James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos
Henry James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos PC DL FRS (born January 6, 1673 in Dewsall , Herefordshire , † August 9, 1744 in Cannons , Whitchurch , Middlesex ) was a British nobleman, builder and patron .
Brydges was seen as a model of the corrupt, dissolute, splendor-loving and arts-promoting nobleman of the 18th century. He made enormous fortunes in the shadow of Marlborough and had one of the most magnificent mansions in England built. Because of his lavish lifestyle, which, according to statements of his contemporaries , is said to have corresponded to that of a German elector at its best , he was nicknamed "The Princely Chandos" (the princely Chandos). But as quickly as its star rose, it went out again. " [...] all he got by fraud is lost by stocks " (German: "What he acquired through fraud, he lost through stocks"), wrote Jonathan Swift in 1734. In order to be able to pay off his debts, his residence became Canons after his death removed and the building material auctioned. Chandos was a patron and patron of the composer Georg Friedrich Händel , through whose Chandos Anthems his name became immortal.
Life
James Brydges was the eldest son of James Brydges, 8th Baron Chandos , and his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Henry Barnard of Bridgnorth ( Salop ). His father was the British ambassador to Constantinople from 1680 to 1685 . He attended Westminster School and studied at New College at the University of Oxford . From March 1692 to May 1694 he stayed at the Rudolph-Antoniana Knight Academy in Wolfenbüttel .
James was elected to the House of Commons for the City of Hereford in 1698 , where he held a seat until he moved to the House of Lords after the death of his father . On October 19, 1714, three days after his father's death, he was to celebrate the accession I. George to Viscount Wilton and Earl of Carnarvon and on 30 April 1719 Marquess of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos raised.
From 1707 to 1713, during the War of the Spanish Succession , he was Paymaster-General of the Forces Abroad , an extremely lucrative post which he used according to the customs of the time, above all to enrich himself. In 1711 the House of Commons opened an investigation into missing sums, but Brydges had no consequences. It is said that in this way he appropriated the enormous sum of £ 600,000 to £ 700,000.
In April 1721, the Duke was appointed Governor of the Charterhouse and on August 25th, Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire and Radnorshire , offices which he received again after the accession of George II in 1727. He was also Chancellor of the University of St Andrews .
The Princeley Chandos died on August 9, 1744. He was buried in a magnificent tomb in the St. Lawrence Church of Stanmore Parva , Middlesex , which he had rebuilt and erected to new on the tower in 1715 and the inauguration in 1720 Handel's Esther premiered has been.
Canons or baroque splendor
Brydges used his money by building a splendid mansion, Canons or Cannons , in Whitchurch near Edgware (Middlesex); a second in Cavendish Square , London, was not completed. Three architects ( William Talman , John James and James Gibbs ) and the Italian painters Purgotti and Paolucci were hired to build and furnish the house . The garden was laid out by Alexander Blackwell . There was a splendid chapel for which the duke had its own choir. The expenses for the construction of the house are said to have amounted to 200,000 pounds (according to today's value approx. € 35 million). Francesco Scarlatti , brother of Alessandro Scarlatti , belonged to the "court orchestra" des Dukes, which comprised up to 30 musicians of the first class . The composer Georg Friedrich Händel lived for two years as composer-in-residence (German: "court composer") in Canons (summer 1717 to spring 1719). Here he composed the Chandos anthems and the first English oratorio Esther for the services .
The baroque splendor of the duke and his castle-like mansion was also reflected in contemporary literature. The moral-satirical epistle to Lord Burlington published in December 1731 by Alexander Pope contains a famous description of "Timon's Villa".
- At Timon's villa let us pass a day,
- Where all cry out, "What sums are thrown away!"
- So proud, so grand of that stupendous air,
- Soft and agreeable come never there.
The figure of Timon and the villa were immediately identified as the Duke of Chandos and Canons , respectively , and Pope was said to have paid him for it. In his epistle "Of the knowledge and characters of men" (1733) Pope dedicates the line "Thus gracious Chandos is beloved at sight" to the Duke .
Daniel Defoe describes the splendor of Canons in his Tour through Great Britain (1725). He reports that the household consisted of over 120 people, while Pope told Hill that it had less than 100 employees, and goes on to say that the choir entertained the dinner party every day.
A poem of Chandos; or, the Vision by Charles Gildon appeared in 1717 and another on the same subject by S. Humphreys appeared in 1728.
Canons only survived its builder by a few years. Since the Duke through speculation, u. a. in connection with the so-called. South Sea Bubble ( South Sea Bubble was experiencing financial difficulties), was Canons demolished in 1747 and auctioned as a building material. A certain William Hallet, who bought the property, used some of the building materials to build a new building on the foundations of the old one (now part of the North London Collegiate School ). The colonnades are now at the front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square , London , and the gates at Trinity College , Oxford . The stairwell was rebuilt in Chesterfield House and the statue of George I stood in Leicester Square until 1873 .
Family and succession
Brydges was married three times: On February 27, 1697 he married Mary († December 1712), the daughter of Sir Thomas Lake, from Canons. He had nine children with her, but only two sons survived. After Mary's death, he married his cousin Cassandra († 1735), daughter of Sir Francis Willoughby, from Wollaton ( Nottinghamshire ) in August 1713 , and in 1736 he married Lydia Catherine, daughter of John Van Hatten and widow of Sir Thomas Davall, of Ramsey, Essex, a wealthy heiress who brought an estimated £ 40,000 into the marriage. She took her widow's residence in Shaw House , near Newbury, an estate that her husband had bought in 1721, but which he was not able to take possession of until seven years later due to legal complications. After her death in 1750 she was buried in the church there.
As Duke of Chandos he was followed by his son Henry (1708–71), who is said to have bought his second wife from a groom, and his grandson James (1731–1789). After the latter died in September 1789 without an heir, all titles became extinct except for the Scottish title Lord Kinloss , which passed to the only daughter Anna Elizabeth (1779-1836), Baroness Kinloss. On April 16, 1796, Anna Elisabeth married Richard Grenville , later the Marquess of Buckingham , who was raised to Duke of Buckingham and Chandos by George IV in 1822 .
literature
- Leslie Stephen : Brydges, James . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 7: Brown - Burthogge. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1886, pp. 162 - 163 (English).
- Joan Johnson: Brydges, James, first duke of Chandos (1674-1744). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of September 2010
- John Robert Robinson: The Princely Chandos, A Memoir Of James Brydges, Paymaster-General To The Forces Abroad During The Most Brilliant Part Of The Duke Of Marlborough's Military Career, 1705-1711, Afterwards The First Duke Of Chandos. Weldon 1898.
- CH Collins Baker, Muriel I. Baker: The Life and Circumstances of James Brydges, First Duke of Chandos, Patron of the Liberal Arts. , Clarendon Press, Oxford 1949.
- Joan Johnson: Princely Chandos: James Brydges, 1674-1744 . Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester, England 1984, ISBN 0-86299-115-3 .
- Susan Jenkins: Portrait of a Patron. The Patronage and Collecting of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, 1674-1744 . Aldershot 2007.
- Chandos, Barons and Dukes of . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 5 : Calhoun - Chatelaine . London 1910, section James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos (1673–1744) , pp. 838–839 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
- James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos on thepeerage.com
- Entry on Brydges, James (1674–1744), 1st Duke of Chandos in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard E. Strasser: The reading intentions of Wolfenbüttel teachers and students in the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Wolfenbüttel notes on book history. Volume 34, 2009, issue 1/2, pp. 68–69.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| New title created |
Duke of Chandos 1719-1744 |
Henry Brydges |
| New title created |
Earl of Carnarvon 1714-1744 |
Henry Brydges |
| James Brydges |
Baron Chandos 1714-1744 |
Henry Brydges |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brydges, James, 1st Duke of Chandos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Chandos, Henry James Brydges 1st Duke of; Brydges, James; Brydges, James, 1st Earl of Carnarvon |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British nobleman, builder and patron |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1673 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dewsall , Herefordshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 9, 1744 |
| Place of death | Cannons , Whitchurch (London) , Middlesex |