Newnham Paddox and the Earls of Denbigh

Newnham Paddox has been the home of the Feilding family (created Earls of Denbigh in 1622) since 1433. William Feilding, the First Earl , married a sister of the Duke of Buckingham, a prominent statesman in the reigns of James I and Charles I. In 1631 he made a voyage to India immortalized in Van Dyck's portrait of him shooting birds in the jungle (National Gallery above). In 1643 during the Civil War, Parliamentary forces killed William while fighting for the Royalists at Birmingham and his son Basil, a moderate supporter of the opposing parliamentary cause succeeded to the title. At the Battle of Edgehill, Basil had fought against his father, though the wings that each commanded did not come into contact.