Susan Feilding, Countess of Denbigh

Who was Susan Feilding, Countess of Denbigh?

Susan Feilding, Countess of Denbigh was an English courtier. She was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Henrietta Maria.

Born Susan Villiers, she was the youngest daughter of Sir George Villiers and his wife, Mary Beaumont. About 1607, she married Sir William Feilding, who was later created Earl of Denbigh. They had five children:

Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh

George Feilding, 1st Earl of Desmond

Lady Margaret, married James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton.

Lady Anne, married Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden

Lady Elizabeth, Countess of Guildford, married Lewis Boyle, 1st Viscount Boyle.

During the English Civil War, her husband, the Earl of Denbigh, supported and fought for King Charles I of England, while her son, Basil, joined the Parliamentarian forces. The Earl was wounded during an attack on Birmingham and died of his injuries in 1643. The next year Susan fled to France with Queen Henrietta Marie. It was in France that Susan converted to Roman Catholicism and in 1651 the council of state ordered the sequestration of all her property in England on the grounds that she had become Papist and was active in designs against the state. She was the patron of Richard Crashaw, who dedicated his sacred poems to her, in hearty acknowledgment of his immortal obligation to her goodness and charity, and addressed to her a poem persuading her — to render herself without further delay into the communion of the Catholic Church. The Countess died while in France, in 1652, and was buried in Église Saint-Eustache, Paris.