Charles Cavendish (landowner, born 1553)

Cavendish was educated at Eton and Clare College, Cambridge.{{acad|id=CVNS567C|name=Cavendish or Candish, Charles}} He and his stepbrother Gilbert Talbot went on a Grand Tour to Venice in 1570 and to Rome in 1574.Crosby Stevens, 'The Cavendish Invention of Bolsover Castle', Lisa Hopkins & Tom Rutter, A Companion to the Cavendishes (Arc, 2020), p. 58: Jonathan Woolfson, Padua and the Tudors (Cambridge, 1998), p. 218.

In July 1582 he had some involvement with Mary, Queen of Scots, who declined his request.[https://www.bessofhardwick.org/letter.jsp?letter=147 Bess of Hardwick's Letters, Letter ID: 147, July 1582] Mary claimed in March 1583 that Charles Cavendish, his brother William Cavendish, and Bess of Hardwick had tried to convince her that the Earl of Shrewsbury was her enemy.Agnes Strickland, Letters of Mary Queen of Scots, 3 (London, 1843), p. 158: Alexandre Labanoff, Letters of Marie Stuart, 6 (London: Dolman, 1844), p. 32. Mary said to William Waad that Cavendish had slandered her.David Templeman, Mary, Queen of Scots: The Captive Queen in England (Exeter: 2016), p. 198: Rosalind K. Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends and Enemies of Mary Queen of Scots (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), p. 180: John Daniel Leader, Mary Queen of Scots in Captivity (Sheffield, 1880), p. 577. Mary wrote in March 1584 that Charles Cavendish was in London, and had kept a pair of swift horses to ride to her with news of Elizabeth I's death, the English queen being unwell at this time.Agnes Strickland, Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, vol. 3 (London, 1843), p. 158.

He was knighted in 1583. Charles Cavendish wrote to his mother in 1587 describing life at court in London, the reception of Arbella Stuart, and building projects including work at Theobalds which he compared to Chatsworth.Alison Wiggins, Bess of Hardwick's Letters: Language, Materiality and Early Modern Epistolary Culture (Routledge, 2017), pp. 86-87.[https://www.bessofhardwick.org/letter.jsp?letter=209 Bess of Hardwick's Letters, Letter ID: 209]

The musician and composer John Wilbye dedicated The First Set of English Madrigals (London, 1598) to Cavendish who had married Margaret Kitson, a daughter of his patrons, the Kitsons of Hengrave. Wilbye commended Cavendish's skills as a musician. Wilbye dedicated the Second Set to Arbella Stuart.David C. Price, Patrons and Musicians of the English Renaissance (Cambridge, 1981), p. 81.

Cavendish had a feud with the Stanhope family over issues including a fish weir in the River Trent.Wallace T. MacCaffrey, [https://academic.oup.com/histres/article-abstract/33/87/73/5678143 'Talbot and Stanhope: an Episode in Elizabethan Politics', Historical Research, 33:87 (May 1960), pp. 73–85] He arranged to fight a duel with John Stanhope at Lambeth choosing rapiers as the weapon. They came to Lambeth bridge by boat and it was discovered that Stanhope was wearing a sword-proof padded doublet. The fight was called off.John Gage, History and Antiquities of Hengrave (London, 1822), pp. 184-186. In November 1599 Cavendish was shot in the backside while visiting Kirkby Hardwick, where he was repairing and extending the mansion.[https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/cavendish-sir-charles-1553-1617 'Cavendish, Sir Charles (1553-1617)', History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981]Mark Girouard, Robert Smythson & the Elizabethan Country House (London, 1983), pp. 175, 231.Lucy Worsley, Cavalier: The Story of a Seventeenth-century Playboy (London, 2007), pp. 33-34.Sarah Williams, [https://archive.org/details/letterswrittenby00chamrich/page/54/mode/2up Letters of John Chamberlain (London, 1861), pp. 52, 54-55]Crosby Stevens, 'The Cavendish Invention of Bolsover Castle', Lisa Hopkins & Tom Rutter, A Companion to the Cavendishes (Arc, 2020), p. 61 The house, also known as Sutton Hardwick, was finally demolished by the Coal Board in 1966. The site is close to Sutton Parkway railway station.

In December 1607, Cavendish, the Earl of Shrewsbury and his sister, Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, went to Hardwick Hall for a day to see Bess of Hardwick.David Adshead & David Taylor, Hardwick Hall (Yale, 2016), p. 158. Shrewsbury wrote he "found a lady of great years, or great wealth, and of a great wit, which yet still remains".HMC 9 Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 19 (London, 1965), p. 379.

Arbella Stuart visited Sheffield and Hardwick after the death of Bess of Hardwick in 1608. Arbella wrote from Hardwick that Charles Cavendish was a pleasant companion, "I thinck I shall many times wish my selfe set [sat] by my cousin Charles at meales".Sara Jayne Steen, Letters of Arbella Stuart (Oxford, 1994), 227-8. In June 1611, Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury was imprisoned in the Tower of London for helping Arbella Stuart to escape. Cavendish wrote from Welbeck to Henry Butler, the Shrewsburys' steward at Sheffield with the encouraging news that the Countess had the comfortable "Queen's lodgings" with 3 or 4 rooms.Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791) p. 392.

Cavendish discussed his buildings with the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury, and sent them drawings that he developed after discussions with Lord Lumley's "inventor" or architect.[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066349203&view=1up&seq=150 HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 19 (London, 1965), pp. 120-1] The "inventor" provided Italianate designs with a hall and a small dining room called a "tenelli". The "tenelli" was unsuitable for an English earl, but fitting, said Cavendish, for an Italian gentleman who keeps only a pair of servants and eats only "salads and frogs, that yield little vapour."M. S. Giuseppi & David McN. Lockie, HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 19 (London, 1965), p. 121.Crosby Stevens, "The Cavendish Invention of Bolsover Castle", Lisa Hopkins & Tom Rutter, A Companion to the Cavendishes (Arc, 2020), p. 61.

Charles Cavendish acquired Bolsover Castle and Welbeck Abbey from Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1613.Mark Girouard, Robert Smythson & the Elizabethan Country House (London, 1983), p. 231. His accounts survive for building the early stages of the "Little Castle" at Bolsover.Mark Girouard, Robert Smythson & the Elizabethan Country House (London, 1983), p. 234. Unusually for this period female labour was recorded and the women's names or their husbands' names are given.Douglas Knoop & Gwilyn Peredur Jones, [https://archive.org/details/bolsovercastlebu00knoo 'The Bolsover Castle Building Account, 1613', Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, 49:1 (London 1936), pp. 15-6]

A design for the hall chimney, probably by John Smythson, drew on the published work of Sebastiano Serlio.Mark Girouard, Elizabethan Architecture (Yale, 2009), p. 452. Although the black-and-white marble fireplaces in Bolsover's "Little Castle" were installed after the death of Charles Cavendish, they were likely inspired by the publication of an English translation of Serlio's Architectura in 1611, possibly connecting the conception of Bolsover with an interest in Italian design at the court of Prince Henry.Roy Strong, Henry Prince of Wales (London, 1986), pp. 134-5.

Charles, or his brother William Cavendish welcomed King James at Bothal Castle on 5 May 1617. The king stayed for two nights, then went on to Alnwick Abbey, the home of Francis Brandling, on his way to Scotland.John Nichols, Progresses of James the first, vol. 3 (London, 1828), p. 297.

Charles Cavendish died in 1617 and was buried at Bolsover.[https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/cavendish-sir-charles-1553-1617 'Cavendish, Sir Charles (1553-1617)', History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981] His son built the monument to his parents in St Mary and St Laurence's Church, Bolsover.

Cavendish married two heiresses.Lawrence Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy (Oxford, 1965), p. 194. He married his first wife Margaret Kitson on 6 February 1580, a daughter of Thomas Kitson of Hengrave Hall and Elizabeth Cornwallis.Crosby Stevens, 'The Cavendish Invention of Bolsover Castle', Lisa Hopkins & Tom Rutter, A Companion to the Cavendishes (Arc, 2020), p. 60. Thomas Kitson was a son of Thomas Kitson and Margaret Donnington. She died in childbirth in 1583 giving birth to a son called Charles. Bess of Hardwick had negotiated the marriage in 1580 via her son-in-law Gilbert Talbot who held discussions with Sir Thomas Cornwallis on details of the contract, instructed by letters from Bess.Alison Wiggins, Bess of Hardwick's Letters: Language, Materiality and Early Modern Epistolary Culture (Routledge, 2017), pp. 161-4.

The architectural historian Mark Girouard draws a parallel between the plan of Hengrave Hall and Barlborough Hall built in the 1580s for Bess of Hardwick's lawyer, Francis Rodes, and a later-unexecuted plan for a house at Slingsby for Charles Cavendish. The similarity is a corridor running around the internal courtyard.Mark Girouard, Robert Smythson & The Elizabethan Country House (Yale, 1983), pp. 123, 179.

Charles Cavendish married Catherine Ogle (d. 1627), daughter of Cuthbert, 7th Lord Ogle, Baron Ogle, in 1592. She was the heiress and brought Bothal Castle to Cavendish. Their children included:

• William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle (1593–1676)
• Charles Cavendish (1594–1654)

• [http://www.thorotonsociety.org.uk/publications/articles/kirkbyhardwick.htm Trevor Lewis, 'The lost manor of Kirkby Hardwick', Thoroton Society]
• [https://www.bolsoverparishchurch.org/uploads/4/8/6/8/48685303/3_cavendish_leaflet_laid_out_for_web.pdf Cavendish Family Tree: Bolsover Parish Church]

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