Charles Cavendish (Nottingham)

Sir Charles Cavendish (ca. 1594 – 1654) was an English aristocrat, Member of Parliament, and patron of philosophers and mathematicians.

He was the younger brother of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and was knighted by James I in 1619. He was MP for Nottingham in 1624 and 1628, and sat in the Short Parliament of 1640. He built a mansion on the site of Bolsover Castle, bought by his father (also called Sir Charles Cavendish). His work on the house, to a design by John Smythson (son of Robert Smythson), was never completed. He was knighted, at Welbeck on 10 August 1619, during a visit of the king to his brother. On 23 January 1623-4, he was returned to parliament for the borough of Nottingham. He was also returned for the same place to the third parliament of Charles I on 18 February 1627-8, and to the Short parliament on 30 March 1640. On the outbreak of the civil war, Cavendish, with his brother Newcastle, entered the king's service, serving under his brother as lieutenant-general of the horse. He behaved with great gallantry in several actions, particularly distinguishing himself at the Battle of Marston Moor. He went into exile with his brother after the battle.

His group of intellectual acquaintances has been called the Welbeck Circle, after the family home Welbeck Abbey; it has also been called the "Newcastle Circle" after the elder brother’s title. Because the Cavendishes were royalist émigrés of the 1640s, the centre of this circle moved to Paris, where it took on the form of a salon. It grew around Thomas Hobbes and John Pell, with Sir Kenelm Digby joining in Paris, and also included William Petty.

...
Wikipedia