Colonel, Lord Charles Cavendish (1620-1643)

British (English) School. Oil painting on canvas, Colonel, Lord Charles Cavendish (1620-1643), British (English) School, 1640-1643. A three-quarter length portrait, against a landscape background, standing, turned slightly to the left, gazing at spectator, dark curly shoulder-length hair and wearing buff-coloured doublet and breastplate, white shirt, gold and red embroidered sleeves and breeches, and white lace shoulder-collar; a baton in his right hand, his helmet, left. The sitter was was born the second son of William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Devonshire (1590-1628) (then still Lord Cavendish) and his wife Christian Bruce (1595-1675). The Prince of Wales (later Charles I) was his godfather. In 1638 he went on the Grand Tour, during which he roved as far afield as Greece, Egypt, and - according to the account given by Edward Lyte to his cousin John Aubrey - Babylon. He did not return to England until May 1641. After his return, he served in a campaign under the Prince of Orange on the Continent, and after the outbreak of the Civil War as a volunteer under Lord Bernard Stuart. He so distinguished himself at Edgehill, in 1642, that he was first given the command of the Duke of York's troop, and then, after a disagreement, was given a commission to raise a regiment of horse in the North. Having established himself at Newark, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, with the rank of Colonel-general. In March 1643 he took Grantham, and in July, Burton-on-Trent, when escorting the Queen from Newark to Oxford, but then died 28 July 1643 when trying to prevent Cromwell from raising the siege of Gainsborough. Described in the funeral sermon preached by William Naylor in 1674 as 'the soldiers' mignon and his majesty's darling'. Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire (Accredited Museum)