It was an advantage for Cavendish to learn something of foreign countries and customs at the Court of the Duke of Savoy; and in courtiery,[5] as in other professions, it is well for a man to make the inevitable mistakes of early practice away from home. At that Court he was treated with great kindness. The Duchess of Newcastle writes:—
“He went to travel with Sir Henry Wotton who was sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to the then Duke of Savoy; which Duke made very much of My Lord, and when he would be free in Feasting, placed Him next to himself. Before My Lord did return with the Ambassador into England, the said Duke profer’d my Lord, that if he would stay with him, he would not onely confer upon him the best Titles of Honour he could, but also give him an honourable Command in War, although My Lord was but young, for the Duke had then some designs of War. But the Ambassador, who had taken the care of My Lord, would not leave Him behind without His Parents consent.”
[5] A word used by Ben Jonson.
“At last, when My Lord took his leave of the Duke, the Duke being a very generous person, presented him with a Spanish Horse, a saddle very richly embroidered, and with a rich Jewel of Diamonds.”
About a year after William Cavendish’s return from Savoy, his father died; but the dates of the events recently recorded in this chapter vary so much according to different authorities, that it is difficult to arrive at anything like accuracy respecting them. Sir Charles Cavendish left his son great wealth and, as a very rich man was a valuable asset even to a King in those early times, Cavendish’s position at Court became more than doubly assured. On the other hand, he is said not to have been a favourite of that almighty potentate, Buckingham, although their correspondence shows that they professed to be on terms of friendship.
Some five years after his father’s death, Cavendish married. His second wife thus describes the marriage with his first:—
“His mother, being then a Widow, was desirous that My Lord should marry; in obedience to whose commands, he chose a Wife both to his own good liking, and his Mothers approving; who was Daughter and Heir to William Basset of Blore[6] Esq., a very honourable and ancient family in Staffordshire, by whom was added a great part to His Estate, as hereafter shall be mentioned”.
[6] This was the Blore near Ashbourne, and not the Blore near Blore Heath (also in Staffordshire), where the battle of that name was fought.