Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire

Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire

Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire KG , GCVO , PC , FRS (born July 23, 1833 in Lower Holker , Lancashire , † March 24, 1908 in Cannes ) was a British nobleman and politician.

Life and Political Career

He was the eldest surviving son of William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire and, apparently from 1858 , led as his marriage the courtesy title of Marquess of Hartington . He studied at Trinity College , Cambridge . He was elected to the House of Commons for the constituency of North Lancashire in 1857 and joined the Liberal Party .

A capable, if not brilliant, orator and a capable businessman, supported by distinguished, influential family connections, he won a prominent position in his party relatively early and in 1863 became Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of War ("under-secretary for war") in the Palmerston Ministry. ). In January 1866 he was promoted to Minister of War , but resigned with the government in June. When the Liberal Party came back to power under Gladstone in December 1868 , Cavendish became a member of the Cabinet as Postmaster General ; he exchanged his parliamentary seat with that of Radnor .

He later assumed the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland but resigned in early 1874 when the election resulted in a Conservative majority following the dissolution of Parliament by Gladstone . The liberal minority of the House of Commons, now expelled into the opposition, was still led by Gladstone himself in the first session of the new parliament; but when he resigned the parliamentary group chairmanship, Cavendish was elected on February 3, 1875 by the liberal members of parliament by unanimous decision as opposition leader in the lower house. Although he represented a moderate direction within the parliamentary group, he gained the satisfaction of his party comrades more and more and knew how to remain on good terms with the passionate and more radical Gladstone. However, he and Lord Granville (the leader of the Liberal faction in the House of Lords ) were outstripped by Gladstone's Midlothian campaign .

In the new elections in the spring of 1880 he won the seat in North East Lancashire for the Liberal Party . The success of his Midlothian campaign had put Gladstone in a position that cemented his claim to the office of prime minister. Since no government could be formed against him, but he was also not ready to enter any liberal government in which he was not Prime Minister, Cavendish felt compelled to recommend Queen Victoria to invite Gladstone to form a government. Cavendish finally took over the India Ministry in Gladstone's cabinet , which he exchanged with the War Ministry in December 1882. He resigned with Gladstone in June 1885. Ever since his brother, Lord Frederick Cavendish , was murdered in Dublin (the Phoenix Park murders ), Cavendish rejected Gladstone’s Ireland policy more and more. When Gladstone introduced the House of Commons for the first Home Rule Bill for Ireland, Cavendish separated from him, did not take a seat in his third cabinet (February 1886) and headed the Liberal Unionists who thwarted Gladstone's Irish plans. In 1886 he was offered the office of Prime Minister several times . Cavendish refused in any case and instead supported the conservative governments under Salisbury with his Liberal Unionists .

When his father died in 1891 Cavendish inherited his title of nobility as Duke of Devonshire . He became a member of the House of Lords and resigned from the House of Commons. He joined Salisbury III's cabinet four years later as Lord President of the Council . He held this post until 1903 when he retired from politics.

Family and other offices

Statue of Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire, in Whitehall, London

Cavendish was in a relationship with the courtesan Catherine Walters for many years . At the age of 59 he married Luise Fredericke Auguste Countess von Alten , the widow of William Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester . The marriage remained childless.

Cavendish was Rector of the University of Edinburgh from 1877 to 1880 . In 1892 he was elected Chancellor of Cambridge University in place of his father, who had recently died. He held this office until his death.

Cavendish died in Cannes in 1908 . His titles of nobility passed to his nephew Victor Cavendish . A memorial to the Duke still stands in Whitehall today.

literature

• Patrick Jackson: The Last of the Whigs: A Political Biography of Lord Hartington, Later Eight Duke of Devonshire. Associated University Presses, London 1994.
• Bernard Henry Holland: Cavendish, Spencer Compton . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Supplement Volume 1, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1912, pp. 323-329.

Web links

Commons : Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire on thepeerage.com
• Marquess of Hartington at Hansard (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
William Cavendish	Duke of Devonshire 1891-1908	Victor Cavendish
George Robinson	Secretary of State for War 1866	Jonathan Peel
James Graham	Postmaster General 1868–1871	William Monsell
Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1871–1874	Michael Hicks Beach
Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy	Secretary of State for India 1880-1882	John Wodehouse
Hugh Childers	Secretary of State for War 1882-1885	William Henry Smith
Archibald Primrose	Lord President of the Council 1895-1903	Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil	Leader of the House of Lords 1902-1903	Henry Petty-FitzMaurice