The first Earl may have chosen "Devonshire" simply because places and lands he was associated with were already attached to existing peerages at the College of Arms.

Another reason for the choice of a non-local or regional name was to avoid antagonising the powerful Stanley family from the Midlands who had strong associations with Derbyshire since their ancestors had been gifted estates in the county by William the Conqueror, and they had also been the Earls of Derby since the late 15th century.

[7] Sir William gained great wealth from his position in the Exchequer and also (allegedly) from unfairly taking advantage of the dissolution of the Monasteries.

In 1605 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cavendish, of Hardwicke in the County of Derby, and in 1618 he was further honoured when he was made Earl of Devonshire.

He was succeeded by his eldest son, William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Devonshire, who served as Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire and was a patron of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679).

On his early death in 1628 the titles passed to his son, William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire, who also served as Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire.

He was a strong supporter of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and later served under William III and Mary II as Lord Steward of the Household.

He served as Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire from 1782 to 1811 but is best remembered[8] for his first marriage (1774) to Lady Georgiana Spencer (1757–1806), the celebrated beauty and society hostess.

He sat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords and held political office (under his uncle Harold Macmillan and later under Sir Alec Douglas-Home) from 1960 to 1964.

Lord George Cavendish (died 1794), second son of the third Duke, was a long-standing Member of Parliament and served as Comptroller of the Household from 1761 to 1762.

Lord Richard Cavendish, second son of the fourth Duke, represented Lancaster and Derbyshire in the House of Commons.

William Cavendish, eldest son of the first Earl of Burlington and father of the seventh Duke, represented Aylesbury and Derby in Parliament.

George Henry Compton Cavendish, second son of the first Earl of Burlington, was Member of Parliament for Aylesbury.

Lord Edward Cavendish, fourth and youngest son of the seventh Duke, sat as Member of Parliament for several constituencies.

Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the ninth Duke, was the wife of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

The family seats are Chatsworth House, Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire, and Lismore Castle in County Waterford, in the Republic of Ireland.

[9] The traditional burial place of the Dukes of Devonshire is at St Peter's Church, Edensor, in the closest village to Chatsworth House.

[citation needed] The earldom of Devonshire was originally granted as a recreation of the title held by the last Baron Mountjoy, which became extinct on his death in 1606.

The film is based on Amanda Foreman's biography of the scandalous 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (portrayed by Keira Knightley) and her relationship with the Duke (Ralph Fiennes) and his next wife, Lady Elizabeth Foster.

In the episode 'The Man in the Killer Suit' in the 2014 TV series Forever, a case occurs where someone masquerades as a 'viscount cavendish'.