Description
Book SynopsisThe lives of William Cavendish, first duke of Newcastle, and his family including, centrally, his second wife, Margaret Cavendish, are intimately bound up with the overarching story of seventeenth-century England: the violently negotiated changes in structures of power that constituted the Civil Wars, and the ensuing Commonwealth and Restoration of the monarchy. William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, and his Political, Social and Cultural Connections: Authority, Authorship and Aristocratic Identity in Seventeenth Century England brings together a series of interrelated essays that present William Cavendish, his family, household and connections as an aristocratic, royalist case study, relating the intellectual and political underpinnings and implications of their beliefs, actions and writings to wider cultural currents in England and mainland Europe.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on Editors Notes on Contributors List of Illustrations I: Aristocratic Identity Adrian Woodhouse Setting the Scenes : the pre-Civil War building works of William Cavendish in context Elspeth Graham ‘An After-Game of Reputation’: Systems of Representation, William Cavendish and the Battle of Marston Moor Alison Findlay Flogging a Dead Horse?: Margaret Cavendish and the Pursuit of Authority Lisa Hopkins The Concealed Fancies and Cavendish Identity Malcolm Airs Courtly Rivalry: the Context for William Cavendish’s Equestrian Buildings II: Politics and Authority Tim Raylor Hobbes, the Cavendishes and the Science of Motion Lisa Sarasohn The Role of Honour in the Life of William Cavendish and the Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes Andy Hopper William Cavendish as a Military Commander Madeline Dewhurst The Double-Edged Sword: William Cavendish’s Political Career in Exile, 1644-60 James Fitzmaurice Whimsy, Medieval Romance and the Court in the Life of William Cavendish III: Horsemanship, Authority and Identity Elaine Walker ‘The Epitome of Horsemanship’: William Cavendish’s Method ‘anatomized’ Monica Mattfeld Embodying ‘Bonne Homme a Cheval’: William Cavendish and the Politics of the Centaur Peter Edwards Manèging to survive: Horsemanship and the Rehabilitation of the Exiled William Cavendish Richard Nash William Cavendish: Riding School and Race-Track Karen Raber Cavendish’s Horsemanship Treatises and Cultural Capital Index Nominum
