Margaret Lucas was born in 1623, near Colchester, England. She was youngest of 8 children. Her parents were, Thomas and Elizabeth Lucas. When Thomas was a child, he made the mistake of entering and winning a duel with Lord Cobham, who was a favorite at Queen Elizabeth's court at the time, the ensuing social embarrassment caused his family to be exiled to France. From doing my research I believe while in France, Thomas met and fell in love with Elizabeth Leighton. The family was able to return to England after the queen's death and James I came into power, their reputation in tatters.
Their reputation was further damaged when, upon their return it was discovered that Thomas and Elizabeth had a child out of wedlock, while living in France. Even after Thomas married Elizabeth upon their return to England, rumors about the family continued to circulate in their community. Sadly, Thomas died in 1625, leaving behind Elizabeth and their 8 children; at the time Margaret was only 2 years old. So her mother became a major role model for Margaret, since she had so few memories of her father. Her mother was tenacious and headstrong, using reason to discipline and educate her children. Because of the stigmatism against a home run by a single woman, Margaret didn't have any friends outside of her brood of siblings for many years. The Lucas family did little to appease neighbours disdain of their "unusually run household", combatting it with vehemence. For many years, the Lucas' had little to no contact with other families, so the children didn't get to expand their social circles; this likely contributed to Margaret's crippling shyness and social awkwardness, later in life.
In 1642, when Margaret was 19, she moved with her family to Oxford and became fixated by the idea of becoming a maid for, Queen Henrietta-Maria, the French queen of Charles I. She eventually convinced her mother to let her apply for the position. This was a bold move because the English Civil War had just begun the year before, the war was between the Catholic Royalists and Protestant Parliamentarians. By taking the job, Margaret was choosing sides, in a way that would forever change her life. However, soon after being offered the job, Margaret regretted leaving the safety of her close-knit family. She was unable to follow the social protocol, which the rest of the queen's court performed with such ease, not to mention the fact she didn't know French & was scolded for her unladylike behavior. Margaret wrote to her mother complaining of her dilemma but her mother persuaded her to stay at court; it has also been said, Margaret had a preference for low cut, colorful and clashing clothing, that didn't help her disfavorable image at court. When the queen was exiled to France, in 1644 due to the Protestant's gain in power, Margaret perhaps reluctantly accompanied her to Paris. Her decision to enter court isn't believed to have been religiously motivated, it was a radical move because she wanted to make a distinction between politics and religion, by doing this, she became a trendsetter for a later trend.
After two stressful years of service to the queen, at the age of 22, Margaret was introduced to William Cavendish, the Duke of Newcastle. William was born in 1593, making him 30 years Margaret's senior, he had already been married once and had 5 children with his first wife, a wealthy widow; so he definitely had a reputation as something of a womanizer. William was also a fierce Royalist. They were almost immediately drawn to each other, it has been theorized, William may have been enchanted by her mixture of outlandish dress, naivete, modesty and social awkwardness or their shared intellectual values. William and Margaret married in December 1645, allowing Margaret to finally escape the confines of court life. When she moved in with her new husband, she met her brother-in-law, Charles Cavendish, a man who would have a great impact on her later published work.
Although the first few years of marriage were happy, the couple also faced a time of "deep personal grief, dispossession and financial insecurity". William who was aware of his lack of finances, began a clever, yet risky process of borrowing large sums of money from friends, lavishly decorating his home & using this "appearance of wealth" to gain funds from locals. Though she lived in luxury, Margaret was constantly worrying about her husband being arrested and sent to jail, for being unable to pay his debts. On top of it all, she was infertile, her mother died in 1647 & her brother was executed, for his role in the Royalist movement, in 1648. Also in these two years, Henrietta-Maria requested for William to accompany the now Prince Charles I, in yet another Royalist campaign. However the prince had already left Rotterdam, causing William to waste 6 months gathering an army of his own. After his failed attempt at military success, the couple was uprooted and forced to move to Antwerp, Belgium, where they remained until the Restoration. In 1651, Charles I was beheaded, which put an end to any hopes of the bettering of the Cavendish's finances, as most of William's properties were seized by the government and he was declared a traitor. As creditors became more insistent, William sent Margaret & his brother, Charles, to England to plead for monetary aid, for their loss of land. Their plead was rejected & Margaret spent nearly a year & a half, in England away from her husband. During this period of time, she grew depressed & in an attempt to distract her, Charles spent their days discussing area's of interest to him including, math & science. With so much excess time on her hands she threw herself into writing, by the time she was reunited with William in 1653, she had published two works, Poems & Fancies, & Philosophical Fancies.
Margaret's life experiences and notions she had her whole life about society, are intertwined with her written work. In this way, life in the 17th century is visible through her work, her unconventional childhood, political choices and fashion. She was an anomaly amongst the numerous female writers before her, who had mostly written about religion or to pass information onto their children, in case of an early death. There was also a large gap between her and her siblings, her brothers were educated outside of the home & 4 of her sisters were married by the time Margaret was 12. So paired with the isolation from neighbours, she had a lot of time by herself when she was growing up, her education also didn't have an emphasis on traditionally female values; instead of learning needlework and spinning, Margaret spent her days reading and writing.
William encouraged her pursuit of writing, throughout their marriage, as he was a published author himself. And without political upheavals, Margaret may have never gotten the chance to write never mind publish her work at all. Interestingly, with a lack of an estate to oversee and children to look after, Margaret was able to dedicate much of her time to writing. She is quoted as having said her ignorance in areas women are usually educated in is what lead to her have a highly unusual life for a woman of her time & so she chose to dedicate herself to something she felt she excelled in & enjoyed.
Margaret Cavendish's royalist & feminist tendencies were blatantly obvious in her writing. Her book, The New Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World; which was an early example of science fiction. In it, Margaret describes a girl, who discovers a fantastical world of animal-like people & becomes empress of this new land. In it, you can find many examples of political, social & philosophical commentary; some may find the first half of the novel a confusing jumble of various opinions and concepts; but it is actually an up-to-date look at the intellectual movement in the 17th century. In Blazing World, she discusses theories that had recently been put forward by intellectuals like, Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes & Francis Bacon.
With connections through William & Charles, Margaret was able to dine & converse with the likes of Rene Descartes and Thomas Hobbes, along with many others. Though she was afforded these rare chances to interact with the great thinkers of her day, she was shunned many times because of their reluctancy to discuss such matters with a woman. Although Margaret's social ineptness was also visible in her work she interposed it with wit, often daring to question social norms and using "tongue and cheek": she often alternated between a critical (male) attitude and telling her readers not to take her too seriously because she is in fact, just a woman.
Though her subject of writing was unconventional for the time, "the desire to pass the time while in exile" was a common one for women at the time. Margaret's real break from convention was how she was able to have her work printed, surprisingly all of which was published, in England despite her exile. Her life and therefore work were impacted by a bombardment of traumatizing events that occurred in quick succession, the death of much of her close family, her inability to have children and the Royalist's defeat during the civil war. Writing was a essentially a sanctuary for Margaret, since religion & children weren't viable options for her.
Margaret's final years were marred by conflicts with her husband's children from his first marriage and false accusations from house servants. Margaret died suddenly on December 15, 1673 and was buried at Westminster Abbey on January 7, 1674. William was too ill to attend her funeral and was himself interred with her 2 years later, on January 22, 1676.
http://womenineuropeanhistory.org/index.php?title=Margaret_Cavendish
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/margaret-cavendish
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