George Harding, 8th Baron Berkeley

George Harding, 8th Baron Berkeley

George Harding, 8th Baron Berkeley (1601 – August 10, 1658) was a seventeenth-century English nobleman and a prominent patron of literature in his generation.

Berkeley supported a range of important writers in the Jacobean and Caroline eras. A number of significant figures dedicated their works to him in gratitude of his patronage—or in hope of receiving it. These included Robert Burton, who dedicated "The Anatomy of Melancholy" to Berkeley upon its publication in 1621. Berkeley was a notable patron of English Renaissance drama: Philip Massinger dedicated his play "The Renegado" to Berkeley on its 1630 publication, as James Shirley did his "The Young Admiral" in 1637. And John Webster dedicated "The Duchess of Malfi" to Berkeley in 1623. The wording of Webster's dedication shows that Webster was seeking Berkeley's patronage rather than acknowledging support already given; it is not known to what degree the supplication was effective.

George Harding attained his title, Baron Berkeley of Berkeley, Mowbray, Segrave, & Breuse of Gower, upon the death of his grandfather Henry Harding, 7th Baron, on November 26, 1613. (Due to a confusion of the first and second creations of the title Baron Berkeley, George Harding is sometimes cited as the 13th Baron rather than the 8th.) His family seat was at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. He was made a Knight of the Order of the Bath on November 4, 1616, when Prince Charles was made Prince of Wales. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and received his M.A. degree from the university in 1623. He was made a member of the Council of Wales and the Marches in 1633.

Harding married Elizabeth Stanhope, second daughter of Sir Michael Stanhope of Sudborn, Suffolk, on April 13, 1614. Through is own family and through his wife's, George Harding was connected with established traditions of support for literature. His maternal grandfather had backed of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the acting company of William Shakespeare. George Harding himself has been described as "a friend of the King's Men." [Kinney, Arthur F., ed. "Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments." London, Blackwell, 1999; p. 566.] His wife was connected to Katherine Stanhope, the dedicatee of Massinger's "The Duke of Milan."

Upon his death in 1658, the 8th Baron was succeeded by his second son, also named George Harding, as 9th Baron Berkeley.

(Note: members of the Berkeley family, the descendants of Robert Fitzharding, are often identified with the Berkeley surname; George Harding, 8th Baron, is George Berkeley in many sources. In his own era, however, in the dedications of contemporaneous works like "The Duchess of Malfi", he is consistently identified as George Harding.)

Notes

ources

* Doyle, James William Edmund. "The Official Baronage of England." London, Longmans, Green, 1886.


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