chief, under whom served such men as Charles and William Napier, Shaw and Colborne, soon became celebrated as one of the best corps of troops in Europe, and every engagement added to their laurels. Craufurd’s operations on the Coa and Agueda in 1810 were daring to the point of rashness, but he knew the quality of the men he led better than his critics did, and though Wellington censured him for his conduct, he at the same time increased his force to a division by the addition of two picked regiments of Portuguese Caçadores. The conduct of the renowned “Light Division” at Busaco is described by Napier in one of his most vivid passages. The winter of 1810–1811 Craufurd spent in England, and his division was commanded in the interim by another officer, who did not display much ability. He reappeared on the field of the battle of Fuentes d’Onoro amidst the cheers of his men, and nothing could show his genius for war better than his conduct on this day, in covering the strange readjustment of his line which Wellington was compelled to make in the face of the enemy. A little later he obtained major-general’s rank; and on the 19th of January 1812, as he stood on the glacis of Ciudad Rodrigo, directing the stormers of the Light Division, he fell mortally wounded. His body was carried out of action by his staff officer, Lieutenant Shaw of the 43rd (see Shaw Kennedy), and, after lingering four days, he died. He was buried in the breach of the fortress where he had met his death, and a monument in St Paul’s cathedral commemorates Craufurd and Mackinnon, the two generals killed at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo. The exploits of Craufurd and the Light Division are amongst the most cherished traditions of the British and Portuguese armies. One of the quickest and most brilliant, if not the very first, of Wellington’s generals, he had a fiery temper, which rendered him a difficult man to deal with, but to the day of his death he possessed the confidence and affection of his men in an extraordinary degree.
His elder brother, Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Craufurd (1761–1821), entered the 1st Dragoon Guards in 1778. Made captain in the Queen’s Bays in 1785, he became the equerry and intimate friend of the duke of York. He studied in Germany for some time, and, with his brother Robert’s assistance, translated Tielcke’s book on the Seven Years’ War (The Remarkable Events of the War between Prussia, Austria and Russia from 1756 to 1763). As aide-de-camp he accompanied the duke of York to the French War in 1793, and was at once sent as commissioner to the Austrian headquarters, with which he was present at Neerwinden, Caesar’s Camp, Famars, Landrecies, &c. Major in 1793, and lieutenant-colonel in 1794, he returned to the English army in the latter year, and on one occasion distinguished himself at the head of two squadrons, taking 3 guns and 1000 prisoners. When the British army left the continent Craufurd was again attached to the Austrian army, and was present at the actions on the Lahn, the combat of Neumarkt, and the battle of Amberg. At the last battle a severe wound rendered him incapable of further service, and cut short a promising career. He succeeded his brother Robert as member of parliament for East Retford (1806–1812). He died in 1821, having become a lieutenant-general and a G.C.B.
CRAVAT (from the Fr. cravate, a corruption of “Croat”), the name given by the French in the reign of Louis XIV. to the scarf worn by the Croatian soldiers enlisted in the royal Croatian regiment. Made of linen or muslin with broad edges of lace, it became fashionable, and the name was applied both in England and France to various forms of neckerchief worn at different times, from the loosely tied lace cravat with long flowing ends, called a “Steinkirk” from the battle of 1692 of that name, to the elaborately folded and lightly starched linen or cambric neckcloth worn during the period of Beau Brummell.
CRAVEN, PAULINE MARIE ARMANDE AGLAÉ (1808–1891), French author, the daughter of an émigré Breton nobleman, was born in London on the 12th of April 1808. Her father, the comte Auguste de la Ferronays, was a close friend of the duc de Berri, whom he accompanied on his return to France in 1814. He and his wife were attached to the court of Charles X. at the Tuileries, but a momentary quarrel with the duc de Berri made
retirement imperative to the count’s sense of honour. He was appointed ambassador at St Petersburg, and in 1827 became
foreign minister in Paris. Pauline was thus brought up in
brilliant surroundings, but her strongest impressions were those
which she derived from the group of Catholic thinkers gathered
round Lamennais, and her ardent piety furnishes the key of her
life. In 1828 her father was sent to Rome, and Pauline, at the
suggestion of Alexis Rio, the art critic, made her first literary
essay with a description of the emotions she experienced on a
visit to the catacombs. At the revolution of July, M. de la
Ferronays resigned his position, and retired with his family to
Naples. Here Pauline met her future husband, Augustus
Craven, who was then attaché to the British embassy. His
father, Keppel Richard Craven, the well-known supporter of
Queen Caroline, objected to his son’s marriage with a Catholic;
but his scruples were overcome, and immediately after the
marriage (1834) Augustus Craven was received into the Roman
Catholic Church. Mrs Craven, whose family life as revealed in
the Récit d’une sœur was especially tender and intimate, suffered
several severe bereavements in the years following on her
marriage. The Cravens lived abroad until 1851, when the death
of Keppel Craven made his son practically independent of his
diplomatic career, in which he had not been conspicuously
successful. He stood unsuccessfully for election to parliament
for Dublin in 1852, and from that time retired into private life.
They went to live at Naples in 1853, and Mrs Craven began to
write the history of the family life of the la Ferronays between
1830 and 1836, its incidents being grouped round the love story
of her brother Albert and his wife Alexandrine. This book, the
Récit d’une sœur (1866, Eng. trans. 1868), was enthusiastically
received and was awarded a prize by the French Academy.
Straitened circumstances made it desirable for Mrs Craven to earn
money by her pen. Anne Sévérin appeared in 1868, Fleurange in
1871, Le Mot d’énigme in 1874, Le Valbriant (Eng. trans., Lucia)
in 1886. Among her miscellaneous works may be mentioned
La Sœur Natalie Narischkin (1876), Deux Incidents de la question
catholique en Angleterre (1875), Lady Georgiana Fullerton, sa
vie et ses œuvres (1888). Mrs Craven’s charming personality won
her many friends. She was a frequent guest with Lord
Palmerston, Lord Ellesmere and Lord Granville. She died in
Paris on the 1st of April 1891. Her husband, who died in 1884,
translated the correspondence of Lord Palmerston and of the
Prince Consort into French.
See Memoir of Mrs Augustus Craven (1894), by her friend Mrs Mary Catherine Bishop; also Paolina Craven, by T. F. Ravaschieri Fieschi (1892). There is a biography of Mrs Craven’s father, “En Emigration,” in Étienne Lamy’s Témoins des jours passés (1907).
CRAVEN, WILLIAM CRAVEN, Earl of (1608–1697), eldest son of Sir William Craven, lord mayor of London, and of Elizabeth, daughter of Alderman William Whitmore, was born in June 1608, matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1623, and joined the society of the Middle Temple in 1624. He had already inherited his father’s vast fortune by the latter’s death in 1618, and before he came of age he had distinguished himself in the military service of the princes of Orange. Returning home he was knighted and created Baron Craven of Hampstead Marshall in Berkshire in 1627. He early showed enthusiasm for the cause of the unfortunate king and queen of Bohemia, driven from their dominions, and in 1632 joined Frederick in a military expedition to recover the Palatinate, meeting Gustavus Adolphus at Höchst, whose praise he gained by being the first, though wounded, to mount the breach at the capture of Kreuznach on the 22nd of February. The Swedish king, however, refused to allow the elector an independent command for the defence of the Palatinate, and Craven returned to England. In May 1633 he was placed on the council of Wales. In 1637 he took part in a second expedition in aid of the palatine family on the Lower Rhine, with the young elector Charles Louis and his brother Rupert, and offered as a contribution the sum of £30,000, but their forces were defeated near Wessel and Craven wounded and taken prisoner together with Rupert. He purchased his freedom in 1639, and then joined the small court of the exiled queen
