Henry Cavendish (politician)

Sir Henry Hardwick Cavendish (1550–1616) was the eldest son of the Tudor courtier William Cavendish, and Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1527–1608), known as "Bess of Hardwick". He served in the Netherlands as a captain in 1578, and was the MP for Derbyshire five times, but did not participate greatly in politics. Cavendish was also a notorious libertine, and was disinherited by his mother, who held his wardship after his father's death. After his mother's death in 1608 Cavendish inherited the Chatsworth estate, but not its contents, and he sold it to his brother William, who later became the 1st Earl of Devonshire, in the following year. He had a number of illegitimate children, but no legitimate heirs.