page_title: Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Black &amp; white reproduction of an oil painting of Francis Fane, first Earl of Westmorland, 24 x 27 inches. Note that the within the coat of arms, the first quarter appears to show Azure, three sinister gauntlets Or, rather than the Arms of Fane, Earls of Westmorland, as blazoned per Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.1148: Azure, three dexter gauntlets back affrontée Or.
context_page_description: Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland, KB of Mereworth in Kent and of Apethorpe Hall in Northamptonshire was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1601 and 1624 and then was raised to the Peerage as Earl of Westmorland.
context_section_description: Fane was educated at Maidstone Grammar School in Kent and in about 1595 matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 19 November 1597, for training as a lawyer.
  In 1601, with the support of his near neighbour Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, Fane was returned as a Member of Parliament for Kent. He was created a Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of King James I on 25 July 1603. After Cobham's disgrace Fane was elected as a Member of Parliament for Maidstone in 1604. He was re-elected MP for Maidstone in 1614 and in 1621. In 1624 he was elected MP for Peterborough, Northamptonshire, near his wife's home at Apethorpe. On 29 December 1624, he was created Baron Burghersh "in the County of Sussex", and Earl of Westmorland (1008th on the roll). On his mother's death on 28 June 1626 he succeeded her as 4th Baron le Despenser, and as de jure 8th and 6th Baron Bergavenny.
caption: Francis Fane, in coronation robes as worn 2 February 1625 or 26.
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