(1685 - 1732), e. s. of Francis, Ld. Brudenell; sty. Ld. Brudenell 1698 - 1703 when suc. gd.-fa. as 3rd E. of Cardigan; m. 1707 Ldy. Elizabeth Bruce, dau. of 2nd E. of Ailesbury.
1703 - 6 Rome (16 Jun. 1703 - 15 Sep. 1704), Padua (24 Sep.), Venice (27 Sep. 1704 - Feb. 1706) [England 29 Apr. 1706]
The brothers George and James Brudenell, both Catholics, were sent to Italy by their grandfather with a tutor, Henry Cuffand; their older cousin, the Duke of Shrewsbury, was already in Rome.1 They had reached Rome by 16 June 1703 and took lodgings in the Corso. Shrewsbury introduced them to Italian nobility and other travellers, such as the Marquess of Huntly, Lord Quarendon and the Duke of Norfolk. For exercise they went on shooting expeditions with the Jesuits. Within two months of their arrival they learned of their grandfather's death, as a result of which George Brudenell became the Earl of Cardigan. Their allowances were increased (£;1,200 for the Earl and £;300 for his brother) and when their mourning was over they took grander rooms near the Trajan Column. On 2 February 1704 they gave an entertainment for the entire English colony. Cardigan offended the Countess Adelaide Paleotti (Shrewsbury's future wife) and James proved difficult. Despite Jacobite encouragement they did not obtain a private audience with the Pope. In all of this Shrewsbury was much exercised and he was presumably pleased to allow Cardigan to leave Rome on 15 September 1704 for Venice and Vienna. The brothers stopped at Padua on 24 September2 and reached Venice on the 27th. Cardigan fell ill with smallpox and he was still there in June 1705, keeping a mistress ('She is very old and ugly, and has quartered for several years all comers and goers,' said Lord Irwin), when Shrewsbury was trying to persuade him to return home. But it was not until February 1706 that the brothers left;3 with their tutor and 'La Kecka', the Venetian mistress, they eventually arrived in England on 29 April 1706.
When Cardigan redecorated and modernized Deene in 1707 and 1708, 'several marble chimney pieces were put in', including, doubtless, the four designed and cut for him in Rome which were sent off in September 1704. His house in Lincoln's Inn Fields was replaced with one built to designs obtained in August 1704 from an unnamed architect in Rome.
1. See Shrewsbury Jnl. and J. Wake, The Brudenells of Deene, 189 - 97, 205 - 10, 244. 2. Brown 1225. 3. SP 99/57, f.279 (Broughton, 12 Feb. 1706).