 However, illness forced him to resign the following year.Born at Lansdowne House, Mayfair, London, Fitzmaurice was the second son of Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne and his second wife Emily de Flahault, daughter of the French statesman Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut.His elder brother was the statesman Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne.