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In the year 1620, Cavendish was raised to the peerage. The Duchess says:—

“About this time King James of blessed memory, having a purpose to confer some Honour upon My Lord, made him Viscount Mansfield, and Baron of Bolsover”.

But the event is less prettily described in a State Paper:—[7]

“John Woodford to Sir Fras. Nethersole.

“November 7th, 1620.

“The parliament is now resolved ... for the accommodating of your disputes between the heyres of the late Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir William Cavendish, a nephew of the Earl of Devonshire who hath been intitled to some of those lands by the Countess of Shrewsbury, prisoner in the tower, as an expedient to create the said Sir William, at the request of the heyres above mentioned, Viscount of Mansfield, which is newly done by pattent.”

[7] State Papers, Foreign (Germany, States), vol. XIX. p. 189.

From this it seems that the Duchess would have been nearer the mark if she had writen:—

“About this time King James, of blessed memory, having a purpose to smooth over a troublesome dispute, made my Lord Viscount Mansfield and Baron Ogle,[8] for a consideration”.

[8] Not Baron of Bolsover till later.

There is reason for suggesting the last clause. From what the Duchess wrote, it might be inferred that these honours were given simply as the reward of merit, without any monetary payment on the part of the recipient; but judging from the following very matter-of-fact letter from Cavendish, about a peerage, not for himself but for another, a somewhat different inference might excusably be drawn.

“State Papers, Domestic, Charles 1st. Vol. LV, No. 26. 1627, Feb. 27.