Broughton Castle 
Royal gratitude did little to restore the fortunes 
of the family. Two peers in succession refused 
to take up the title from want of sufficient means. 
But with the advent of the Stuarts their position 
improved. James I. paid them a visit at Brough¬ 
ton, and liked his reception so well that in i6i8 
he brought his queen with him. In 1624 William 
Fiennes, eighth Baron, was created Lord Viscount 
Saye and Sele. 
Then came the troublous period of the Civil 
War, in which Broughton and its owners played 
a conspicuous part. The castle was : the cradle 
of the conspiracy, and William, first Viscount, 
one of the chief actors in that fatal drama. “Old 
Subtlety” he was styled by his opponents. He 
was one of the first to oppose the arbitrary acts 
of Charles I., and was the friend and ally of John 
Hampden. Retired country houses of the English 
malcontents were considered to be the safest places 
for the grave and dangerous consultations which 
were carried on at that time; and two places were 
selected as meeting places of the leaders. These 
were Fawsley in Northamptonshire, and Broughton 
Castle. In these secluded houses did Hampden, 
Pym, St. John, Lord Saye and Sele and Lord 
Brooke, and later on the Earls of Bedford, War¬ 
wick and Essex, Lord Holland and Nathaniel 
Fiennes, hold their sittings, which were sometimes 
attended by other persons of rank and property, 
who were as deeply involved in the general plan 
of resistance. Anthony a Wood thus describes 
the secret meetings at Broughton: “For so it was 
that several years before the Civil War began, he 
(Lord Saye and Sele) being looked upon as the 
godfather of the party, had meetings of them in 
his house at Broughton, where was a room, and 
passage thereunto, which his servants were pro¬ 
hibited to come near; and when they were of a 
compleant number, there would be great noises 
and talkings heard among them, to the admiration 
of those that lived in the house, yet could they 
never discern their lord’s companions.” 
We may presently visit the little consultation 
chamber, redolent of the memories of these con¬ 
ferences, a small isolated room, with three outer 
walls and a tower staircase leading up to It. 
Soon the royal standard was unfurled. After 
Edgehill, the king marches on Banbury, where 
BROUGHTON CASTLE FROM THE NORTHEAST 
223 
