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….