who died unmarried on 3 March 1670–1. His only daughter, Anne, married, first, Charles, lord Rich, son of the Earl of Warwick; secondly, John, earl of Exeter. She died on 18 July 1703. A drawing of the third earl is in the Sutherland collection at the Bodleian.
[Biog. Brit. (Kippis); Kennet's Memoirs of the Cavendish Family (1737); Lords' Journals; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640-1, 1660-7; Life of Duke of Newcastle, ed. C. H. Firth (1886), p. 212; Evelyn's Diary, ed. Bray and Wheatley, ii. 89, 148, iv. 100.]
CAVENDISH, WILLIAM, first Duke of Devonshire (1640–1707), eldest son of William Cavendish, third earl of Devonshire [q. v.], by his wife Elizabeth, second daughter of William Cecil, second earl of Salisbury, was born 25 Jan. 1640. The commotion of the civil wars rendered his early education somewhat irregular, and after being brought up chiefly under the eye of the Countess of Devonshire, his grandmother, he was sent to travel abroad with Dr. Killigrew, afterwards master of the Savoy. Upon his return he was chosen one of tour young noblemen to bear Charles II's train at his coronation 23 April 1661, and in the same year was elected member of parliament for Derby. Next year he went to Ireland, and on 27 Oct. married at Kilkenny Lady Mary, second daughter of James, Duke of Ormonde. In 1663 be returned to England, and was on 23 Sept. created an M.A. at Oxford, along with the Earls of Suffolk and Bath, by special command of the chancellor, who was then with the king and court at Oxford (Wood, Athenæ ii. 830 ; Catalogue of Graduates), In 165 he volunteered for service in the fleet, and was present in attendance upon the Duke of York at the fight with De Ruyter on 4 June. 'Lord Cavendish,' writes Sir Thomas Clifford to Lord Arlington (5 June 1665, Green, State Papers, p. 431), 'behaved very well, and the shallop that brought him and the writer having six guns did much good.' In 1666 he was in his place in parliament, and joined in an address by the commons, praying to have the laws against popery enforced, which produced a proclamation, but was otherwise fruitless. In the following year he gave proof of the fairness of his disposition by seconding a motion to fix a day on which Clarendon might be heard in his own defence upon the lords sending down their bill for his banishment. In 1669 he went with Mr. Montagu, afterwards Duke of Montagu, upon an embassy to France, and was there engaged in an affair which attracted attention throughout Europe. Being on the stage at the opera he was insulted by three French officers of the king's guard. One he struck, whereon they drew, and he, throwing himself against the side scenes, stood on his guard, but would have been overborne had not a Swiss of Mr. Montagu's taken him round the waist, and thrown him oyer into the pit for safety. In falling his arm was torn so that he bore the scar to his death. His assailants were arrested, but were liberated on his intercession. How much this matter was noticed appears by a oomplmentary letter to him from Sir William Temple 18 Jan. 1669. A similar affair illustrates his character after his return to his place in parliament in 1675. A Colonel Howard having been killed in the French war, it was reported that Lord Cavendish and Sir Thomas Meres had publicly wished 'that all others were equally served who acted against a vote of parliament.' Howard's brother Thomas hearing this report circulated a broadsheet attacking Cavenaish, and this on 14 Oct. was brought by a member before the House of Commons. Cavendish, thus learning the matter for the first time, was for quitting the house, when Lord William Russell moved and carried that he be enjoined not to leave, and that neither he nor Sir T. Meres do give or accept any challenge from Howard ; and Howard's print was also voted a breach of privily. Howard, however, boasted that Cavendish had not dared to take notice of it till he was forced to do so by its publication in the house; whereon Cavendish, in spite of the resolution of the commons, posted on the palace gate a paper denouncing Howard as a poltroon, This was on 20 Oct. laid before the house, and, the speaker having informed Cavendish that he had broken privilege, he was after debate committed to the Tower. Howard, too, was summoned and called on to answer on his knees, and was committed ; but Cavendish after two days, and Howard on 8 Nov., each on his own petition, were discharged, and the house directed them and Meres to attend Mr. Speaker, to be by him reconciled. On 25 Oct. the house had, on Mr. Waller's motion, voted it a breach of privilege to carry the affair further, and a bill was brought in, though not proceeded with, forbidding duelling.
From this time Cavendish engaged himself in parliamentary opposition to the court party. When parliament met in 1676, after a prorogation of fifteen months, it was he who moved that the act of Edward III for annual parliaments should be laid on the table, arguing that by the prorogation parliament was ipso facto dissolved. In 1677 he promoted a bill for recalling the English forces out of the French king's service, which was
