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Feature
THE CAVENDISH
PHILOSOPHER
Seventeenth century thinker Thomas Hobbes is globally recognised
as a father of modern political thought. He lived a long and intensely
controversial life, but his relationship with the Cavendishes of Chatsworth
secured his notorious rise to fame. Luke Sherlock chronicles the fascinating
life of a towering intellect, revealing his surprisingly deep connections
to Derbyshire - in a corner of which he was laid to rest.
T
HOMAS HOBBES WAS born on Good Friday, April 5, 1588, in a
small village just outside Malmesbury, Wiltshire. The son of a
local clergyman his modest origins bore little indication of the
later influence he was to exert on Western thought. His writings ranged
from natural science to politics - and even poetry - with many arguing
his works embrace the great transformations of the age in which they
were produced. Yet for all this the story of Hobbes can be observed to
begin in a twist of fate that led to his introduction to one of England's
richest and most powerful families.
Coming up to study at Magdalen Hall, University of Oxford, in 1602 at
the age of 14, the precocious Hobbes was to acquire his degree five years
later. A diligent and perceptive student he caught the attention of the
principal of his college. Thus, he was duly recommended to William
Cavendish as a potential tutor for Cavendish’s son. Hobbes was offered
the post, moving in the early winter of 1608 to Derbyshire to join the
Cavendishes at Hardwick Hall. From then on, the fortunes of the
Cavendishes and the man who was to become one of the greatest
52 Reflections May 2009
thinkers of the 17th century were to be intimately linked for the next
three decades.
Like his mother, 'marrying Bess of Hardwick', before him, William
Cavendish gained much from death upsetting the normal process of
inheritance. The year 1616 saw William inherit the Chatsworth estate
from his elder brother Henry who, after siding with his late stepfather the
sixth earl of Shrewsbury over a land dispute with Bess, had become
estranged from the family. Dying suddenly and without any legitimate
offspring his lands and property fell to his more favoured younger sibling.
With this new-found wealth William was able to find influence at court
and buy the Earldom of Devonshire from James I in 1618 for £10,000.
Thus, Hobbes returned to Derbyshire from a grand tour of Europe with
the future second Earl of Devonshire (also a William Cavendish) to find,
in 1615, the social and political status of his employer growing rapidly.
Furthermore, Hobbes was, by now, no longer merely a dispensable tutor,
but had become a close friend of the younger William. Only separated in
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Ault Hucknall Church
age by two years, Hobbes had been twenty when he first came into the
family’s employment and the two young men were, during the following
years, to experience much of their early adulthood together. An enduring
bond was forged between the pair arising from their youthful adventures
in the great cities of Venice, Rome and Paris.
Hobbes' value to the family continued to grow: he had already been to
Westminster to advise young William on parliamentary affairs leading to
Hobbes finding himself permanent secretary to William for by, 1626, he
had inherited his father’s title. For the first time Hobbes was now
embroiled in London’s high society - mixing with such esteemed
intellectuals as Sir Francis Bacon and the playwright Ben Johnson. One
can suppose it was at this time that he sensed the political discord that
was later to consume his thoughts and involve the country in the turmoil
of a bloody Civil War.
However, at this stage in his life Hobbes remained a humble and loyal
secretary, dutifully returning to Derbyshire to join his master on a 1627
expedition into the Peak. Here the cultural importance of Hobbes to the
county should not be underestimated. It was he who first revered
Chatsworth as one of the Wonders of the Peak in his eponymous poem,
De Mirabilibus Pecci, which was inspired by the trip. He noted the beauty
of such sites as Mam Tor and also bizarrely believed the supposed
bottomless pit of Eldon Hole to eventually reach into the pitiful throws of
hell, ad inferos. Even if his poetic style was later to be mocked, as the
respected thinker he was to become, Hobbes did much to create the view
of the Peak as the English Alps. Without Hobbes the language used to
describe the Peak District may have been framed in entirely different
terms, perhaps more akin to Jonathan Swift's dismissal of the area a
century later as a wonderless 'howling wilderness.'
Sadly, however, William, the close friend of Hobbes for two decades, died
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of the plague in the summer of 1628. With the estate left in considerable
debt, following excessive spending which Hobbes, by way of his
friendship with the Earl was implicated in, his employment with the family
was terminated. William’s widow, Christian, embarked on this decision
perhaps due to the presence of her deceased husband's secretary
providing a constant and unwelcome reminder of her husband’s later
follies and her continuing grief. Yet, it is clear from letters exchanged
between family members that Hobbes was still held in high regard and,
by 1630, he returned as the tutor to Williams' son, the third Earl of
Devonshire.
Travelling with his new pupil in Europe between 1636 and 1638 marked
a period of scholarly awakening in Hobbes. During this time he first made
contact with Descartes in France and held debates on the nature of the
physical universe with Galileo in Italy. Unsurprisingly, it is soon after his
arrival back in England we see the publication of The Elements of Law,
Natural and Politic which first marked out his now-famously controversial
ideas relating to a 'social contract' between citizens, whereby individual
rights are subsumed under the authority of an absolute monarch.
This concept would later be enigmatically referred to in the publication
of The Leviathan in 1651 which was Hobbes' most enduring piece
of philosophical exposition.
into exile
However, this inevitably set the aging Hobbes on a collision course with
increasingly anti-monarchist parliamentary forces. As the country began
to split ever more clearly into two great camps, parliamentary and royalist,
he chose to go into exile in France, a step soon followed by the similarly
politically-compromised Earl of Devonshire. Hobbes was to stay away
for a decade, increasing his fame amongst Europe's leading scholars, only
to return to his homeland in similarly controversial circumstances after
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Hobbes’ Tombstone
facing interrogation from the Catholic Church about his perceived
religious ambiguities on the continent. The Duke himself returned to
England after quietly resolving his position with the Parliamentarians.
illnesses. His final journey to his resting place at St. Johns the Baptist
In the meantime, the Civil War was over. The Commonwealth which had
replaced the monarchy via the regicide of Charles I had floundered and
the Kingship of England was reinstated under Charles II. With Hobbes
back in London and supported by the new monarch it seems as though
he revelled in his status as one of Europe's greatest philosophers, courting
political and scientific controversy well into the 1660s. On the other hand
despite the Cavendish family’s earlier royalist sympathies, with the Earl’s
younger brother Charles losing his life at the battle of Gainsborough in
1643, relations between the new monarch and the earl of Devonshire
became hostile, and so he was to retire from life at court to the country.
Devonshire was now buried by the third, and future first Duke of
But the Civil War did not mark the end of the relationship between
Hobbes and the Cavendishes. Even after years of physical separation he
had kept in touch with the Earl and affections between them were still
apparent - an elderly Hobbes decided to move back to Derbyshire to
spend his final years on the estates of Hardwick and Chatsworth, still
welcomed by the family with whom his name had become inextricably
linked.
He continued to write from the county well into his eighties, eventually
managing to reach his ninth decade. The old philosopher in the country
was to die on December 4, 1679, from a stroke and a series of debilitating
54 Reflections May 2009
Church, Ault Hucknall, demonstrated his closeness to the Cavendishes.
The young man who had left Oxford in 1608 to serve the first Earl of
Devonshire, along with his family and staff. The Latin inscription on the
tombstone reading:
Here are buried the bones of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, who for
many years served two Earls of Devonshire, father and son. He was a
virtuous man and his reputation for erudition both at home and abroad
is well known.
But this formal description belies the level of emotional attachment
involved, a bond that saw Hobbes remain by the family's side for much
of his adult life, rising with them to the height of English society, and
cementing a relationship that was to last until his final breath.
The tombstone can still be seen at the medieval church in the hinterland
of the Hardwick Estate, itself a grade I listed heritage site of vast historical
interest. A campaign to raise funds and rescue the church from the
ravages of time is currently in planning by the local parish committee.
Although not of Derbyshire origin by birth, Thomas Hobbes should be
thought of as one of the county’s most enigmatic figures, his body still
resting in the sleepy village of Ault Hucknall, whilst his writings continue
to echo into the future.
I
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