THE

LIFEof CHARLES CAVENDISH, Efq. Brother to the Third Earl of DEVONSHIRE.

W

E think this no improper place to fubjoin fome account of this favourite fon of the Countefs, whofe life we have juft given.

He was born in London, on the 20th of May, 1620, and made fuch progrefs both in learning and arms, (two things which feem incompatible,) as to become in each the glory of the time he lived in. After a ftrict tuition in his father's house, he was fent to travel, at eighteen years of age, under the care of a governor. His firft tour was to Paris, where hearing of the French army at Luxenburg, and impatient for fuch a view, which fo well fuited one of his martial temper, he stole away to the camp, unknown to his governor, but was foon brought back to his

ftudies.

The next year he spent in feveral parts of Italy, and in the following fpring, having embarked for Conftantinople, there dropped his governor again, and, prompted by curiofity, and an ardent defire of feeing on the fpot the customs and manners of different nations, leaving his English fervants behind him, took a circuit by land, through Natolia; from thence went by fea to Alexandria and Cairo, and came, by way of Malta, to Spain, and, after some stay at that Court, returned to England in 1641, having thus acquired a general knowledge of the world, which, added to his fine natural endowments both of body and mind, made him highly careffed by the most eminent perfonages. One of his contemporaries, and a writer of his life, fays, "The fun bebeld not a youth of a more manly figure, and more winning presence."

After

After having paid his duty to the Countefs, his mother, he was prefented to the King and Queen, and moft graciously received by them. As his inclination determined him to arms, and the Countefs, in compliance therewith, intending to purchase for him Colonel Garing's regiment of foot, then in Holland, he went thither to be trained up in the Prince of Orange's army, and when he had made one campaign returned to England, about the end of November 1641, where there was too much occafion to exercise his martial ardour, the King having been forced, by popular tumults and distractions in the two Houses, to retire to York, to which place both himself and brother haftened to offer their fervice to their diftreffed Sovereign.

Here our young hero inlifted among those noble volunteers, who defired to be put under command, to fight in the Royal Caufe. He made it his choice to ride in the King's own troop, commanded by Lord Bernard Stuart, his near kinfman, brother to the Duke of Richmond, and continued in it till the battle of Edghill, in October 1642, when the King, out of refpect and tenderness for fuch gallant men, that he might not expose them to equal hazard with the reft of the cavalry, referved them for a guard to his own perfon. But Mr. Cavendish, who valued glory more than life, fuppofing this to be no poft of danger, and therefore not of honour, prevailed with Lord Bernard Stuart to use his intereft with the King, that they might be drawn up on the right hand of the right wing of the horse, as most exposed, to which his Majefty, at their importunity, confented. And indeed, as this was a poft of the hotteft fervice, so it was of the greatest fuccefs; wherein Mr. Cavendish fo diftinguished himself by his perfonal valour, that the Lord Aubigny, who commanded the Duke of York's troop, being flain, he

was

was preferred to that choice before any other, tho' eminent both for their birth and merit.

After this, the King, on his offer to go into the North, and there raise a complete regiment of horse, granted him a commiffion, with a promise to make him Colonel of it; which having accomplished, he took up his head quarters at Newark, and thereby kept in awe many of the rebel garrifons in the neighbouring parts, and at length became mafter of the whole country, infomuch that the Royal Commiffioners for Lancashire and Nottinghamshire defired his permiffion to petition the King, that he might have the command of all the forces of those two counties, in quality of Colonel General, which the King granted.

In this command, he beat the rebels from Grantham, gained a complete victory near Stamford, and reduced feveral of their garrifon-towns, by the affistance of other brave officers. After many glorious actions, he had the honour of receiving the Queen in her march to Newark, who immediately remembered, she had seen him laft in Holland, and was now extremely pleased to meet him again in England. The Countefs his mother was then in the Queen's coach, whom the entertained with an account of her fon's exploits; and her Majefty, in token of the great esteem she had for him, when fhe was to give the word to Major Tuke, gave that of CAVENDISH.

This brave officer waited on the Queen with a noble guard towards Oxford, and in the way, by her confent, took Burton upon Trent by ftorm, with no small hazard of his life. So unfhaken was his loyalty, that when the Royal Caufe was declining, this only made him more daring and resolute. In the last action wherein he was engaged, he is faid to have been murdered in cold blood, after quarter given by Colonel Berry, who made himself dear to Cromwell,

by

by this and fome other actions of cruelty. Another writer tells us, that his horfe fticking in the mud, he died magnanimously refufing quarter, and throwing the blood that run from his wounds into their faces.

However these accounts vary in their circumftances, it seems most probable that fome base treachery was used in taking away fo valuable a life, as may be easily gathered from a letter, written on this occafion by Cromwell, July 31, 1643, to the Committee of Affociation fitting at Cambridge, wherein the Ufurper fays, in the canting ftyle of that age, That it pleafed the Lord to give their fervant and foldiers a notable victory, and that General Cavendish, after a vigorous defence, was flain with a thrust under the fhort ribs. Be this as it will, all writers agree with Lord Clarendon, that no man could behave more courageously, nor die in a nobler manner.

Some papers that he left behind him fully fhewed his profound skill in Numbers and Measures; these were in the hands of the Bishop of Ely in Queen Anne's time, but what are now become of them, we cannot say.

One of the writers of his mother's life fpeaks of this gallant young Gentleman thus: "He was a "Gentleman fo furnifhed with all the interior and "politer parts of learning (obtained at home and "abroad, both by reading books and men,) as well "as courage, that he was prepared to defend his "Prince with his head and hand, by the ftrongest reason, and most generous valour.'

In fhort, the people every where valued and refpected him fo much, that when his body was brought to Newark to be interred, the whole town were fo fond of it (even dead) that they would not fuffer it for fome days to be laid into the ground, but wept over it, and expreffed their utmost forrow for the lofs of him; even the Poets of those times

employed