1 (1935): 87-106. online （页面存档备份，存于）.
• Roberts, Andrew. Salisbury: Victorian Titan (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999), a standard scholarly biography; 940pp
• Ryan, A. P. "The Marquis of Salisbury' History Today (April 1951) 1#4 pp 30-36
• Searle, G. R. . Oxford U.P. 2004 [2020-09-20]. ISBN 9780198207146. （原始内容存档于2020-09-08）.
• Shannon, Richard The Age of Disraeli, 1868–1881: The Rise of Tory Democracy (1992).
• Shannon, Richard The Age of Salisbury, 1881–1902: Unionism and Empire (1996). 569pp.
• Smith, Paul. 'Cecil, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-, third marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, October 2009, accessed 8 May 2010.
• Steele, David. Lord Salisbury: A Political biography (1999). online edition （页面存档备份，存于）
• Steele, David. "Three British Prime Ministers and the Survival of the Ottoman Empire, 1855–1902." Middle Eastern Studies 50.1 (2014): 43–60.
• Wang, Shih-tsung. Lord Salisbury and Nationality in the East: Viewing Imperialism in Its Proper Perspective (Routledge, 2019).
• Warren, Allen. "Lord Salisbury and Ireland, 1859–87: Principles, Ambitions and Strategies." Parliamentary history 26.2 (2007): 203–224.
• Weston, C. C. The House of Lords and Ideological Politics: Lord Salisbury's Referendal Theory and the Conservative Party, 1846–1922 (1995).