View source for William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire

{{short description|Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1756 to 1757}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[Grace (style)|His Grace]]
| name             = The Duke of Devonshire
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|KG|PC}}
| image            = 4th Duke of Devonshire after Hudson.jpg
| image_size       = 250
| caption          = Portrait by [[Thomas Hudson (painter)|Thomas Hudson]], {{circa}} 1750s
| order            = [[Prime Minister of Great Britain]]
| term_start       = 16 November 1756
| term_end         = 29 June 1757
| monarch          = [[George II of Great Britain|George II]]
| predecessor      = [[Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle|The Duke of Newcastle]]
| successor        = The Duke of Newcastle
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1720|5|8|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[St Martin's-in-the-Fields]], [[City of London|London]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1764|10|2|1720|5|8|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Spa, Belgium|Spa]], [[Austrian Netherlands]]
| resting_place    = [[Derby Cathedral]]
| alma_mater       = 
| parents          = [[William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire]]<br>[[Catherine Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire|Catherine Hoskins]]
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Charlotte Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington|Charlotte Boyle, 6th Baroness Clifford]]|27 March 1748|8 December 1754|reason=died}}
| children         = [[William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire]]<br>[[Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland]]<br>[[Lord Richard Cavendish (1752–1781)|Lord Richard Cavendish]]<br>[[George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington]]
| party            = [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]]
| signature        = William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire Signature.svg
}}
[[File:Coat of arms of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, KG, PC.png|thumb|262px|right|Coat of arms of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, KG, PC]]
'''William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire''' (8 May 1720 – 2 October 1764), styled '''Lord Cavendish''' before 1729, and '''Marquess of Hartington''' between 1729 and 1755, was a British [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] statesman and nobleman who was briefly nominal [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister of Great Britain]].<ref>[http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/duke-of-devonshire Duke of Devonshire] {{webarchive|url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080908205053/http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/duke-of-devonshire |date=8 September 2008 }}, No10.gov.uk, accessed July 2009 - Note that the picture on this site is wrong: it was painted after his death and is in fact a portrait of his son.</ref> He was the first son of [[William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire]] and his wife, [[Catherine Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire|Catherine (née Hoskins)]]. He is also a great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of [[King Charles III]] through the king's maternal great-grandmother, [[Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne]].

In October 1762, [[George III]] suspected that Devonshire and [[Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle]], were plotting against him. He had mistaken a visit by Devonshire as a tender of resignation, but George refused to see him in person. Four days later, George personally struck out Devonshire's name from the list of Privy Councillors.<ref>John Brooke, ''King George III'' (Panther, 1974), pp. 170–171.</ref> 

Cavendish's health declined during the 1760s. He visited the town of [[Spa, Belgium|Spa]] in the [[Austrian Netherlands]] for treatment in its [[mineral baths]], but he died there in October 1764. Dying at the age of 44 years and 147 days, Devonshire remains the shortest-lived British prime minister. Devonshire was buried at [[Derby Cathedral]].<ref name="CavODNB">''CavODNB''.</ref>

==Early life==
The eldest of four sons of [[William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire]], and [[Catherine Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire|Catherine (née Hoskins)]], he was baptised on 1 June 1720 at [[St Martin's-in-the-Fields]] in London. He was possibly educated privately at home before going on a [[grand tour]] in France and Italy, accompanied by his tutor, in 1739-40.<ref name="ODNB">Karl Wolfgang Schweizer, ‘[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4949 Cavendish,  William, fourth duke of Devonshire  (bap. 1720, d. 1764)]’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008, accessed 1 August 2010.</ref>

==Early career: 1741&ndash;1756==
He was elected [[Member of Parliament|MP]] for [[Derbyshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Derbyshire]] in 1741 and 1747. Devonshire was a supporter of Sir [[Robert Walpole]] and, after Walpole's fall from power, of the Pelhams. [[Henry Pelham]] wrote to Devonshire's father that he was "our mainstay among the young ones, of themselves liable to wander".<ref>G. M. D. Howat, 'The Duke of Devonshire (1756–1757)’, in Herbert van Thal (ed.), ''The Prime Ministers. Volume the First. Sir Robert Walpole to Sir Robert Peel'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1974), pp. 95–96.</ref>

[[Horace Walpole]] described him as "a favourite by descent of the Old Whigs"<ref>Horace Walpole, ''Memoirs of King George II. I: January 1751 – March 1754'' (Yale University Press, 1985), p. 8.</ref> and as "errant [a] bigot to the Pelham faction as ever [[Jacques Clément]] was to the Jesuits".<ref>Walpole, p. 122.</ref>

He had been offered the post of governor to the [[George III|Prince of Wales]] but he declined.<ref>Walpole, p. 61.</ref>

Pelham appointed him [[Master of the Horse]], a post he held until 1755. To take it he left the House of Commons for the Lords by [[writ of acceleration]] as Baron Cavendish and joined the [[Privy Council of Great Britain|Privy Council]].<ref>Peter D. Brown and Karl W. Schweizer (eds.), ''The Devonshire Diary. William Cavendish, Fourth Duke of Devonshire. Memoranda on State Affairs. 1759–1762'' (London: Butler & Tanner Ltd, 1982), p. 5.</ref> 

In 1753, as Marquess of Hartington, he acted as intermediary in arranging a Treasury pension for the journalist [[James Ralph]], editor of the opposition weekly [[The Protester (periodical)|''The Protester'']]; after an introduction by [[David Garrick]] he brokered terms under which Ralph withdrew from political writing.<ref>Elizabeth R. McKinsey, “James Ralph: The Professional Writer Comes of Age,” ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 117, no. 1 (1973): 76.</ref><ref>George Bubb Dodington, ''The Diary of the Late George Bubb Dodington, Baron of Melcombe Regis'' (London: E. Easton, 1784), p. 238, https://books.google.com/books?id=v_MEAAAAYAAJ.</ref>

Devonshire supported the [[Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle|Duke of Newcastle]] after Henry Pelham's death in 1754 and was [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]] from 2 April 1755 until 3 January 1757 in Newcastle's administration. In April 1755 he was one of the Lords Justices of the realm upon the King's absence in Hanover.<ref>Brown and Schweizer, p. 6.</ref>

Devonshire succeeded his father as [[Duke of Devonshire]] in December 1755 after his death.

The [[Seven Years' War]] was going badly for Britain under the leadership of the Duke of Newcastle and when he resigned in October 1756, [[George II of Great Britain|George II]] eventually asked Devonshire to form an administration.<ref>Howat, p. 97.</ref> Devonshire accepted on the condition that his tenure would last only until the end of the parliamentary session. Devonshire believed his duty to the King required an administration capable of prosecuting the war successfully.<ref>Brown and Schweizer, pp. 7–8.</ref>

==Prime Minister: 1756&ndash;1757<span class="anchor" id="Premiership"></span><!-- linked from redirects [[Premiership of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire]], [[Premiership of the Duke of Devonshire]], [[Prime ministership of the Duke of Devonshire]] -->==
{{Further|Pitt&ndash;Devonshire ministry|1757 caretaker ministry}}
{{See also|Great Britain in the Seven Years' War}}

Devonshire was given the [[Order of the Garter|Garter]] and appointed [[First Lord of the Treasury]] (most historians consider him prime minister during this service) in November 1756, and he served as First Lord until May 1757 in an administration effectively run by [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|William Pitt]]. Devonshire's administration secured increased money for the war, troops were sent to America and a [[Militia Act 1757|Militia Act]] was passed.<ref>Howat, p. 98.</ref>

The administration was eventually brought down for a variety of reasons including the opposition of [[George II of Great Britain|George II]] and the alleged mishandling of the trial and execution of Admiral [[John Byng]]. It was replaced by the [[Pitt–Newcastle ministry]] headed by the Duke of Newcastle and including Pitt, [[Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland|Henry Fox]] and the [[John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford|Duke of Bedford]]. This government steered Britain through most of the Seven Years' War, leading the country to ultimate victory.

==Lord Chamberlain: 1757&ndash;1762==
[[File: William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire.JPG|thumb|left|The Duke of Devonshire by [[Thomas Hudson (painter)| Thomas Hudson]], {{circa|1750s}}]]
Devonshire was [[Lord Chamberlain]] in Newcastle's government (with a seat in the inner Cabinet) and his relations with him were close.<ref>Howat, p. 99.</ref> George II died in October 1760 and was succeeded by his grandson [[George III]], who was suspicious of Devonshire and Newcastle. When Newcastle resigned in May 1762 Devonshire said that he would rarely attend [[John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute|Lord Bute's]] councils.

When, in October, George III requested that he attend a Cabinet meeting on peace terms, Devonshire declined, claiming he had inadequate knowledge of the subject.<ref>Howat, p. 100.</ref> 

On 28 October, travelling from Kew to London, the King overtook Devonshire and Newcastle's coach in the belief that the two dukes were plotting and that Devonshire was coming to tender his resignation. He was in fact passing through London to [[Chatsworth House]] and had come to give his leave to the King.  When Devonshire arrived, George III refused to see him, as he later wrote: <blockquote>"I ordered the page to tell him I would not see him, on which he bid him ask me with whom he should leave his wand...I said he would receive my orders...On the Duke of Devonshire's going away he said to the page, ''God bless you, it will be very long before you see me here again''</blockquote> At a meeting of the Privy Council four days later the King personally struck out Devonshire's name from the list of Privy Councillors. In the opinion of one of his biographers, [[John Brooke (English historian)|John Brooke]], "Few things in King George III's long life show him in so poor a light".<ref>John Brooke, ''King George III'' (Panther, 1974), pp. 170–171.</ref>

==Last years: 1762&ndash;1764==
Devonshire resigned his [[Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire|Lord Lieutenancy of Derbyshire]] in solidarity with Newcastle and Rockingham when they were dismissed from their Lord Lieutenancies.<ref name="Howat, p. 101">Howat, p. 101.</ref>

For a long time he had a weak constitution, and he gradually grew more ill during these years. He ultimately died in the [[Austrian Netherlands]], where he had gone to take the waters at [[Spa, Belgium|Spa]]. His death was a large political loss to his allies, the Whig magnates such as the Duke of Newcastle. Dying at the age of 44 years and 147 days, he remains the shortest-lived British prime minister. Devonshire was buried at [[Derby Cathedral]].<ref name="CavODNB">''CavODNB''.</ref>

==Family==
He married [[Charlotte Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington|Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Boyle]], [[Baron Clifford|6th Baroness Clifford]] (1731–1754), the daughter and heiress of [[Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington]] of the first creation, a famous [[architect]] and [[art]] collector and [[Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington|Lady Dorothy Saville]]. The wedding was held at Carlton House, the then residence of the Dowager Lady Burlington, situated between St James' Park and Pall Mall, by special licence on the 28 March, 1748.<ref>''The Register of Marriages (and Burials) belonging to St James's Westminster. 1723-1754''. 28 March 1748.</ref> Through Charlotte, the Devonshires inherited [[Chiswick House]] and [[Burlington House]] in London; [[Bolton Abbey]] and [[Londesborough Hall]] in Yorkshire; and [[Lismore Castle]] in [[County Waterford]], [[Ireland]]. The Duke employed [[Capability Brown]] to landscape the garden and park at [[Chatsworth House]], his main residence. He hired [[James Paine (architect)|James Paine]] to design the new stable block.

The Duke had four children:
*[[William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire]] (1748–1811)
*[[Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland|Lady Dorothy Cavendish]] (27 August 1750 – 3 June 1794). Married [[William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland]], who also became prime minister.
*[[Lord Richard Cavendish (1752–1781)|Lord Richard Cavendish]] (1752–1781)
*[[George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington|George Augustus Henry Cavendish]], created 1st [[Earl of Burlington]] of the second creation (1754–1834). Lord Burlington's grandson, the [[William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire|2nd Earl of Burlington]], would later inherit the Devonshire dukedom as 7th Duke of Devonshire.

==Arms==
{{Emblem table
| image = Coat of arms of Cavendish, Dukes of Devonshire, KG.svg
| crest = A serpent nowed proper.
| coronet = 
| escutcheon = Sable three stags' heads caboshed argent.
| supporters = Two bucks proper, each wreathed round the neck with a chaplet of roses, alternately argent and azure.
| motto =  ''Cavendo tutus'' (Secure by caution).
| orders = The Most Noble Order of the Garter - Knight Companion (KG).<ref>{{cite book |title= Burke's peerage and baronetage |year=1894 |page=424 |URL=https://ukga.org/browse.php?action=ViewRec&DB=33&bookID=227&pagecount=564}}</ref>
| other_versions = The fourth duke arms are sometimes shown with six quarters, and the crest sometimes with a stag (Hardwick).
}}

==Legacy==
[[File:William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, Later 4th Duke of Devonshire.jpg|right|thumb|The Duke of Devonshire]]
[[Horace Walpole]] described Devonshire as possessing "an impatience to do everything, and a fear to do anything, he was always in a hurry to do nothing".<ref>Walpole, p. 30.</ref> [[Paul Langford]] said Devonshire was "eminently sensible and highly respected", and that his death "left a marked gap in the ranks" of the opposition and "effectively destroyed a generation in the 'Old Whig' leadership".<ref>Paul Langford, ''The First Rockingham Administration. 1765-1766'' (Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 13–14.</ref> [[Gerald Howat]] summed up Devonshire's life:

<blockquote>Devonshire had been a moderate among men of great political passion. If scarcely a spectator in the play of events, he had never bestrode the stage. His death, coming just after those of Hardwicke and Legge, deprived the Whigs of three material men. Given health, he might have returned to office in the Crown's restless pursuit of ministers up to 1770. He had been a man with a concern for king and country. He died the acknowledged leader of the Whigs.<ref name="Howat, p. 101"/></blockquote>

[[Karl Schweizer|Karl Wolfgang Schweizer]] says of Devonshire:

<blockquote>Devonshire was a man of solid if not outstanding abilities. He was endowed with the qualities—devotion to friends and duty, patriotism, and unswerving integrity—which made him the ideal sounding board and factotum among the prominent politicians of his day. Unlike Pitt or Fox he lacked a brilliant mind, and his diary provides evidence of devotion to king, country, and duty rather than quickness of intellect. A political broker rather than a leader, he exploited his personal popularity and family prestige to mediate between the factious and egotistical individuals who dominated Dublin and Westminster politics in the 1750s and early 1760s.<ref name="ODNB"/></blockquote>

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==
*John Brooke, ''King George III'' (Panther, 1974).
*Peter D. Brown and Karl W. Schweizer (eds.), ''The Devonshire Diary. William Cavendish, Fourth Duke of Devonshire. Memoranda on State Affairs. 1759-1762'' (London: Butler & Tanner Ltd, 1982).
*G. M. D. Howat, 'The Duke of Devonshire (1756–1757)’, in Herbert van Thal (ed.), ''The Prime Ministers. Volume the First. Sir Robert Walpole to Sir Robert Peel'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1974), pp.&nbsp;93–102.
*Paul Langford, ''The First Rockingham Administration. 1765-1766'' (Oxford University Press, 1973).
*Horace Walpole, ''Memoirs of King George II. I: January 1751 – March 1754'' (Yale University Press, 1985).
*Karl Wolfgang Schweizer, ‘[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4949 Cavendish,  William, fourth duke of Devonshire  (bap. 1720, d. 1764)]’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008, accessed 1 August 2010.

==External links==
{{commonscat}}
* [http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080908205053/http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/duke-of-devonshire More about William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire] on the Downing Street website.
* {{UK National Archives ID}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Devonshire, William Cavendish, 4th Duke Of}}
[[Category:William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire| ]]
[[Category:1720 births]]
[[Category:1764 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English nobility]]
[[Category:18th-century Irish landowners]]
[[Category:Politicians from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:People from Derbyshire]]
[[Category:Cavendish family|William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire]]
[[Category:Dukes of Devonshire|104]]
[[Category:Knights of the Garter]]
[[Category:Lord-lieutenants of Derbyshire]]
[[Category:Lords Lieutenant of Ireland]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of Ireland]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Derbyshire|Hartington, William Cavendish, Marquess of]]
[[Category:British MPs 1741–1747]]
[[Category:British MPs 1747–1754]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Lord high treasurers of Ireland]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society|Cavendish, William]]
[[Category:Leaders of the House of Lords]]
[[Category:Whig prime ministers of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:First Lords of the Treasury]]