CRAVEN, WILLIAM CRAVEN, EARL OF eldest son of Sir William Craven, lord mayor of London, ma triculated at Trinity college, Oxford, in 1623, and joined the Middle Temple in 1624. He served under the princes of Orange, and then in 1632 joined Frederick, the exiled king of Bohemia, in an attempt to recover the Palatinate. In a second expedition (163 7) he was taken prisoner, but was ransomed in 1639. He joined Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia (q.v.), in her exile in Holland. He also gave large financial assistance to Charles I. and to Charles II., whom he accompanied on his return to England. He received the queen of Bohemia at his house in Drury lane, Lon don, in 1661. In 1664 he was created viscount and earl of Craven, and held many offices under Charles II. and James II. Craven was a patron of letters and a member of the Royal Society. He died unmarried on April 9, 1697, when the earldom became extinct, the barony passing by special remainder to his cousin William, 2nd Baron Craven; the present earl of Craven (the earldom being revived in 18o 1) is descended from John, a younger brother of the latter. The first Lord Craven's brother John, who was created Baron Craven of Ryton, Shropshire, and died in 1648, was the founder of the Craven scholarships at Oxford and Cam bridge, of which the first was awarded in 1649.