William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire

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William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire
Coat of arms of William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire

William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire ( 1672 - June 4, 1729 ) was a British peer and politician.

Life

He was the eldest son of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire and Lady Mary Butler.

In 1695 he was first elected to the House of Commons . He was there from 1695 to 1701 Knight of the Shire for Derbyshire , 1702 Burgess for Castle Rising in Norfolk 1702 and 1702 to 1707 Knight of the Shire for Yorkshire . In Parliament he belonged to the Whigs' party . When his father died in 1707, he inherited his title of nobility as Duke of Devonshire and was promoted to the House of Lords .

From 1702 to 1707 he was Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard . He became a member of the Privy Council in 1707 and sat from 1716 to 1717 and 1725 to 1729 this body as Lord President of the Council . From 1707 to 1710 he acted as travel judge (Chief Justice in Eyre, North of Trent) and held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire from 1707 to 1710 and from 1714 to 1729 . In 1710 he was inducted into the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion and in 1714, 1720 to 1725 and 1727 he served as Lord Justice of the Realm .

Marriage and offspring

He married on June 21, 1688 Rachel Russel (1674-1725), a daughter of William Russel, Lord Russel, son and heir of William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford . Together with Rachel Russel he had the following children:

He also had an illegitimate daughter from an extramarital relationship with actress Mary Heneage:

Importance in horse racing

Flying Childers, portrayed by James Seymour

William Cavendish was the owner of Flying Childers , who is considered the first true racehorse in horse racing and which ended his racing career unbeaten. He is a son of the Arabian stallion Darley Arabian , imported from Syria by Thomas Darley to Aldby Park , Buttercrambe in 1704 , who is one of the three founding fathers of the English thoroughbred alongside Byerley Turk and Godolphin Barb .

One of the legends of Flying Childers is that he would have run 3 and 3/4 miles in six minutes and 40 seconds. With this, William Cavendish praised the stallion after he had acquired him from Colonel Leonhard Childers. Little importance is attached to the statement today - the stallion would have run the mile faster than modern racehorses on carefully prepared racetracks over shorter distances.

William Cavendish used the stallion as a breeding stallion at his stud after his racing career. Due to the racing success of his offspring in 1730 and 1736, Flying Childers was champion of sire horses in England and Ireland . The total winnings of his sons and daughters in the past year are determined for each stallion . Prize money is counted which the sons and daughters have won in flat races in England and Ireland.

However, the stallion did not have a lasting influence on the breeding of the English thoroughbred horse and is considered to be one of the first racing champions who were not able to permanently pass on their performance on the racetrack to their offspring. Flying Childers' full brother Bleeding Childers had a significantly greater influence on the breeding of the English thoroughbred . The stallion, unsuitable for racing, was sold by Leonard Childers to the cloth dyer John Bartlett from Richmond. He also used the horse with the illustrious parentage and relationship as a stallion. Bleeding Childers is among other things the ancestor of Eclipse , the most important racehorse of the second half of the 18th century. Through this line, Darley Arabian is male ancestor of 95 percent of all English thoroughbreds.

literature

  • Christopher McGrath: Mr. Darley's Arabian - High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in Twenty-Five Horses . John Murray, London 2016, ISBN 978-1-84854-984-5 .

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ McGrath: Mr. Darley's Arabian . Chapter The cross strains now in being are without end , E-Book position 699.
  2. ↑ McGrath: Mr. Darley's Arabian . Chapter The cross strains now in being are without end , E-Book position 700.
  3. ↑ Thoroughbreds with clear relationships ( memento of March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ 95% of thoroughbreds linked to one superstud . In: New Scientist , September 6, 2005. 
predecessor Office successor
William Cavendish Lord Steward of the Household
1707-1710 		John Sheffield
William Cavendish Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire
1707-1710 		Nicholas Leke
John Poulett Lord Steward of the Household
1714-1716 		Henry Gray
Nicholas Leke Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire
1714–1729 		William Cavendish
Daniel Finch Lord President of the Council
1716-1717 		Charles Spencer
Henry Boyle Lord President of the Council
1725-1729 		Thomas Trevor
William Cavendish Duke of Devonshire
1707-1729 		William Cavendish
personal data
SURNAME Cavendish, William, 2nd Duke of Devonshire
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cavendish, William; Devonshire, William Cavendish 2nd Duke of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nobleman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1672
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1729