CHATSWORTH House in Derbyshire is one of the finest stately homes in England. For close to 500 years, since work on the first house began in 1552, the Cavendish family - from the 17th century heirs to the Dukedom of Devonshire - have lived there, writes Rónán O'Brien
The family may nowadays be best known for their contribution to the British film industry. Chatsworth was used as Darcy's stately home Pemberley in the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice. The Duchess, also starring Keira Knightley, was also filmed at Chatsworth. Due for release this autumn, it tells the story of Georgina Cavendish, one of the most famous society hostesses of 18th-century England, whose marriage was blighted by her husband's love for another woman. Her life is sometimes compared to that of her direct descendent, the late Princess Diana.
The family also own Lismore Hall in Waterford, scene of recent disputes over fishing rights, but the Irish connection runs deeper. Lord Frederick Cavendish, Chief Secretary of Ireland, was one of the victims of the Phoenix Park murders of 1882. And this year marks the centenary of the death of the eighth Duke of Devonshire, Spencer Compton Cavendish, brother of Frederick. Arguably, his impact on Ireland was more considerable.
Spencer Cavendish, known as the Marquess of Hartington (a small village about 10 miles from Chatsworth) succeeded to the dukedom in 1891. For over 40 years he was an active politician. He was asked to serve as prime minister three times but turned down the offer down on each occasion.
He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1870 to 1874 in Gladstone's first government having previously held government posts under Palmerston and Russell. In 1876, following Gladstone's first resignation from the Liberal leadership, he became leader of the party in opposition. He served as Secretaries of State for War and India in Gladstones second Government between 1880 and 1885.
The 19th-century Liberal party was a peculiar alliance of Whigs, inheritors of the aristocratic revolution of the 17th century, and the new democratic radicals. Gladstone, though regarded now as a radical, spent much of his career straddling both sides. Cavendish, until his accession to the dukedom, was the most prominent member of the Whig grouping within the Liberals.
Given the fate of his brother, it is hardly surprising that he became increasingly uncomfortable with Gladstone's Irish policies and split with him altogether in 1886 over Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule. He was one of over 90 Liberals to vote against the First Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons and became the leader of the Liberal Unionists.
One of the stranger aspects of that split, which derailed Parnellite Home Rule for 30 years, was the range of Liberals who opposed Gladstone. They included Hartington, a reforming conservative, as well as Joseph Chamberlain, the Birmingham radical. While few people would have been surprised at a fissure in the Liberal camp, they would have surely expected Hartington and Chamberlain to be on opposite sides. They had consistently clashed in the 1880s but for the next 20 years, they were to make unlikely bedfellows in the broader unionist family.
Once the split occurred Hartington showed little inclination to look back. He certainly didn't intend to serve under Gladstone again. He was not involved in the round table conference involving Chamberlain and William Harcourt which met unsuccessfully in 1887 to examine a possible reunion of liberal forces. Nonetheless Hartington was slow also to make common cause with the Conservatives. While he was prepared to support Salisbury in office he refused to join the government, despite the request to lead a government, for almost 10 years after the Liberal split. He eventually joined Lord Salisbury's third government as Lord President of the Council in 1895.
His political career effectively ended in 1903, despite having succeeded Salisbury as leader of the Lords upon the Unionist leader's retirement the previous year. Devonshire proved not to have purged all the Liberal blood from his veins and retired from both the Unionist Party in 1903 and from his presidency of the Liberal Unionists in 1904. The final irony is that the split was engendered by Chamberlain's advocacy of tariff reform. Like all 19th-century liberals, Devonshire remained true to free trade.
Devonshire is not particularly remembered in Irish history, yet his decision to split from Gladstone in 1886 was a crucial one. His political biography was suitably entitled The Last of the Whigs. While it was not merely on Ireland that he sought to hold back the tide of history, it is in Ireland that his impact was most keenly felt.