A portrait of a 17-century nobleman, his household, and the dramatic decades surrounding the English Civil War. William Cavendish, courageous and cultured, embodied the image of a cavalier. His passions were architecture, horses, and women. And, along with the courtly world of King Charles I and his cavaliers, he was doomed. General of the king's army in the north during the Civil War, defeated at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, he went into a long continental exile before returning to England in triumph on the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. Historian Worsley brings to life the complex hierarchies among the inhabitants of the great houses of the 17th century, the cacophony and stink as well as the ceremony and splendor, painting a picture of conspiracy, sexual intrigue, clandestine marriage, and gossip.--From publisher description.