Charles I set off for Scotland on 10 August 1641. At the beginning of the summer he had signed the death warrant of his friend the Earl of Strafford and Ship Money Tax had been declared illegal. How much respite the king enjoyed from the turbulence of his three kingdoms when he arrived in Edinburgh on 14 August is another matter entirely. He was still there when an Irish rebellion broke out in October.
Which brings me to November. On the 8th of November, ten days before the king left his Scottish capital, the English Parliament demanded that in future Charles should only appoint advisers and ministers approved by them. On the 23 the Commons narrowly voted in favour of the Grand Remonstrance which criticised the king’s temporal and religious policies. Even so, when he arrived back in London on 25 it was with much ceremony and popular acclaim.
Ferdinando Fairfax second Baron Fairfax of Cameron and the father of Sir Thomas Fairfax who was Member of Parliament for Yorkshire was part of the committee that presented the Grand Remonstrance. This was a list of 200 grievances against the king including his perceived abused of power as well as things like illegal taxation.
Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire by Anthony Van Dyck via Wikipedia.
I keep returning to Christian. She doesn’t always seem very appealing though, Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Leicester (and briefly governess to Charles I’s younger children Elizabeth and Henry following his execution) found her crafty and cold when it came to financial matters during negotiations between the Sidneys and Christian for her son to marry Lady Dorothy Sidney. The Sidneys could not supply a large enough dowry so Christian’s son ended up married to Elizabeth Cecil, a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Salisbury.
Apparently Christian Bruce, the daughter of Edward Bruce, 1st lord of Kinloss was one of Elizabeth Stuart’s companions at Combe Abbey where she was raised by John Harington of Eaton and his wife. So, she received an extensive education even if it did not contain a grounding in Latin and Greek. Combe Abbey is now a hotel but the parkland is open to the public.
She was married in 1608 to William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Devonshire. No doubt her dowry of £100,000 helped to seal the deal. Her new husband, who was eighteen-years-old, went off to Cambridge University with his tutor, Thomas Hobbes, before tackling the Grand Tour. He departed for Europe in 1610 and got into the usual scrapes that youthful aristocracy might be expected to find themselves.
At the time Christian was only about twelve years old but the marriage was almost over before it began. William, or Wylkyn, as he was known within his family was in love with someone else. Margaret Chatterton, a servant of William’s aunt, Arbella Stuart, and formerly of Wiliam’s mother, claimed that William had promised to marry her. Quite what William’s father thought of the matter is best not speculated upon. The baron, as he was at that time, was known to take after his mother, Bess of Hardwick, when it came to careful husbanding of his assets. William’s uncle, Henry Cavendish, wrote that it was a shame that the boy wasn’t married to a ‘grown woman’ rather than a child. Henry who was the eldest of Bess of Hardwick’s sons had something of a reputation, so his view is perhaps not surprising. He died the same year that his nephew and Christian were married which meant that William’s father inherited Chatsworth.
Christian became Countess of Devonshire in 1626 when her father-in-law died. Two years later, her husband also died. Her ten-year-old son, another William, became the 3rd Earl of Devonshire. Christian set about restoring the family fortunes which were somewhat depleted thanks to the 2nd earl’s exuberant spending. This involved winning more than thirty legal cases over contested property rights. It took four years but at the end of it, in 1630, she was able to offer Thomas Hobbes a salary as tutor having declared in 1628 that her son was too young for a tutor to save the expense.
Unfortunately for Christian, her son did not understand that his father’s creditors could claim the money they were owed from his estates – it meant that mother and son were soon at loggerheads and that Thomas Hobbes was being asked to help both sides. Ultimately Parliament was called upon to pass an act which allowed the countess to sell some previously entailed land to settle her husband’s debts.
As if finances weren’t worrying enough there was the small matter of the English Civil War. William’s cousin, yet another William Cavendish, the Earl of Newcastle, was loyal to the Crown. Christian is usually regarded as the reason why the Earl of Devonshire chose to absent himself from his country rather than join one side or the other. According to the De Lisle and Dudley manuscript – William may have enjoyed spending lavishly but generally speaking, he did what his mother told him. It was the earl’s younger brother, Charles Cavendish, who took to the field and who died for the royal cause at Gainsborough. Despite the fact that Christian was a friend of Henrietta Maria, the Devonshire estate had to be preserved – Bess of Hardwick would have approved the calculations that Christian made when she called her son home to compound for his estates before the end of the war.
Christian and William chose to live at Latimers in Buckinghamshire rather than returning to Derbyshire. She was well connected to the Parliamentarian forces. She was grandmother-in-law to Frances Cromwell, through the marriage of Robert Rich (he died soon after the marriage.) Her daughter Anne was married to Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick. Meanwhile, the Earl of Devonshire was required to remain aloof from the conflict that still raged but the countess offered the king refuge at Leicester Abbey after the Battle of Naseby and later stayed at Latimer’s while he was a prisoner. She took charge of Charles II’s belongings after the Battle of Worcester and became embroiled in the work of the Seal Knot. Even so, after the Restoration, the Earl of Devonshire chose to remain in the country rather than spending much time at court. He was made Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire and in 1663 joined the newly formed Royal Society.
Christian welcomed Charles II and Henrietta Maria to her home. When she died in 1675 she was described as being ‘affable and of sweet address’ – presumably her biographer had not been on the receiving end of financial bargain with the countess…now I just need to find out much more….
Chatsworth in gingerbread form – Chatsworth at Christmas 2024
Celia visited the Peak District in 1697 during the homeward leg of her journey. Having sampled the ale at Chesterfield, which she thought very fine, Celia and her two servants continued to Chatsworth.
The Peak Districtlandscape
Celia did not much enjoy the journey from Chesterfield to Chatsworth. According to her the hills were too steep and the landscape barren. However she did pause to consider the minerals that Derbyshire contained and, in good Puritan fashion, looked to find God’s work around her – although she doesn’t use the words ‘sublime’ or ‘awe inspiring’ she infers both ideas which would become increasingly popular with the beginning of the Eighteenth Century.
Alll Derbyshire is full of Steep hills and nothing but the peakes of hills as thick one by another is seen in most of ye County wchare very steepe, wch makes travelling tedious and ye miles Long. You see neither hedge nor tree but only Low drye stone walls round some ground Else its only hills and Dales as thick as you Can Imagine, but tho’ the Surface of ye Earth Looks barren yet those hills are impregnated wth Rich marble stone metals, Iron and Copper and Coale mines in their bowells, from whence we may see the wisdom and benignitye of oer greate Creator to make up the Defficiency of a place by an Equivolent, and also the diversity of the Creation wch Encreaseth its Beauty.
Chatsworth, the Duke of Devonshire and the Glorious Revolution
One of the difficulties of writing about individuals is that it’s easy to get caught up in their lives and ignore what’s happening on the political stage at the time. In this instance William Cavendish, the 4th Earl of Devonshire was one of the so-called ‘Glorious Seven’ who supported the deposition of James II and who invited James’ son-in-law, William and the former king’s daughter Mary to take the throne in his stead. The Glorious Revolution happened in 1688 – so still less than a decade before Celia made her journey. The earl became the 1st Duke of Devonshire in 1694 and Marquis of Hartington. Unsurprisingly he set about turning the family seat into something rather splendid. At the time of Celia’s visit, Chatsworth was being transformed into a baroque palace. It’s possible that Grinling Gibbons was busily carving in the chapel at Chatsworth or elsewhere in the house at the time of Celia’s visit, or else the work was being completed by Derbyshire craftsman, Samuel Watson. Inevitably Ms Fiennes enjoyed her visit, describing the house and ornate seventeenth century gardens in some detail.
Bakewell and Haddon Hall
More hills and steep inclines but Celia found the town both ‘pretty’ and ‘neat’ – adjectives which still apply. By the end of Celia’s journey it is clear that she visited many stately homes – and all without the aid of a National Trust or Historic Houses card. To Celia, Haddon seemed rather old fashioned – which is its appeal these days.
Buxton and St Anne’s Well
Both Chatsworth and St Anne’s Well were described as wonders of the Peak but Celia was not impressed with the latter, nor with Buxton’s beer or the accommodation offered by the Duke at the hotel there:
the beer they allow at the meales is so bad yt very Little Can be dranke. You pay not for yr bed roome and truely the other is so unreasonable a price and yeLodgings so bad, 2 beds in a Roome some 3 beds and 4 in one roome, so that if you have not Company Enough of your own to fill a Room they will be ready to put others into the same Chamber, and sometymes they are so Crowded that three must Lye in a bed. Few people stay above two or three nights its so Inconvenient. We staid two nights by reason one of our Company was ill, but it was sore against our Wills for there is no peace nor quiet with one Company and another going into the bath or Coming out; that makes so many strive to be in this house because the bath is in it. Its about 40 foot Long and about 20 or 30 ffoote broad being almost square. There is 10 or 12 springs that bubble up that are a Little warme, its not so warme as milke from ye Cow, and not a quick spring, so yt its not Capable of being Cleansed after Everybody has been in. Its warme Enough just to Open the pores of ones body, but not to Cause sweat, I was in it and it made me shake, its farre from the heate that is in the Somersetshire baths. Its Cover’d over the top, but not Ceiled and there is an open place in the middle like a Tunnell wch pours the Cold down on ye head, it would in my thoughts be better if it were Exposed all to ye aire and sunn. There is a pavemt of Stone on one side at ye brim to walke on, with benches of Stone to Sitt on. You must have a guide ytSwims with you, you may Stand in some place and hold by a Chaine and ye water is not above yr Neck, but in other parts very deep and strong it will turn you down. About 10 or 12 yards distant is a spring Called St Anns Well wch is for drinking, they have arch’d it up yt its much hotter, it heates ye Cup you take it up in but not or near so hot as ye Somersetshire baths and springs are, the taste is not unpleasant but Rather like Milk, they say its Diaretick – I dranke a part of a Cup full.
I’m not sure I would describe Buxton water as tasting like milk but Celia was something of an expert.
Poole’s Cavern, Mam Tor, Peak Cavern and Tideswell
Celia who must have read a copy of Thomas Hobbe’s De Mirabilibus Pecci: Being The Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire, Commonly called The Devil’s Arse of Peak took the opportunity to visit both Poole’s Cavern, Mam Tor and Peak Cavern at Castleton. Her journal describes her scrambling over rocks and wading waist deep in water with a company of other ladies and gentlemen – which rather changes my view of seventeenth century aristocratic women. For some reason I cannot imagine Celia spending her days with embroidery! Although of course, I could be wrong the two activities are not mutually exclusive.
I can definitely see that Celia liked a checklist of places to visit on her adventures (rather like me on my holidays) because she also went to Tideswell to see the well which ebbed and flowed with the spring rains. The tidal aspect of the spring stopped at the end of the Eighteenth Century
Celia and her two servants departed the Peak District by way of Ashbourne having explored the area and taken the waters in the way that tourists would continue to do through the following centuries. These days she might be rather more impressed with Buxton’s spa hotel and swimming pool.
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Celia travelled extensively from spa town to spa town but enjoyed exploring country towns and stately homes. In 1697 she visited Yorkshire as part of her Northern Journey to take various spa waters.
Her views on Ripon
A pretty Little market town mostly built of Stone, 8 mile (from Knaresborough I think), a Large Market place with a high Cross of severall Stepps; we were there the Market day where provisions are very plentifull and Cheape.
In the Market was sold then 2 good Shoulders of veal, they were not very fatt nor so large as our meate in London but good meate, one for 5d the other for 6d , and a good quarter of Lamb for 9d or 10d , and its usual to buy a very good Shoulder of Veale for 9 pence, and a quarter of Beefe for 4 shillings; Indeed it is not large ox Beef but good Middling Beasts: and Craw ffish 2d a Dozn -so we bought them.
Notwithstanding this plenty some of ye Inns are very dear to Strangers that they Can impose on. The town Stands on a hill and there is a good large Stone built Church well Carved, they Call it a minster. There is very fine painting over the alter, it Looks so natural just like Real Crimson satten with gold ffringe like hangings, and Severall rows of Pillars in jsles on Either side wch looks very naturall. There are two good Bridges to the town, one was a rebuilding, pretty large with Severall arches Called Hewet bridge-its often out of repaire by reason of the force of ye water that Swells after great raines, yet I see they made works of wood on purpose to breake the violence of ye Streame and ye Middle arche is very Large and high.
There are Severall good houses about ye town and Severall Gentlemens Seates about a mile or two distance’…She went on to describe Newby Hall which she thought was the finest country house in Yorkshire at the time.
Celia’s interests
Celia was nothing if not practical. She was interested in what she saw, the lives people led and the sights that she might see. She always wrote about town markets, describing how busy they were and whether they were thriving or not.
Celia was also very enthusiastic about stone built houses, wide streets and cleanlinesss. Rather than looking to the past her writing suggests she was in favour of modernity. Interestingly, many of Ripon’s buildings were rebuilt from brick by the time of Celia’s visit – or at least old timber framed buildings were being record in brick to make them look thoroughly modern. Obviously brick was less expensive that stone – by the end of the Georgian period it was the building material of choice and reflects the changing social status of town dwellers as well as the increasing wealth of the urban and mercantile classes.
Inevitably my pictures of Ripon town are locked up on my faulty external hard drive – but at least its an excuse to go back…
Setting aside civil war and plague, the end of the seventeenth century saw the start of what can only be described as the UK’s tourist industry with the likes of Celia Fiennes making long journeys to improve her health. Her work wasn’t published until the eighteenth century. It was also forgotten for a long time before being rediscovered. Daniel Defoe’s Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain, the first volume published in 1724, was second only in popularity to Robinson Crusoe.
Less well known today are the works of John Taylor who made a journey in 1618 from London to Edinburgh on foot in 1618 and followed it up with a published account – oddly enough I don’t feel the need to replicate his journey.
John Ogilby published the first modern road map in 1675. I love the roads with their mountains and lakes looking remarkably like something from The Hobbit but without the dragons. Travel couldn’t be described as straightforward even with a map. The roads were often terrible and there were highwaymen of the non-romantic variety not to mention the vagaries of accommodation and the weather. Rather like Betjeman I’m more enthused by train journeys and car travel – not to mention a lovely hotel or holiday cottage.
One of the reasons I enjoy Betjeman’s poetry is because of his description of towns and other places he visits – though I think he may have been a little unfair on Slough. The Shell Guide to Cornwall, written in 1934, heralds the age of cheaper motor transport and modern tourism. I will admit to preferring Arthur Mee’s King’s England series. I love the detail contained in them, although they are very much a product of the period in which they were written – I’m not sure that you’d be encouraged to provide quite so much moral critique today – although its a tone the series shares in common with Daniel Defoe and Celia Fiennes. And to be honest, they’re not really guide books as such – more something for the reader to dip into, although I will admit that if I’m planning a journey I always looks to see what the King’s England for a particular has to say about local churches.
Then of course there are the modern histories and travel guides. The number of them reflects changing leisure time as well as ease of transport. I used to love Letter from America with Alasdair Cooke when I was a teenager. And, if I’m going to broaden the field – it’s impossible to think of travelogues without mentioning Bill Bryson. And I haven’t even ventured that deep into the realm of travel writing.
And why am I posting this? Well, I’ve just completed and sent off the ms for The Little History of Nottinghamshire. On Monday I’m beginning a four week class on Celia Fiennes. It’s not too late to sign up if you’d like to join me exploring various locations with Celia and her two servants.
Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange
*oil on panel
*64.5 x 53.8 cm
*inscribed c.l.: ‘Prince Maurice Aetatis 15. A1629 Prince Maurice’ et ‘Fridericus Henricus Aetatis. 15 A. 1629.
Frederick Henry of the Palatinate was born on 1 January 1614. His birth was celebrated by cannon fire in Heidelberg and bonfires in Scotland. Elizabeth of Bohemia was James VI/I’s daughter and at that time, soon after the death of her brother Prince Henry, the succession did not look as secure as it once had. Elizabeth’s surviving brother, Charles, was a sickly child and it was not certain that he would live to adulthood. The birth of Frederick ensured that there would be a male heir to the Scottish and English thrones. King James was so pleased that he granted his daughter 12,000 crowns per year.
In 1618, when his father became King of Bohemia, Frederick Henry accompanied his parents to Prague for their coronation and in 1620 went on a royal progress through Bohemia and part of the Palatinate. Within two years, the Holy Roman Emperor made war on the Bohemians who had chosen to elect a Protestant king rather than a Catholic overlord. Frederick was sent with his uncle, Louis, and bags containing his mother’s jewels to safety in Holland. It was May 1621 before the prince was reunited with his parents who were now exiles without a kingdom.
As the number of the prince’s siblings increased, a royal nursery was set up at Leiden, known as the Prince’s court. Frederick’s education continued at Leiden University while his parents suggested possible matches for him that would see the Palatinate returned if not to their hands, at least to the Prince Palatinate.
The prince had finished his education when the West India Company, of which Elizabeth was a shareholder, captured a Spanish treasure fleet. The teenager expressed a desire to see it. He and his father, who was not campaigning against the Holy Roman Empire at that time, travelled to Amsterdam. They approached the port as darkness fell. It was cold and foggy. While crossing the Haalemmermeer there was an accident. The Elector was rescued but his son was not. Despite Frederick’s attempts to locate his heir, the body, which had become tangled in rigging, was not found until the next day.
Frederick Henry was privately buried at the Kloosterkerk in The Hague.
De Caus was a French Huguenot who was an engineer and a garden designer. He arrived in England in about 1610 where he soon found himself in the employ of Anne of Denmark and Prince Henry. The former asked him to build aviaries for her birds as well as assorted fountains and grottos. He worked on the design for Somerset House’s garden and also for Hatfield House where Lord Cecil wanted a new fountain. His work at Richmond Palace was for Prince Henry – who also wanted to improve water supplies. His most famous employer was Elizabeth’s husband Frederick, Elector Palatinate who commissioned him to create gardens at Heidelberg.
De Caus’s inspirations came from his travels to Italy during the 1590s. IN 1601 he worked for the governor of the Spanish Netherlands and in 1605 he was described as a ‘fountain engineer’. He travelled widely -even so far as Persia.
As well as gardening it is thought that he was responsible for tutoring Prince Henry in mathematics and drawing. Nadine Akkerman also states that he taught Elizabeth art and music … the year after he had designed Anna’s French garden in Greenwich”. La Perspective avec la raison des ombres et Miroirs, published in 1612, was dedicated to the Prince who died at the end of the year. Elizabeth would continue to employ de Caus until 1619 not only as a designer of gardens but also a designer of masques.
He had returned to France by 1624 where he wrote a book abut sun dials.
Luke Morgan, Nature as Model: Salomon de Caus and Early Seventeenth Century Landscape design.
Robert Peake the elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
I’m very much enjoying my current research into the life of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia as a child. A particular delight has been the work of Robert Peake the Elder who died in 1619 and who was commissioned to paint several portraits of Elizabeth as well as her brothers, Henry Frederick and Charles .
Peake was an apprentice of the miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard. He became a freeman of the Company of Goldsmiths in 1576. By the 1590s he was a fashionable portrait painter at the court of Elizabeth I.
In 1607 he was appointed sergeant-painter to King James I having already been appointed, in 1604, as picture maker to Prince Henry. It was his task to paint the portraits that were sent as gifts to foreign kings and princes. And when not required to do that he was responsible for making sure that the royal collection was up to scratch and if the queen wanted some scenery for a masque that was his job as well.
After Henry’s death in 1612, Peake moved to the household of Henry and Elizabeth’s younger brother, Charles. He died in 1619, the same year as Anne of Denmark. His death and the death of Nicholas Hilliard (1619) saw a change in the way portraits were painted. The style would become increasingly baroque rather than full of the detail viewers often associate with the works of Holbein, Hilliard and Peake – but they also became more fluid. The pictures of Princess Elizabeth, lovely as they may be, as quite stiff in comparison to the work of later artists.
Auerbach, Erna. Tudor artists; a study of painters in the royal service and of portraiture on illuminated documents from the accession of Henry VIII to the death of Elizabeth I. (London: University of London, Athlone Press, 1954)
Eleanor Hay – Lady Eleanor Livingston, Countess of Linlithgow
Well it’s a bit different but it’s almost inevitable that the raising of sixteenth and seventeenth century children should bring me to this point. Fletcher records that there are 22 printed guides for parents, often drawing on the Bible, advocating physical punishment. One went so far as to say that it purged corruption from the child – always good to find a Puritan viewpoint (forget Romantic images of children trailing clouds of glory), the Stuart period was definitely more into the sinfulness of infants. And let’s be clear this was applied to girls as well as boys.
Not that beating was the first recourse of a Protestant household. It was essential to bring a child up in fear and obedience. This meant that manners were an essential part of childhood education, as they had always been. Silence could be added to the list – seen and not heard was an essential during church services. Mothers and nurses were expected to teach young children their prayers, to read their Bible and the correct behaviour in a place of worship. In an age associated with cheap print, catechisms of questions and answers were readily available for the authoritative mother.
For Elizabeth Stuart born at the end of the sixteenth century and raised by her governess Lady Eleanor Livingston there was the additional problem of Eleanor’s faith. She was known to be a Catholic. The Presbyterian Church were alarmed by the way she raised her own five children, accusing her of keeping them from attending services at one point. The thought that a royal princess might be indoctrinated with Catholic beliefs was a source of friction between king and Church.
Even worse, Elizabeth, a girl, was expected to learn obedience and Eleanor Livingston was not obedient. Her husband, Andrew Livingston, 7th Lord Livingston was Protestant so it seemed to the Scottish Church that his wife ought to accept his faith. They even arranged for a chaplain from Stirling to teach her. She ended up being accused of obduracy. Eleanor was not a good role model for obedience, especially as she challenged male superiority of thought and mind in her continued refusal to accept Presbyterianism. Whatever else she might have been Princess Elizabeth’s governess was neither weak nor passive.
And for whatever reason, James VI concluded that the Livingstons were the best people to raise his daughters. The nursery at Linlithgow was closer to Dunfermline than Stirling, so although it was difficult for Queen Anne to visit her son it was much easier for her to visit Elizabeth, and a short lived sister Margaret. Anne was also firm friends with Eleanor and while James would not permit his wife to oversee the royal nursery he did care for her at the start of their marriage. He might not have expected that in 1601 Anne would become Catholic, further complicating the business of raising the royal brood.
Interested in the Winter Queen? Block of seven Zoom classes about the life and times of Elizabeth Stuart beginning 20 January 2025.
And a very happy new year to History Jar readers – let’s hope I’m a bit more organised in 2025! I’m not sure what happened to 2024 or to December for that matter.
And with that in mind I’m having a sort out of my computer files so that I can be more organised. I’ve already come across a rather helpful document from Leeds Library and Information Service that I forgot I had. It outlines Yorkshire battles from Saxon times onwards and can be found here: https://secretlibraryleeds.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/yorkshire-battles-research-guide-viewing-version-new.pdf. I think I’ll probably do something similar for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire – not that it will contain so many significant battles but it will at least help me be a bit more organised as yet another writing deadlines approach.
And talking of which – I’m giving a talk on the border reivers via Zoom this Saturday for YAHS Medieval Section at 2pm. I usually focus on the Elizabethan period so there is a little tweaking of material going on presently and, of course, I am starting a series of History Jar zoom talks on Monday 20 January on the subject of the Winter Queen, Elizabeth Stuart the daughter of King James VI/I. A place can be book at the HistoryJar via PayPal.
The Winter Queen was a rather cruel jest against Elizabeth’s husband, Frederick V of the Palatinate who was offered the crown of Bohemia but only ruled from 1619 until 1620. The problem was that the people of that kingdom were largely Protestant but their rulers were Catholic. In 1618 they rebelled against Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor, and then asked Frederick if he fancied the job. The nobles had their fingers crossed that if Frederick took the crown he would have the backing of his father-in-law, James VI/I. They also thought that the Protestant Union, which had been founded by Frederick’s father, would support him. Unfortunately for the Bohemians and for Frederick neither the king nor the union was prepared to back the new king. A year and four days after he was crowned Frederick lost the Battle of the White Mountain (which sounds as though it should be something in Lord of the Rings).
Elizabeth and her family was forced to flee into exile in The Hague while her husband became enmeshed in the Thirty Years War which had been heralded by his assumption of the Bohemian Crown. A kinder nickname for Elizabeth was the Queen of Hearts – mainly because everyone liked her.
