William Cavendish, 1592-1676, Duke of Newcastle, Viscount Mansfield and Baron Ogle was a man of many interests and talents, as well as being the grandson of Bess of Hardwick. He was the builder of the large estates at Welbeck and Bolsover and, at the age of eighty, rebuilt the Nottingham Castle that can still be seen today.
As a military leader in command of the North of England and the Midlands, he spent thousands of pounds of his own fortune in equipping and maintaining an army to ensure victory for King Charles I.which was eventually destroyed at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644.
He was exiled to the Netherlands and stayed in Rubens' old house in Antwerp, where he created a riding Academy based on his own rules for the training of both horse and rider - rules based on understanding the mind of the horse, mixing gentleness with help and correction. The Academy became celebrated throughout Europe and his aristocratic clientele were provided with his book New Method of Horsemanship, first published in 1658 in French, with engravings by Abraham Diepenbecke.