William Cavendish was born at Handsworth Manor, Yorkshire, the son of millionaire Sir Charles Cavendish. He attended St John's College, Cambridge, but showed little aptitude for academic study and entered the Royal Mews where, in company with Prince Henry, he was trained by the best instructors in fencing and riding. Cavendish's equestrian skills and expertise as a swordsman later became famous throughout Europe. He was one of Prince Henry's attendants when he was invested as Prince of Wales in June 1610 and was created a Knight of the Bath the day before the investiture. In 1612, Cavendish accompanied Sir Henry Wootton on a diplomatic mission to Savoy, where he made a good impression on everyone who met him.
On the death of his father in 1617, William inherited the Cavendish estates, including Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire where he built a famous riding school, and Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire which he decorated exquisitely as a miniature version of a medieval castle. In 1618, he married the heiress Elizabeth Howard (d.1643). James I created him Viscount Mansfield in 1620 after a lavish entertainment at Welbeck with a masque specially composed by Ben Jonson, who flourished under Cavendish's patronage. Charles I created him Earl of Newcastle in 1628 and appointed him governor to the Prince of Wales. During the 1630s, Newcastle and his brother, the mathematician Sir Charles Cavendish, were at the centre of a philosophical and scientific circle that included Robert Payne, Walter Warner and Thomas Hobbes. Newcastle was also noted for his own accomplishments in literature, poetry and music.
When the Bishops' Wars broke out in 1639, Newcastle lent the King £10,000 for his war-fund and raised a volunteer troop consisting entirely of knights and gentlemen, known as the Prince of Wales' Troop. He joined the King's army at Berwick under the command of the Earl of Holland. When the Prince of Wales' Troop was deployed at the rear of the cavalry, Newcastle took offence and challenged Holland to a duel, but King Charles intervened to prevent it taking place.
In November 1639, Newcastle was appointed to the King's Privy Council. Parliament suspected him of involvement in the First Army Plot to rescue the Earl of Strafford from execution. Under political pressure, he was obliged to resign from his post as governor of the Prince of Wales in May 1641.
In January 1642, as tension grew between King and Parliament, Newcastle attempted to secure control of Hull — a major northern port and the site of an arsenal stocked with munitions from the Bishops' Wars — but the town was occupied by Sir John Hotham for Parliament. On the outbreak of the First Civil War, Newcastle again raised troops to fight for the King, including his famous regiment, the Whitecoats or Newcastle's Lambs. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Royalist counties in northern England in June 1642, and created Marquis of Newcastle on 27 October 1643.
Although derided for his romantic spirit — and for appointing the poet William Davenant as his Lieutenant-General of Ordnance — Newcastle compensated for his lack of military experience by employing professional soldiers as his officers. These included the Yorkshire veteran Sir Marmaduke Langdale and the dashing George Goring. In March 1643, Newcastle was joined at York by Queen Henrietta Maria, newly returned to England from the Continent where she had been raising troops for the King. The Queen was accompanied by Lord Eythin, a Scot who had served in the Swedish army, who became Newcastle's chief military adviser.
Newcastle clashed with Lord Ferdinando Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas in the north of England during 1642-3 and defeated them at the battle of Adwalton Moor in June 1643, securing all of Yorkshire except the vital port of Hull for the Royalists. After the battle, Newcastle's troops captured Sir Thomas Fairfax's wife, but in a gesture typical of his chivalrous attitude, she was sent under escort to join Fairfax at Hull. Newcastle then advanced into Lincolnshire to attack the Eastern Association army, taking Gainsborough and Lincoln. Royalist strategy was to mount a three-pronged attack on London, with Lord Hopton advancing from the west, the King's army from the midlands and Newcastle from the north. But rather than push on towards London, Newcastle resolved first to capture Hull, where he became bogged down in a six-week siege that he was finally forced to abandon. Despite his failure at Hull, Newcastle's military success in the north greatly worried the Parliamentarians, and encouraged them to push rapidly ahead with negotiations for an alliance with the Scottish Covenanters.
With the Scottish invasion of England in January 1644, Newcastle was faced with a war on two fronts: the Scottish Covenanters to the north and Lord Fairfax's Parliamentarians to the south. Newcastle's manoeuvres delayed the Scottish advance for a time, but after Fairfax stormed and captured Selby in April 1644, Newcastle was obliged to fall back to defend York itself, where the combined armies of the Covenanters, Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester surrounded and besieged him. Prince Rupert marched to the relief of York and raised the siege on 1 July, but the next day Rupert engaged the Allied armies in battle, contrary to Newcastle's wishes. Newcastle had taken offence at the brusque nature of Rupert's communications with him and was uncooperative in preparing for the decisive battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644). The allied victory broke the power of the Royalists in the north of England. Newcastle's own regiment of foot, the Whitecoats, made an heroic last stand during the battle, after which Newcastle himself became very despondent. He resigned his command and went into exile on the Continent, saying: "I will not endure the laughter of the Court." This prompted a wave of defections from less dedicated Royalists.
Newcastle lived at Hamburg from July 1644 to February 1645, then moved to Paris where he joined Henrietta Maria's court-in-exile. Here he met his second wife, Margaret Cavendish (née Lucas), who later became famous as a writer. During his exile, Newcastle resumed his scientific and philosophical researches and was associated with Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, Pierre Gassendi and others. He settled at Antwerp after the execution of King Charles I and in April 1650 was appointed a member of Charles II's privy council. In opposition to Sir Edward Hyde, he advocated the agreement with the Scottish Covenanters that precipitated the Third Civil War. Although he was eager to accompany Charles II to Scotland in 1650, the Covenanters objected to Newcastle's involvement and he played no part in the campaign.
Newcastle returned to England at the Restoration in 1660. He was invested a Knight of the Garter in 1661 and created 1st Duke of Newcastle in 1665, but he never recovered all his estates or much of the fortune he had spent in the Royalist cause. Disappointed at not being granted a major office, Newcastle devoted himself to horse breeding and writing. He died at Welbeck Abbey on Christmas Day 1676 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Sources:
C.H. Firth, William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, DNB, 1886
Lynn Hulse, William Cavendish, first duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Oxford DNB, 2004
Links:
See http://williamcavendish.co.uk/ for further details of Cavendish's life
The Cavalier in Exile: transcription of Margaret Cavendish's memoir of Newcastle's civil war career and subsequent exile.