Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland

English Interregnum)
English Interregnum)
Succeeded by	The Earl of Exeter; The Earl of Peterborough
Personal details
Born	Mildmay Fane; 24 January 1602; Mary Mildmay
Alma mater	Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Occupation	Politician, writer
Awards	Knight of the Bath

Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland

KB (24 January 1602 – 12 February 1666), styled Lord le Despenser between 1624 and 1628,^[1] was an English nobleman, politician and writer.^[2]

Life

One of seven sons of

MP for Peterborough in 1620 and for Kent

in 1625. He succeeded his father as Earl of Westmorland and Lord le Despenser on 23 March 1629.

A friend of Robert Herrick, he supported the Royalist party at the outbreak of the English Civil War (King Charles I had stood as godfather to Fane's eldest son in 1635). Following a brief period of imprisonment by Parliament, however, he retired to his estate at Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire.

Writing

One hundred and thirty-seven poems by Fane appeared in his self-published collection Otia Sacra in 1648—the first time a peer of England published his own verse. It was only at the end of the twentieth century that a larger body of Fane's verse was identified: some 500 poems by Fane, composed between 1621 and 1665, were published in 2001.

Fulbeck Hall in Lincolnshire, Houghton Library at Harvard University

, and the Westmorland papers preserved at the Northamptonshire Record Office.

Fane also wrote masques and stage plays; six of these "politicized entertainments" were performed at Apethorpe during the decade of the 1640s by Fane's children and servants. For his 1641 masque Candia Restaurata, Fane designed sets and stage effects and composed some of the music used in the production. Virtue's Triumph features personifications of Ambition and Impudence, Lies and Deceits; Nobility and Learning are married and the parents of Truth. The protagonist of De Pugna Animi is Lord Mens (Mind), who is assisted by figures like Sir Ratio Prudens in resisting a revolt of the five senses.^[5] Fane wrote his play The Change during his imprisonment in the Tower of London early in the Civil War. One of his plays, titled Ladrones, was known in manuscript in the 19th century and reportedly featured Sir Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, and Ferdinand Magellan as characters; but the MS. has been lost.^[6] Fane's total extant literary output includes over 900 poems in English and Latin, and eight plays or entertainments.

Family

Fane married twice: firstly, in 1620, to Grace Thornhurst, daughter of Sir

Horace Lord Vere of Tillsbury, who bore him a son and four daughters, one of whom was Lady Mary Fane who married firstly Francis Palmes of Ashwell, Rutland, granddaughter of Sir Guy Palmes, and was widowed with no children. She married secondly John Cecil, 4th Earl of Exeter (1628–1678), a widower, on 24 January 1670. Mildmay's first son Charles, and his second son Vere

, both succeeded to their father's title in turn (since Charles Fane, 3rd Earl, left no descendants).

Mildmay Fane's younger brother Sir Francis Fane married Elizabeth West, daughter of William West of Firbeck Hall, Yorkshire, and widow of John, Lord Darcy of the North. Sir Francis Fane achieved some distinction as a writer, publishing poetry as well as three dramatic plays. He was made Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of Charles I, and served as governor of Doncaster Castle during the English civil war. Rachael Fane (1613–1680), one of Mildmay Fane's seven sisters and a resident of Apethorpe Palace, also wrote entertainments and a masque that were performed by the household. Her works survive in manuscript.^[7] Another younger brother was the Royalist and MP Colonel the Hon. George Fane.

Plays and masques

Raguaillo d'Oceano (1640)
Candia Restaurata ("Candy Restored", 1641)
Time's Trick Upon the Cards (1642)
The Change (1642)
Virtue's Triumph (1644)
Don Phoebo's Triumph (1645)
De Pugna Animi (1650)
Ladrones, or the Robbers' Island (lost)

References

^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, Vol. III (107th ed.). Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd. p. 4134.
^ Gerald W. Morton, A Biography of Mildmay Fane, Second Earl of Westmorland 1601–66: The Unknown Cavalier, Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, Edwin Mellen, 1991.
^ "Fane, Mildmay (FN618M)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ Tom Cain, ed., The Poems of Mildmay Fane, Second Earl of Westmorland: from the Fulbeck, Harvard, and Westmorland Manuscripts, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2001.
^ Dale B. J. Randall, Winter Fruit: English Drama 1642–1660. Lexington, KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1995; pp. 286–8.
^ Cain, p. 27.
^ Caroline Bowden, "The Notebooks of Rachael Fane: Education or Authorship?," in: Early Modern Women's Manuscript Writing, edited by Victoria E. Burke and Jonathan Gibson; London, Ashgate, 2004; pp. 157–80.

External links

Otia Sacra text
Link to English Heritage web-site for Apethorpe

Parliament of England
Preceded by Roger Manwood Sir William Walter	Member of Parliament for Peterborough 1621–1624 With: Walter Fitzwilliam	Succeeded by Laurence Whitacre
Preceded by Sir Edwin Sandys	Member of Parliament for Kent 1625 With: Sir Albert Moreton	Succeeded by Sir Edward Hales, 1st Baronet Sir Edward Scott
Preceded by Laurence Whitacre Sir Christopher Hatton	Laurence Whitacre	Parliament suspended until 1640
Honorary titles
English Interregnum	Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire jointly with The Earl of Exeter 1660–1666	Succeeded by The Earl of Exeter The Earl of Peterborough
Peerage of England
Preceded by Francis Fane	Earl of Westmorland 1629–1666	Succeeded by Charles Fane

[1] Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, Vol. III (107th ed.). Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd. p. 4134.

[2] Gerald W. Morton, A Biography of Mildmay Fane, Second Earl of Westmorland 1601–66: The Unknown Cavalier, Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, Edwin Mellen, 1991.

[3] "Fane, Mildmay (FN618M)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[4] Tom Cain, ed., The Poems of Mildmay Fane, Second Earl of Westmorland: from the Fulbeck, Harvard, and Westmorland Manuscripts, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2001.

[5] Dale B. J. Randall, Winter Fruit: English Drama 1642–1660. Lexington, KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1995; pp. 286–8.

[6] Cain, p. 27.

[7] Caroline Bowden, "The Notebooks of Rachael Fane: Education or Authorship?," in: Early Modern Women's Manuscript Writing, edited by Victoria E. Burke and Jonathan Gibson; London, Ashgate, 2004; pp. 157–80.

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