Anyway, this week I tried to change it up a bit. Though I've had a riveting time learning about King Charles II's many, many...many mistresses, I wanted to try something different this week, so, I would like to introduce you all to Philip Stanhope, 2nd earl of Chesterfield.
Philip Stanhope was born in the parish of St. Mary Cray in Kent in 1633, the oldest son of Lord Henry Stanhope and his wife Katherine Stanhope. His father died in 1634 just as Philip was surviving an attack of smallpox. In 1641 his mother married another man named John Poliander Kirkhoven, lord of Haemfleet in the Netherlands. I can't confirm that she married him because he had the best name ever, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was why. As a result of this marriage, he spent the next few years in the Netherlands, educated by Kirkhoven's father who was a professor of divinity at Leiden. He later studied at the prince of Orange's college at Breda. He then went to Paris where he attended Monsieur de Veau's academy, though he left after participating in a duel. In November 1650 he left Paris for Rome. He was in Rome by April 1651 but then went on to visit Naples, Venice, and Milan as well.
Stanhope returned to England by 1652, and eventually married a woman by the name of Lady Anne Percy, eldest daughter of Algernon Percy, tenth earl of Northumberland. Unfortunately, she died of smallpox on November 29, 1654 just eight days after their son was born. The son only survived for three weeks afterwards. While in mourning, Stanhope traveled to France in June 1655 and then on to Rome once more. He returned to England when his grandfather died in September 1656 and there was an attempt by his uncle to seize his estate for debt.Sometime after, Oliver Cromwell tried to convince Chesterfield to marry one of his daughters and offered him a military command position. Chesterfield, however, refused. Though there was another proposed match with a daughter of Lord Fairfax, this was called off since at the time he had been engaged in affairs with two women, Lady Elizabeth Howard and....wait for it.....Barbara Villiers herself, or as she would eventually be named, Lady Castlemaine. She really did get around.
Just as Lady Castlemaine had a capacity for being a mistress, it seems that Philip Stanhope had a capacity for duels. He and a man named Lord St. John were arrested in February of 1658 to prevent an intended duel. On June of that same year Chesterfield was held in the Tower of London, after a duel with a man named Captain Whalley MP. Though Chesterfield was involved in royalist plots, he was seen as far too engaged with his mistresses to be any sort of threat. Either way, he still had to flee the country following the death of Francis Wolley, a man he had killed in a duel on January 17, 1660 over the price of a mare. I mean...it's understandable. I know that if someone tries to dupe me about the price of a mare my first instinct is to kill him or her.
Though he was forced to leave, he was able to eventually receive a pardon from Charles II at Breda and joined the King on his journey back into England. In September of 1660, Chesterfield married Lady Elizabeth Butler. They had a daughter, and a son who died as an infant. On February 24, 1662 Chesterfield joined the court of Queen Catherine Braganza as lord chamberlain, which is a senior officer position that oversees the departments of the kingdom while giving advice and support. Though he was a court supporter, he had some difficulty in parliament, as the duke of York apparently was in love with his wife. As a response to this, Chesterfield had her taken away to Derbyshire, resigning from the court in 1665.
Poor Chesterfield couldn't catch a break. His wife died of "spotted fever" in July 1665. Though Chesterfield also contracted the disease, he was able to recover. On June 13, 1667, Chesterfield became the colonel of a foot regiment, which was to be raised for active service. However, it was disbanded following the treaty of Breda, a treaty which brought an end to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1669, he married Lady Elizabeth Dormer soon after he was made a DCL by the duke of Ormond, the father of his former wife. He had two sons and two daughters with Dormer and on March 1670 he was named steward of the honour of Tutbury. As a result, most of 1670 was spent attending to his house gardens at Bretby in Derbyshire.
In 1672, Chesterfield opposed the declaration of indulgence, which was Charles II's attempt to extend religious liberty to Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics. On November 22, 1675 he voted for an address to Charles II to dissolve parliament as a result. Shortly before October 1677, however, Chesterfield's current wife died a week after miscarriage. The death of his third wife left him in a depressive state during 1678, causing him to stay in his chamber for six months. However, he eventually returned to the court by 1679. In December of that same year he replaced the duke of Monmouth as chief justice in eyre south of the Trent. He also voted on November 15, 1680 against the Exclusion Bill, which sought to exclude the King's brother James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland since he was Catholic. On January 26, 1681 he was sworn a member of the privy council and attended the third Exclusion Parliament in March. On November 6, 1682, he succeeded the earl of Mulgrave as colonel of the 3rd regiment of foot guards, though he would resign this position later on.
After Charles' death, Chesterfield acted as lord sewer at James II's coronation but resigned as chief justice in eyre in October 1685 as a result of his ill health. In 1688 he was approached by the earl of Danby who asked him to join in the Orangist conspiracy, but he refused. However, he did not reveal this plot to King James II either. He joined the forces in the midlands following the invasion, prompted by a desire to guard Princess Anne, who was residing in Nottingham. He proved his loyalty to the king, refusing to join a council of war and refusing an association to destroy all papists in England if the prince of Orange was killed. In mid-December, he returned to Bretby.
Chesterfield always remained loyal to James II, voting against declaring William and Mary as king and queen in 1689 and against agreeing with Commons that James II had abdicated, leaving the throne vacant for William. He refused all offers of employment by William III and remained a Tory opponent of the court. He supported his Tory son-in-law Thomas Coke in Derbyshire elections in 1701-1702 and waited on Queen Anne shortly after her accession. When he retired, he divided his time between London and Bretby. Chesterfield eventually died on January 28, 1714 in Nottinghamshire. His son Philip Stanhope succeeded him as third earl of Chesterfield.
I found Chesterfield's story to be an interesting, yet very sad one. I cannot imagine losing half of one' s family to disease, and reading about death after death of his wives was quite depressing. Despite being surrounded by so much death, he was still able to have a pretty successful political life it seems. In fact, he never seemed to stay still! Not to mention the fact that he participated in so many duels. I honestly think this guy was lucky to have lived for as long as he did. What I found especially interesting was his loyalty to King James II. I wonder what this loyalty stems from, as he didn't seem to have extremely strong connections to the court. Perhaps he felt as though he would be betraying Charles II by supporting the man who overthrew his brother. Maybe he just saw William overthrowing James as morally wrong. Whatever the case, I found his loyalty to be quite respectful. He was a man of principle, at least in that case.
I'm also very interested in the kind of power he possessed. One would think that men had more power than women during this time. If I asked anyone who had more power, a lord or a mistress in the 1600s, I'm sure many would say lord. Yet, he didn't have nearly the power that Lady Castlemaine or the Duchess of Portsmouth had at several points in their lives. Does this mean that gender was not as great of a factor in power as I had previously assumed? Was status and how close one was to the king the most important factor in the end? This is something I am definitely interested in exploring as I continue to record the biographies of these men and women.
Stuart Handley, ‘Stanhope, Philip, second earl of Chesterfield (1633–1714)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26253, accessed 28 Sept 2016]
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