SNN111947 - Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire: The Heraldic Decoration: Historic Building Report

This research report has been produced in context with the multidisciplinary Apethorpe Hall Research Project. The work upon which this document reports is a small sub-project to identify, understand and contextualise the heraldic decoration of Apethorpe. In all phases of its occupation, the owners of Apethorpe stamped their identity on the building through the use of their families’ heraldry in order to stress their lineage or connections. Two basic heraldic schemes have been identified. The first of these was that of Sir Walter Mildmay, whose use of his paternal arms, together with those of his wife and their respective families survive in carving on the north gateway to the east court, and the fireplace of the Great Chamber. An heraldic scheme of painted glass in the Great Dining Room, preserved by record in a Bodleian Library manuscript noticed by Olivia Horsfall Turner demonstates the extent to which Mildmay used heraldry to stress his connections and his family. The heraldic decoration installed by Mildmay was almost certainly created for the visit to the house of Queen Elizabeth I in 1566. Mildmay’s decoration was overshadowed by the profligate use of heraldry by Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland, who acquired Apethorpe through marriage to Sir Walter’s granddaughter, Mary Mildmay in 1599. Fane was responsible for the building and decoration of the Royal Apartment, used for the accommodation of King James I and VI. The principal glory of this apartment consists in the armorial plaster ceilings. The King’s Chamber itself, which features the Stuart Royal arms, but he two rooms leading to the chamber feature an extraordinary genealogical sequence, showing the connections of Fane through eight generations to the wealthiest and most important families of later medieval England. This pride of lineage is demonstrated through heraldic display throughout the house. Further additions to the heraldic decoration of the house were made by Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl and John Fane 7th Earl, the latter commemorating his marital alliance with the Cavendish family. The last membe of he family to be commemorated heraldically was John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland.