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Althorp
Althorp (popularly pronounced ) is a Grade I listed stately home and estate in the civil parish of Althorp, in West Northamptonshire, England of about . By road it is about northwest of the county town of Northampton and about northwest of central London, situated between the villages of Great Brington and Harlestone. It has been held by the Spencer family for more than 500 years, and has been owned by Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer since 1992. It was also the home of Lady Diana Spencer (later Princess of Wales) from her parents' divorce until her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales (later King Charles III). Althorp is mentioned as a small hamlet in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Olletorp", and by 1377 it had become a village with a population of more than fifty people. By 1505 there were no longer any tenants living there, and in 1508, John Spencer purchased Althorp estate with the funds generated from his family's sheep-rearing business. Althorp became one of th ...
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Spencer Family
The Spencer family is an Aristocracy (class), aristocratic British family. From the 16th century, its members have held numerous titles, including the dukedom of Marlborough, the earldoms of Earl of Sunderland, Sunderland and Earl Spencer (title), Spencer, and the Baron Churchill (1815 creation), barony of Churchill. Two prominent members of the family during the 20th century were Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales. History Descent and claims The house was founded in the 15th century by Henry Spencer (died c. 1478), from whom all members descend. In the 16th century, the claim arose that the Spencers were a cadet branch of the older house of Baron Le Despencer, Despencer, though this theory has since been debunked, in particular by historian J. Horace Round in his essay ''The Rise of the Spencers''. The Spencers were granted a coat of arms in 1504, consisting of an ermine fess (heraldry), fess between six gull, sea-mews' heads, but they abandoned this after about ...
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Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, (born 20 May 1964), styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British peerage of the United Kingdom, peer, author, journalist, and broadcaster. He is the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the maternal uncle of William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. Early life and education Charles Edward Maurice Spencer was born in London on 20 May 1964, the youngest of five children of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, John Spencer (1924–1992) and Frances Shand Kydd, Frances Roche (1936–2004; later Shand Kydd). Owing to his maternal family's close personal connection to the British royal family, royal family, he was baptised in Westminster Abbey, with Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II acting as one of his godmothers. He grew up with his three elder sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Sarah, Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes, Jane, and Diana, Princess of Wales, Diana, the last-named of whom he was very ...
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Diana, Princess Of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William, Prince of Wales, William and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Harry. Her activism and glamour, which made her an international icon, earned her enduring popularity. Diana was born into the British nobility and grew up close to the royal family, living at Park House on their Sandringham estate. In 1981, while working as a nursery teacher's assistant, she became engaged to Charles, the eldest son of Elizabeth II. Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, Their wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral in July 1981 and made her Princess of Wales, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public. The couple had two sons, William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to th ...
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John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer
John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer (27 October 1835 – 13 August 1910), known as Viscount Althorp from 1845 to 1857 (and also known as the "Red Earl" because of his distinctive long red beard), was a British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician under, and close friend of, prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. He was twice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Background and education Spencer was the son of Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer, by his first wife Georgiana, daughter of William Stephen Poyntz, William Poyntz. The prominent Whig politician John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer, was his uncle and Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer, his half-brother. He was educated at Harrow School, Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, from which he graduated in 1857. Political career, 1857–1885 Almost immediately after leaving Cambridge Spencer was elected to parliament for South Northamptonshire (UK Parliament constituency), South Northamptonshire as a Liberal, before departing for a ...
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George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer
George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, (1 September 1758 – 10 November 1834), styled Viscount Althorp from 1765 to 1783, was a British Whig politician. He served as Home Secretary from 1806 to 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents. He was also the father of the Venerable Father Ignatius of St Paul, a Roman Catholic convert to the priesthood. Background and education Lord Spencer was born at Wimbledon Park House, London, the son of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer, and his wife Margaret Georgiana Poyntz, daughter of Stephen Poyntz, and was baptised there on 16 October 1758. His godparents were King George II, the Earl Cowper (his grandmother's second husband) and his great-aunt the Dowager Viscountess Bateman. His sister Lady Georgiana Spencer married the Duke of Devonshire and became a famed Whig hostess. He was educated at Harrow School from 1770 to 1775 and he won the school's ''Silver Arrow'' (an archery prize) in 1771. He then attended Trinity College, Cambridge ...
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Harlestone
Harlestone is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the West Northamptonshire district, in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England. The parish had a recorded population of 445 in the 2011 census. From 1974 to 2021 it was in Daventry District, Daventry district. The village is divided into two smaller settlements: Upper Harlestone and Lower Harlestone, which are linked by road, footpaths and bridleways. Lower Harlestone lies along the A428 road, A428, and Upper Harlestone is directly to the south-west. Both settlements are approximately five miles north-west of the town of Northampton and south-east of the neighbouring country estate of Althorp. History Evidence of prehistoric settlement can be found in the area of Harlestone, including a Scheduled Ancient Monument to the east of the village, where the remains of prehistoric settlement can be seen from aerial photography. An Iron Age site has been identified at the quarry site on the southern edge ...
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West Northamptonshire
West Northamptonshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, and was created in 2021. It contains the county town of Northampton, as well as the towns of Daventry, Brackley and Towcester, and the large villages of Brixworth and Long Buckby; the rest of the area is predominantly agricultural villages though it has many lakes and small woodlands. The West Coast Main Line and the M1 motorway, M1 and M40 motorway, M40 motorways pass through the district, and it includes the site of the Roman town of Bannaventa and the grade I listed building, listed Althorp, Althorp House and its estate. History West Northamptonshire was formed on 1 April 2021 through the merger of the three non-metropolitan districts of Daventry District, Daventry, Northampton Borough Council, Northampton, and South Northamptonshire. The new West Northamptonshire Council therefore absorbed the functions of ...
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Althorp (lost Settlement)
Althorp is a lost village within the grounds of the Althorp estate in the English county of Northamptonshire. The village is recorded in the Domesday Book. In the 15th century, the manorialism, manor was held by the Catesby, Northamptonshire, Catesby family who were probably responsible for clearing the settlement, for by 1505, the records show that there were no tenants. In 1508, the parish, including the cleared settlement of Althorp, was sold to John Spencer of Wormleighton in Warwickshire. By 1577, the land in the parish had been divided into four large sheep pastures. Althorp remains a civil parish. Remains today There are some signs of earthworks (archaeology), earthworks on the site but much has been damaged by later activities such as ploughing. The main feature is a broad Sunken lane, hollow way which runs up the hillside and is 1.5 metres in depth. There are several platforms on the south side of the hollow which are thought to be the sites of dwellings.''An Inventory o ...
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Henry Holland (architect)
Henry Holland (20 July 1745 – 17 June 1806) was an architect to the English nobility. He was born in Fulham, London, where his father, also Henry, ran a building firm constructing several of Capability Brown's designs. His younger brother was Richard Holland, who later changed his surname to Bateman-Robson and became an MP. Although Henry would learn a lot from his father about the practicalities of construction, it was under Capability Brown that he would learn about architectural design. Brown and Holland formed a partnership in 1771 and Henry Holland married Brown's daughter Bridget on 11 February 1773 at St George's, Hanover Square. In 1772 Sir John Soane joined Holland's practice in order to further his education, leaving in 1778 to study in Rome. Holland paid a visit to Paris in 1787 which is thought to have been in connection with his design of the interiors at Carlton House. From this moment on his interior work owed less to the Adam style and more to contemporary F ...
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Great Brington
Great Brington is a village in Northamptonshire, England, in the civil parish of Brington, which at the 2011 Census had a population of about 200. St Mary the Virgin church is the parish church. The village's name means 'Farm/settlement connected with Bryni'. In 1508, John Spencer from Wormleighton in Warwickshire purchased the estate of Althorp outside Great Brington with its moated house and several hundred acres of farmland.H. Gawthorne/S. Mattingly/G. W. Shaeffer/M. Avery/B. Thomas/R. Barnard/M. Young, Revd. N. V. Knibbs/R. Horne: "The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Great Brington. 800 Years of English History", published as "Brington Church: A Popular History" in 1989 and printed by Peerless Press. He had grazed sheep here from the 1480s. In 1508, impressed by the quality of the land, he eventually bought it and rebuilt the house.Sir John Spencer 1455–1522 (access date 20 July 2013) In 1511 he made further purchases to acquire much of the surrounding c ...
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Anthony Van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of Frans van Dyck, a wealthy silk merchant in Antwerp, Anthony painted from an early age. He was successful as an independent painter in his late teens and became a master in the Guild of Saint Luke, Antwerp Guild on 18 October 1617.Davies, Justin. 'A new date for Anthony van Dyck's free mastership'. ''The Burlington Magazine'' 165 (February 2023), pp. 162–165. By this time, he was working in the studio of the leading northern painter of the day, Peter Paul Rubens, who became a major influence on his work. Van Dyck worked in London for some months in 1621, then returned to Flanders for a brief time, before travelling to Italy, where he stayed until 1627, mostly in Genoa. In the late 1620s he completed his greatly admired ''Iconography'' se ...
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Charles, Prince Of Wales
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and became heir apparent when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, acceded to the throne in 1952. He was created Prince of Wales in 1958 and his investiture was held in 1969. He was educated at Cheam School and Gordonstoun, and later spent six months at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After completing a history degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer. They had two sons, William and Harry. After years of estrangement, Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, after they had each engaged in well-publicised extramarital affairs. Diana died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash t ...
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