Dressage. Four horses with riders performing for a central figure. Plate 29.

During the English Civil War, William Cavendish was General of all forces north of the Trent for Charles I. At first successful, he was defeated at Winceby by Oliver Cromwell in 1643, then defeated alongside Prince Rupert at Marston Moor in 1644 after which he was exiled to the Continent and remained there until after the Restoration.

From Paris he moved to Antwerp, where he wrote plays and books on horsemanship and established a manege to train his horses. In 1658 he published in French his masterpiece on the theory and practice of equestrian dressage A General System Of Horsemanship In All Its Branches. In 1665 after the restoration of Charles II, Cavendish returned to England and elevated to Duke of Newcastle.

In 1743 an English edition of the treatise was published which included also information from La Methode et Invention Nouvelle De Dresser Les Chevaux by Jean de Saunier with engravings based on illustrations by Abraham Diepenbeke, the magnificence of which made it one of the finest works on equitation ever published.