William Cavendish (Duke of Newcastle)

Dressage: Courbette on the right- and left-hand voltes (Courbetts sur les Voltes a Droicte/Gauche) with two riders performing a Passage on left-hand voltes (Le vray pasaige sur le Voltes a Gauche) with Bolsover Castle in the background.

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 manège 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.