Earl of Denbigh (pronounced 'Denby') is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1622 for William Feilding, Viscount Feilding, a courtier, admiral, and brother-in-law of the powerful Duke of Buckingham. The title is named after the town of Denbigh in the county of Denbighshire, Wales. Since the time of the third earl (1675), the Earl of Denbigh has also held the title of Earl of Desmond, in the Peerage of Ireland.
The family seat is Newnham Paddox, in the parish of Monks Kirby, Warwickshire. The eighth earl converted to Roman Catholicism during the 1850s, in which faith the family has remained. The earldom was one of the hereditary peerages whose entitlement to sit in the House of Lords was removed by the House of Lords Act 1999.
The origins of the Feilding family
The Feilding family have been Lords of Newnham Paddox in Monks Kirby, Warwickshire, since 1433. They are in part descended from the Newnham family (named from the estate) who held Newnham Paddox in the 1100s and 1200s (see history of Monks Kirby).
The historian Gardiner in the nineteenth century described the first Earl of Denbigh, William Feilding, as ‘The plain country gentleman who had the good luck to marry Buckingham's sister in the days of her poverty.’
The family of William's wife Susan, née Villiers, had also been minor midlands gentry until Susan's brother, George Villiers, became the confidant and lover of King James I. Villiers was elevated by James I to the rank of Duke of Buckingham and continued as a royal favourite under James I's son, Charles I of England.
Exceptionally powerful, George Villiers showered preferment on his family. In 1622 not only was William Feilding made Earl of Denbigh, but William's eight-year-old second son, named George after his important uncle, was given the right to the earldom of Desmond at the point that title reverted to the Crown. (Later, under Charles II, another of William's children would be awarded a third earldom: in 1660 Elizabeth Boyle (née Feilding) was created Countess of Guildford for life in her own right).
Claimed descent from the Habsburgs
Under Buckingham's patronage, the rise of the Feildings was precipitate: in 1620 William Feilding had been a plain knight but by 1660 three of William's five children held earldoms in their own right and a fourth was married to a duke.
Unsurprisingly, the arriviste family wished for more impressive origins and, from 1656, the time of the second earl, a story began to be promulgated that the family were descended from the imperial Habsburg family through the counts of Laufenburg and Rheinfelden. The family incorporated the Habsburg double headed eagle in their coat of arms and took to naming their sons Rudolph. The claimed royal ancestry was subject to ridicule, but was also widely accepted for centuries by historians including Edward Gibbon, William Dugdale, and Evelyn Shirley. Shirley states in Noble and Gentlemen of England (1859) ‘The princely extraction of this noble family is well known.. The name Feilding is derived from Rinfelden in Germany..’. The claim was, however, comprehensively debunked around the turn of the 20th century by J. Horace Round.
The 1st and 2nd Earl of Denbigh and 1st Earl of Desmond (4th creation)
William Feilding, the First Earl of Denbigh
Sir William Feilding was Master of the Great Wardrobe under King James I and also took part in the Expedition to Cádiz of 1625. Feilding had already been created Baron Feilding, of Newnham Paddox in the County of Warwick, and Viscount Feilding in 1620 before being made Earl of Denbigh in 1622. All three titles are in the Peerage of England. In 1631, Lord Denbigh visited the Safavid court in Persia.
Basil Feilding, the Second Earl of Denbigh
Lord Denbigh was succeeded by his eldest son, Basil, the second Earl. Basil served as ambassador to Venice, and in military service to the Holy Roman Empire. He famously fought as a roundhead in the Civil War, unlike the rest of the family. In 1664, he was created Baron St Liz in the Peerage of England, with remainder to the heirs male of his father.
George Feilding, the First Earl of Desmond (4th Creation) William's second son was the Hon. George Feilding. In 1622, when George was around 8 years old, James I created him Baron Fielding, of Lecaghe in the County of Tipperary, and Viscount Callan, of Callan in the County of Kilkenny. At the same time, George was given the right to the title Earl of Desmond as and when the previous holder of that title died without an heir. That happened in 1628. All three titles were in the Peerage of Ireland. Earl of Desmond is an ancient Irish title, the 1628 award was its 4th, and current creation.