Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire

464:, "If the calamity be only to terrify not to punish our foul faults, for which I fear we must bleed e'er we can expiate them, I hope there is left a possibility for your Lordship again to see this part of the world." In another letter she advised him against taking sides in the conflict, "You had better be suspected of both sides than a party to either ... If you exclude yourself in reason and religion there's enough to plead for you, even to satisfy the nicest opinions." Some of these letters are dated at "Les", meaning 38: 141: 870: 482:

Her biographer Thomas Pomfret described her correspondence with royalists in "characters" or cipher code during the years she lived at Ampthill from 1647 to 1650. The work of receiving and opening and making these cipher letters was shared only with her nephew

302:, the value of which she increased by prudent management. She coped with her husband's debts and thirty lawsuits. In January 1634 she travelled to London with her family, and Thomas Hobbes described her arrival at 181:. Her first biographer said she was called "Christian" because she was born on or near Christmas Day. "Christian" was not an unusual name in Scotland. Later writers have called her "Christiana" or "Christina". 421:

In old age she was said to be of formidable stature, and at Roehampton she reposed on couch with a suspended canopy and curtains. She died on 16 January 1675, and was buried in Derby on 18 February.

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and the Earl of Devonshire; however, she found Christian's letters "full of civility, craft, and coldness", perhaps because Devonshire wanted her son's bride to bring a greater dowry.

326:, hoping he would not be converted by it to Catholicism. She wrote more letters to the Earl of Newcastle, relating her son William's grand tour in France, and the arrival of the 972: 222:

Christian was around twelve or thirteen years old at the time of her marriage. William Cavendish went to France to complete his education in 1610 with his tutor

952: 492: 957: 488: 295: 259: 204: 104: 72: 323: 311: 982: 342: 288: 664:(Ashgate: Farnham, 2010), pp. 37, 119: HMC Report on the manuscripts of Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, vol. 6 (London, 1925) p. 101: Victor Slater, 967: 357: 265: 442: 338: 484: 280: 212: 403:, whose daughter Frances had married one of her Rich grandchildren, and she was seen at his court. In 1657 she attended the wedding of 450: 242: 185: 639:(Oxford, 1965), pp. 136-7 comments on the earl's income and outgoings such as a jointure to Elizabeth Boughton, dowager grandmother. 327: 977: 885: 476: 468:

a home she used more after her son's marriage in March 1639, until it was destroyed in 1645 following the capture of the town by

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and her chaplain Mr Robert Gale. Her name appears in a surviving copy of cipher key used to encode letters between the

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To William Douglas, Earl of Morton, she wrote news of Charles I and Parliament, and the death of her daughter Anne,

812:, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1843), pp. 363-5, the original letters are in the National Library of Scotland, Morton Papers. 469: 399:

sent it to her privately to make her aware of his intention to restore the king. She was also well connected with

372:. She kept up correspondence in cipher code with royalists in England and Scotland. In 1650 she bought a house at 937: 927: 415: 226:. The legal basis of the marriage was threatened by the family of Margaret Chatterton, a gentlewoman servant to 460:

Several of Lady Devonshire's letters survive. She wrote to the Earl of Haddington (d. 1640), alluding to the

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wrote a volume of poems in praise of her and Lady Rich, which was published with a dedication to her by

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who had worked for William's mother, with a claim that William and Margaret had contracted marriage.

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