PB Chapter 21 THE DEVONSHIRE CAVENDISHES: POLITICS AND PLACE Sue Wiseman* orth endishes ell us about the ary and political w landha t Cean part the of the Chatsw “pursuit ofCav e andt er” in a aceliter o maintain position.cul- Thatture ofin seventeenth- the case of thecentury Engorthland? Asendishes Mark Girouar the d puts’s it, the dynastic century house and wer pleasur pow r t orth eting orChatsw . Cavor ample, familyy seventeenth-orth enirs e histhe- tormory andof later significance and, are ethe bound serving together l is shownwn in almost an), y itwem ofy modernesent Chatsworth ismark e withsouvenir Fd oex past andman Chatsw. This souvl s ustak a view f tableware— lik bow sho (Figure 21.1 ho the pr theChatsw l utilizessuggestiv spooning depthregar o ert a up present ymmetrical bowview ofshow the açade and aof Williamynoptic Talman’s 1687–y of 1688the ruse.emodelling It cerpts of the or house. the Designedr the for fruit-y serving,y detailsbow of a orth , twingoff a seatclose- of s hill landscape in thef distance shapeds y theiconograph esence of the hohouse, colonnadedex f açade,purchase d dens,ke takeawa , . Chatsw, this peacefulvisit scenesho of aticpower: dominance y be ed with another b pr century e of orthf om designea distancegar that esstatuary in the landscaperiver However ound . Published in lisharistocr in the ear alman ma ed hiscompar emodelling but writtenseventeenth- ear , a poem describesvignett seeingChatsw Chats orthfr in a diff ent cont tak ar it Eng y T complet r lier w er ext: And C orth as a point it doth entwine. Derwin appeares but as a crooked line, hatsw W’had gone but little further, when we found The Hills soft back, cut deep with many a wound. And did the earth in whitish ranks espie1 So as Hobbes Cast up edin heaps,the upon mining the surf ace lye. y in h orth , a y the heritage dish has cleansed not y of mines , , of the people Thom interpret lead- geograph whic Chatsw sat geographen that er and connection e boundonl up ,but the notablynames of e people andwho theirmade it places. e y in the wing ation of some of the andGiv pow century y ynamics.ar If togetherorth the house has comeelit o stand or the feature heavil, the y follothat wnedexplor it e en e insixteenth- pursuit seventeenth- famil d Chatsw t f Devonshir dynasty famil o wer oft elsewher * I am gr eful to the editors and particular y Dr er for patience and comments. 1 Thomas , ymous ation, De mirabilibus pecci being the wonders of the peak in at l . Rutt Darby-shire, commonly called the Devil’s Arse of Peak: in English and Latine Hobbes anon transl (London, 1678), 18. 374 sue wIseMan emodelling of Chats orth House. Sue Wiseman. Figure 21.1. Brown and white tableware bowl with view of William Talman’s 1687– 1688 r w of e or er and e in London, at other houses, at the houses of es, pleasur pow wer relativ be at or ell under half the o er understand the y modern or, in the case of the 2nd and 4th Earls, travelling.2 As Girouard notes, the family might clan, Chatsworththeir nationalf w ensions, and theiryear. Tongbett association with earl orth and significance of the Devonshire Cavendish family, their situation in relation to the wider pret str Chatsw with Derbyshire, what follows briefly explores the fortunes of just three of the family’s seventeenth- century members. It focuses on William, the 2nd Earl of Devonshire; his long- lived widow, Christian (née Bruce); and their grandson, William Cavendish, the 4th Earl and 1st Duke. “Family Was Everything”: Sons, Daughters, Stepchildren The orth endishes e their ence o the rise of zabeth wick of wick, eer bound ogether marital, political, and al . Chatsw Cav ow exist t Eli Hard Hard whose car t architectur power 2 Life in the English Country House William Cavendish, Fourth Duke of Devonshire Memoranda Mark Girouard, (Yale University Press: London, 1978), 6 and n6. on State of Affairs 1759– 1762 See Peter D. Brown and Karl W. Schweizer, (London: Royal Historical Society, 1982), 3. PB 375 t he devonsh Ire CavendIshes She y ed that importance ed in the county of r birth, e, and the lands e ed in that county e the locations of amilies en withclearl those ofwant the e display the castles, heeponts, andDerbyshir albots. Elizabeth wicksh acquir (married y o givthe local obert f , interwover William endish, mDevonshir . Loe, andCavendishes— the l of sbury)New had Pierry begun buildingT her ersion ofHard orth hen hersuccessivel second husband,t WilliamR Barlowendish, treasurdied in 1557. Her Cav Willia St Ear Shrew alread v Chatsw w Cav Scots.fourth (andor all final) the husband,oblems the the marriage 6th Earl ofas Shrewsbury o bring, it ,also was an aristocratht Bess of. Just aswick she marriedo the aristhim, in 1568, he was tasked, or cursed, with being gaoler for Mary, Queen of F pr w t broug Hard int e her placeocracy. in , or on that y her heir Henry married ’s er On the same day she attained aristocratic status, Elizabeth Hardwick sought to con- solidatshe tied her enit astf o ank andda vilege, but she also becameShrewsbury daught w o Graceo of and her her daughten.er Maryancis Cav endish, the married orian Gilbert of the Talbot ,endish his son. In this, movhte that y childras erything”f t r o Elizabethpri wick. g mother-y inin- itsla t twnomic and stepchildrynastic sense,Fr the Bickleyess seemshist o e Cav ed landfamily andthoug capital with “familminimalw entionev o humant elations Hardor ering.Understandin The plan familed in settingeco the- personnel ord a ynastic ama.count en h hert marriagehav consolidat ended in acrimonious ation and heratt , t , died withoutr suff e en, the workoperties passed o her other f o dns, Williamdr and Ev les.thoug These sons ounded the twined ynastiessep of- ar castle and heir Henrye. les endishlegitimat childred elbeck prand set in ain thet castle tw so , discussed Char y e inf this olume. Williamd endish, Newho ed Devonshirorth andChar wick,Cav becameinherit on Wendish of wicktr in 1605 New dynasty extensivel elsewher Thev e Cavendishes, then,w inherit e Chatswy allied o otherHard endishes, butBar 3Cavh the marriagesHard y e also and epur chasedy alliedthe title o of Eary lamilies of Devonshir in the e inea. 1618. Thus ElizabethDevonshir wick’sCav epson and wer densel , Gilbert t , becameCav the 7th lthroug of , and thethe wersbury mor distantlers allied the t man fe endishes aro the viles of Hardd and ond.st It is in thisson- in-law, y boundTalbot h ed marriagesEar Shrewsbury but also in elationsShrew of , thatdaught the Chats orth CaDevonshirendishesCav emer t Sa Ruffor bey context tightl throug layer r rivalry . Henry wsold the vhouse o his ge.other William, and in 1616, hen Henry died, The Countess of Shrewsbury died in 1608, leaving Chatsworth to her eldest son, Henry t br w Williamendish, Cavendis o Christianh, Lord Bruce, Cavendis andh in of the Hard samewick, ear who he possessed aged his Oldcot ’ses, near Hard wick, and Chatsw, theorth, becamey an edimportant landowner old Thomas. In Hobbes, 1608 he as hadhis marr. Theied hisperiod son, Williameen Hobbes’sCav t al in the ey householdeng and his son ge’s contempoy death- rary freshl graduat 20-year- tutor betw other arrivers. The periodCavendish- seems o Devonshire some ary onagechar and earlensions on in 1628 sees the household marked by engagement also with Ben Jonson and some writ t indicat liter patr pret 3 ancis Bickle , The Cavendish Family Fr y (London: Constable, 1911), 33. 376 sue wIseMan ’s part and so es as a oil illuminating y ast the ements and thetic and philosophical in estments of the Newcastle households. Williamor all that Hobbesserv is fy seen as at theb hubcontr of ellectualachiev cles includingaes- les endish of elbeckv and the l, er e, of castle, the philosopher asF also an important esencerightl in the orth household.int He seemscir o e been Char Cav W Ear lat Duk New ofw e, and pr y in that of hisChatsw son and that of the e 1stt hav e oo, butsignificant if e ocus not onlon ythe in the intellectual endishes,and potentiall e seey political that he thinkingas also aof participant the 2nd Ear inl theDevonshir household’s aestheticprobabl . Indeed, it seems that HobbesWilliamit described hisDuk entyt ears’w servicef with theChatsworth 2nd l ofCav e asw y ar the mostw eeable period of y ” noting that Williamsociability as not y a , but a friend as The pairtw set y Ear Devonshir “b f agr 4 m life, “w onl master well.” outo send on a Hobbes tour that to included borr w moneyVenice ,for Rome, him. and Hobbes Naples, was and a closeHobbes’s companion biographer and findsserv the yearsWhile 1615– or1620 obscury earse init Hobbes’shas been lifassumede,5 beyond that rumour the thatoung the Sir y oungWilliam 2nd Earendishl used marriedt and then o y ent on a opean our with his new , in ant.act f man y y Cav immediatel w Eur t tutor f records may suggest a more complex trajectory and pererhaps the less death time of Princeabroad Henry than w ine 1612,have assumed. William Hobbes’sendish biogr seemsapher o findse had the young6 Cavableendish contact in Londonwith the in new the Prince1610s and asles, a bothmember as an of thel’s addled son on Par liamentemonial of occasions1614.