bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Cavalier - A Story of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses
by Lucy Worsley
Faber and Faber, HK$240
There are two great excitements to Lucy Worsley's Cavalier, a spirited portrait of not just the aristocrat William Cavendish, but of many who knew him before and after the Civil War that wracked the British Isles in the mid-17th century.
Further, many of the grandiose building projects he financed, such as Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire, are still standing. And many of the changes that swept England four centuries ago - umbrellas, flush toilets, shaking hands rather than doffing hats - are fixtures of day-to-day life now. Cliche though it may be, this is history brought to life.
All this is relayed with tremendous gusto by Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, who  obviously thrills to these historic times, sleuthing through piles of ancient papers and weaving their detail into a fast-paced narrative. She writes, with no little glee: 'The iron in [17th-century] ink causes it to age to a pale ochre. When the documents are tilted to the light, fragments of minerals sparkle in every letter'.
Cavendish - latterly Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and Duke of Newcastle - was born just before Christmas 1593, the second son of Sir Charles Cavendish, and his ultimately privileged life played out to the ebb and flow of political events during much of the next century. A close ally of  increasingly tyrannical King Charles I, Cavendish was at the head of the Royalist army routed in a night attack by Parliamentary forces at the Battle of Marsden Moor, outside York, in 1644. Utterly demoralised, he fled to the continent, not returning to England until 1660 when, following an unsuccessful  flirtation with republicanism, the monarchy was restored under King Charles II.
Previously, Cavendish (who was both a noted horseman and an unflagging womaniser) had tutored the young Prince of Wales, teaching him to ride and undoubtedly passing on a few tips about the opposite sex, thereby laying the foundations for the future king's Merry Monarch nickname. Restored to his family and fortunes, Cavendish spent the remaining 16 years of his life consolidating his position, notably in the bricks and mortar that survive to this day.
Such are the bare bones of this biography. Worsley writes in the present tense, making the events all the more immediate. While at times she has to employ her imagination when it comes to what Cavendish might have thought or done, most of the text is based on solid, fascinating research. She has unearthed not only the duties of the gatekeepers at Richmond Palace, but their names. A castle's layout is intriguingly depicted by following the steps of a maid on her way from Cavendish's bedroom to empty his chamber pot. The reader is left in no doubt that everybody, from monarch to milkmaid, stank like polecats, that medical care (purges, blood letting, vomiting) was of the kill-or-cure variety, and that people's existence was regularly brutal: witness the high rate of infant mortality and the painstaking detail of daily routine in kitchen slaughterhouses.
Yet there was a more refined side to life. Cavendish was ahead of his time in his appreciation of the arts, especially architecture. He wrote tender, gentle verses to his first and second wives, showered affection on his children and organised a magnificent masque (by the impoverished Ben Jonson), complete with hi-tech special effects, to entertain the king and queen - albeit with the intention of improving his standing at court.
The spoof history 1066 and All That labelled the Cavaliers 'wrong but romantic'. This riveting and skilfully written biography happily stresses the latter quality.



Cavalier - A Story of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses