THE QUEEN & I Spent The Night in This AMAZING TUDOR MANSION | Deene Park

[Music] I have arrived not just at the spectacular Dean Park here but with my overnight bag because lucky me I get to spend the night Dean Park is one of England's most fantastic historic houses it has roots from the medieval period and then it evolved over the Tudor and Georgian periods as well to what we see today it's been in the Brunel family since 1514 but it really did evolve over these six centuries I'm here to meet and of course to stay with Charlotte and Robert Brunell who are the custodians of wonderful Dean Park and I can't wait to share all the history with you and what's going on here on the estate foreign [Music] into the British aristocracy it was the start of a wonderfully exciting Journey but it was also a little daunting I became a VI Countess and for an American girl from a small town outside Chicago that was quite a shock I live with my husband Luke heir to the Earl of Sandwich and our family at mapperton house endorse it mapperton has opened up an extraordinary new world for me and I can't wait to share it with you all thank you so if you love castles and manners and stately homes as much as I do please join me as I head off to visit some of Britain's most spectacular historic homes [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign so I must be in the right place but look at this fantastic Courtyard I definitely have a lot of questions but I am spotting actually a lot of heraldry so a lot of coat of arms hello welcome welcome hello Robert how are you um lovely to see you now I have some questions about the courtyard can we start there first let's go and have a look okay this has history doesn't it indeed first mentioned in the Doomsday Book 1086 so you're going back a very long way right and then it belonged to the Sea of Westminster and it gradually got added and built to so this section over here was added in about 1630s also when I was walking in I noticed heraldry coat of arms I and I did there's cornettes there's you've got a we've got the elves coronets up there yes the top of it because we had seven hours of Cardigan who lived here okay Thomas Brunell was made the first Isle of Cardigan in 1660. right and he built this Tower up there so we've got more heraldry up there yes you do and with the flag behind it in your honor this is my first overnight stay oh starting around oh I hope it's going to be five star enough for you it will be oh my goodness okay where are we walking into right now we're walking into the Great Hall which we've just had redecorated two years ago and it's got a fantastic ceiling which is made out of sweet Chestnut and we were always told that the little evils wouldn't eat into it but unfortunately they have so we've just had it restored and we repainted the Great Hall in what would have been actually the original color beautiful I've seen a lot of great halls in my lifetime believe it or not but this I have not seen a great hall in this sort of good condition before it's one of the last great Halls that were built before they went out of fashion we know it was built in 1571 because it says so on the mantle piece over there and it was um it was rebuilt because Queen Elizabeth came to stay here for the night and Edmund bruden all thought actually if she came back for more than one night in the future perhaps she better have a bigger Great Hall so he built this Great Hall but sadly she never came back by 1600 these great Halls were out of fashion and quite a lot of the houses split them into two levels I'm just going to throw this out there because as you mentioned the mantle I did spot some Montague lozenges there certainly is a Montague connection here okay should we save that for later we will Charlotte and Robert open a selection of rooms to the public on certain days in the year but we will venture behind the scenes to Glimpse how Dean Park is still very much a cherished family home they turn left come through here okay oh my goodness I think I need to stay here for a whole week Charlotte we've got a lot of books for you to read and we're putting you in the bow room oh my goodness oh my gosh this is Splendid okay first of all I love the colors um it's enormous did you do this you said exactly the right things this is the one bedroom in the house that I have recently done up and it was a germaline pink faded wallpaper and raspberry carpets which were shredded uh and it's quite a it's quite a difficult thing to know you've got to take a decorated room for the next 60 years the other thing I did was I took all the books out of the bookcase and and put my collection of coport China in there which is rather pretty so you did this all yourself yeah I suppose I did darling didn't I yeah and what do you think of it Robert I didn't have a say in it I'm sure signed it off but then you've also got up the stairs this is very important a bathroom which has got the best view in the world no you're right this is the best view in the world the bridge I just walked over and then look at these magnificent Gardens down below [Music] thank you thank you thank you thank you both of you this is it is really a treat so thank you shall we leave you to sort yourself out here and then come downstairs and have a drink I did not expect this when Charlotte and Robert asked me to stay I of course said yes but oh my goodness this is I mean she's done just a brilliant job here and this is what's so wonderful about these historic houses is the way that each homeowner as they you know take over if you like um for their their period of time they put their mark on it or they redecorate or they add something and this is exactly what Charlotte's done in this bedroom you know she's put in such lovely bright happy colors here but then kept the horse hair mattress so I think that's what we're always trying to do as homeowners is we're trying to make sure that of course we put our touches um on it and but at the same time preserving what the past had done as well [Music] foreign we're here on location at one of England's most spectacular historic houses and we just want to say thank you to all of our American VI Countess patrons without the support of our patrons we would not be able to film at these wonderful locations and also to celebrate these incredible historic houses so thank you to all of our American viscounters patrons and if you're interested in becoming part of our team do check out patreon.com forward slash American viac Countess here you'll get early access to all of our episodes lots of behind the scenes content extra videos and of course lots of American VI Countess goodies as well and here at Dean Park patrons will find out more about the historical characters who lived here previously like lady Adeline cardigan who very much enjoyed her time here in the 19th century so she lives here by herself for how many years oh 48 years no well she did go traveling a lot right and she did marry a Portuguese count for six years but I think when he was brought up to Dean after a while he decided that it was really cold and damp right and that was the end that was the end of that she was an incredible character and what happened was as a Queen Victoria um didn't approve of this marriage and a decent folk didn't come stay here at Dean it was just the very fast racing set she lived in that era until she was 89. I'll show you a picture of her when she was in a dotage and she had her she had her coffin made and she used to say to people I'm just going to step in it to try out whether it still fits me no yes absolutely eccentric to the end do check it out patreon.com forward slash American VI Countess and help us to continue on making these extraordinary episodes celebrating some of Britain's greatest Estates the connection between the broodenal and the Montague families reaches back to the 18th century when George Brunell the fourth Earl of Cardigan married Lady Mary Montague what I love best of all is the map in the corner that shows that my husband and my son are all descended from from God right and as I point out as we all are we all are you'll probably find a Los Angeles I know maybe yep I already spotted it right there so when was this created well it's I think the bottom one is the third Earl of Cardigans so it must have been early 1700s so a little bit early 1700s incredible well you can see down through here and this is what I love you can see the three lozenges up there montagues and here is Sydney Montague and guess what Charlotte right below Earl of Sandwich yay garter there and Jemima the first Countess and off they go Edward Montague the Earl of Sandwich gosh you've got a lot here look at this Edward Montague Lord hinching Brook Goodness Me I mean wow we've really again another Earl of Sandwich that would have been the third one so no that would have been the fourth so that would have been the the one who invented the sandwich anyway not taking it away from Charlotte here but we're related is is what it is we're related anyway well like I'm happy about this that will related foreign [Music] now I briefly walked through here on my way up to my gorgeous bedroom as I walked in of course me and my Eagle Eye I spotted those Montague lozenges there's Center there right there and I'm learning a lot about the heraldry so you know because we have to remember that during that period if you were a grand aristocratic or Noble person you have to marry somebody from a grand aristocratic family so when you did your coat of arms would be impaled with the the wife the wife's family coat of arms is that correct absolutely you'll find in the middle there that they've got so many quarterings it's grandparents great grandparents great great grandparents right it was very a very important part of the um 16th century yes and we've got we've got them also on the on on the stained glass windows we've got here and the interesting story about this was that oh my goodness early December in in 1943 we had an American Airbase of three and a half thousand Americans just up up on the hill there and they were flying B17 Fortress bombers and one of them early in the morning had ice on the wings and it tipped over and was about to explode and they might managed to get into the local Village and say get up get up out out right boom up it went no and it broke all the stained glass here and Robert's grandparents stored glass on top of each other which you don't do because the weight cracks it even more and then after the war um during the 1950s my parents had all got a grant to restore it and with the grant came you have to open to the public and that's why we're open to the public oh my goodness just like bewley and so many English historic houses Dean park opened its doors to the public for the first time in the 1950s and the Great Hall is still a highlight of the tours today and this is the original paneling here that is the paneling the original paddling for when it was built in 1571. now I see we've got some polishing going on over here Julie's very kindly helping us yeah and I think you might join her yeah I would love to so what are you using using to polish it a wax just to watch just a wax yeah right put it on very very lightly it always go with the grain always go with the grain yeah yeah and little you know like and you can feel it almost go you know it suddenly goes smooth yeah you try that bit okay and um with the green yeah you just go up and down just and then just keep going and then you can feel it suddenly go smooth yeah yeah oh my goodness it's wonderful to be polishing something that's you know tutor period absolutely isn't it yeah yeah you think about the people that made it and the people that polish them yeah how many other hands were on there exactly it's wonderful so do you want me to do all of it if you're awake thank you what a really really special place and also knowing that this is one of the last great Halls that was built gives it even more you know meaning to it you when you walk in here you just think how wonderful thank you we love it we use it we love it [Music] so this is the moment I know I've been waiting for and hopefully you have as well and that's really the history of Dean Park it's been here for a millennium really and but it's been again a part of the Bruno family since 1514 is that right indeed this is the start of the tour and this is the billiard room originally in the medieval days it would have been a parlor to the Great Hall but I'm going to go back right to the very very beginning and that is that it's first mentioned in the Doomsday Book in 1086. and uh so we know that it was here yeah it was a monastic Retreat the Sea of Westminster the bishop of Westminster owned a lot of land around here and he would come up and stay here to surveys land because they weren't Holiday Inns or hotels to stay in yes it was a small monastic cell a little square Courtyard house ah and it remained as such until the church realized that actually perhaps they could rent it out to families who would let them him come and stay twice a year and right right so in 1514 Sir Robert broudinot took over the lease because it was a lease then it this is the first room that our visitors come to so we tried to give them a little brief about it right it's terribly important because it is the one part of the house where we have just one item of medieval and that is in the far corner there was there was an archway that went into a Catholic Chapel and then the other important thing in this room is we've got we've got the charter which is right there that creates Thomas Brewton or the first Isle of Cardigan during the Civil War King Charles the first was trying to raise money yes and Charles the first um asked him and the son said here's a thousand pounds for your fighting fund when things come good could you honor my father and his heirs kikami in 1660 when Charles II came to Australia and he said Could you hurry up and honor the debt to my father because he's he's 81. right so we need that quite quickly yeah we need that title so three weeks before his coronation he was created the first Earl of Cardigan as we explore the wealth of rooms here at Dean Park there are a few surprises along the way oh my goodness this is actually a very modern Chapel it was only done in the 1980s because the Parish church had it's a huge church and it had five members of the congregation all called brutal right and they freezed to death in there so my mother-in-law thought well why don't we um make our own little chapel and this was the billiard room and we've just seen the billiard table which moved out of smoking room because nobody smokes and so she turned it into this beautiful Chapel it's wonderful and do you use the chapel we do we use Christians here we're having service next on Sunday week and we have a lovely little tradition here which you can bring in when you live in a house like this yes which is that having gone to the um the Royal Chelsea or the hospital in Chelsea every service they have there whether it's a funeral or a wedding or whatever they sing the national anthem we sing the national anthem here at the end of every service no [Music] right this is the Garden Room which we've just revamped and we've made it into sort of slightly older playroom for teenagers or whatever but I'm very proud to say that I managed to get back from our family the rocking horse my great aunt loaned to the National Trust and she's come back here and when I was little I used to sit one end my older brother the other end and it's got lovely graffiti from cousins yeah and she's called Duchess oh and she's rather lovely and she's a bit too big to put in a nursery upstairs so she has to live down here and she is a beauty foreign secret passages everywhere right this room is called the yellow room I have no idea why and when my husband was much much younger his school folded and my mother-in-law brought back the Headmaster and there was a little school here and this was a this was their classroom really wait this was Robert's classroom yes for a while for a couple of years oh how wonderful see it's always Stories being told Charlotte this is incredible this is the tapestry room oh my goodness and Once Upon a Time it had tapestries all the way around it okay what about this ceiling here the ceiling is dated 1597. and we do have some rooms above it which we hardly ever go into because we don't want to hang and make too much noise oh my goodness I mean can I just ask then because would this be considered a pendant ceiling yes because yeah you can see the the yeah because we have one at Matt Britain in the great chamber again Tudor probably 1550 um but if this beauty but this is extraordinary I mean unbelievable oh my goodness such a lovely room spectacular and so when you arrived Dean had this been sort of done to what we're seeing today by your mother-in-law she had and actually it was it was um well after I'd married Robert it was beige this room and my mother-in-law painted at this extraordinarily tealy greeny blue color which I think is magnificent I sets off her collection of Christian art yeah we've got a whole lot of Christian art and you know what the Great Joy with these pictures in here is uh I use them for doing Christmas cards do you this one in particular yes I think this piece of furniture is the very oldest piece of furniture I think it dates from the early 1500s wow incredible obviously was used in the kitchen because it's got lots of chopping marks on it yeah yeah do you think we're rather bored of listening to us mint is ready to go into the Next Room this is King Henry's room this is the room that King Henry VII would have stayed in on the way up to visit his mother Margaret Beaufort right who lived about eight miles north okay and she was the reason that Sir Robert Brunell took on the lease here because he was her Finance advisor and her executor King Henry VII and Kevin his mother his mother a picture of her here Margaret Beaufort Queen Elizabeth would have stepped in this room when she came for her one night no I would love to tell you that she slept in that bed but she came in 1565 and if I'm a purist that bed is dated in 1580. so it was not okay but she would have slept in this room which would have been appropriate because this is where her grandfather would have slept right and this paneling that I'm seeing here rather original unique single linenfold paneling yes and so when Queen Elizabeth was here in this room this would have been he would have been him coat of arms absolutely been here and then there was paneling at this window and then as we are blessed in this house to have these little corner turrets we have a bathroom using the paneling now oh my gosh this is wonderful but of course this wouldn't have been a bathroom when Queen Elizabeth was here no it would have been a powder room but in Powder Room yes right Powder Room beautiful it's absolutely beautiful so I'm in the turret right now yes oh I love being in turrets there's one room which sums up perfectly how historic houses like Dean Park and mapperton are layered in history as each generation leaves their mark but what does this date back to I'm all about dating we're going back to about the 15 late 1500s Jacobian time so this is original yes oh my goodness yes yes this is original wow 18th century we've got a bit of Georgian paneling right okay 19th century Windows 20th century No ceiling because this ceiling is a work of art on its own and was done by Robert's parents in 1997. we've even got 21st century with my husband and I went to Jerusalem about four years ago right and we bought this in the market so this is a real wonderful hodgepodge of centuries yes it is yeah I love it what I love best of all in the room are the two pictures hanging on the Georgian paneling Dean Park is full of portraits of rudnals he was the steward and he was born in the village educated by the third Earl came back and was the steward at Dean running running it all and these pictures were given by the third eye as a wedding present and makes the blue silk she's much prettier yes and it passed down the Eaton family line and came up for sale so I said that it was incredibly important that we had hanging on the walls people who lived here yes yes are not called broodnil right so he's come back and hooray hooray come on in this is this is my study the oak parlor lovely we've got a torture different details a second there who was the one who created Thomas nor Brunel the first Isle of Cardigan right three weeks before his coronation three weeks because it was a debt that was owed by King Charles the first his father who was yeah and then he said to him is that right he honored he honored that he honored the deal from the money that was given for his fighting fund right and so he was made the first Isle of Cardigan and his one of his Mistresses was the Dutch support Portsmouth Louisa Caraway and they had um their son became the Duke of Richmond oh and the reason we have him here is because he married um the first Isle of cardigan's granddaughter who was called lady Anne brutal and we've got a picture of her here right well at least the um their illegitimate child became a Duke they were all made Dukes Fitzroy that's where the name Fitzroy comes from okay yes because Roy is King and Fitz means um they're legitimate son I didn't know that no that's a fun fact I could win that at a quiz night couldn't I I could win that as a quiz night okay thank you Charlotte now what I'd love to show you is the work of art that I would take with me if there was a fire I would grab the dog first then the husband and then I'd come back and I'd get this map which is from 1746 done by Brazier and it's a map layout of what Dean looked like then and I cannot tell you as a work of reference how much we have managed to understand from it there was a river yeah we added a canal they merged them together and then they um built this huge office here and they made an enormous leg here because those were the fish ponds from from there this is wonderful so this is what you would take I would take this yeah absolutely it's fantastic [Music] foreign [Music] must get a lot of steps in this house she needs it have you seen how Stout she is thank you foreign in medieval days it would have been a buttery and a dairy and a story right yes but now it's been made into our little little dining room yeah well it's it's rather Grand I love it but we've got two lovely items in here right which I really want to show you one is the exercise chair in the corner okay do you know what an exercise would you like no is it is it 18th century I think no it might be 19th century basically without biffing your head sit on it okay so I can stand on this stand on that yep okay sit on it and you go up and down okay this is what they did which worked their core yep okay yeah we used to say to our son push down lunch make room for pudding oh my gosh what do they think that they just didn't get enough steps around these big houses well you're not doing any steps now because he's just working something else is working in the cork yeah it's an that is so crazy and the second thing I wanted to show you this was a gift to me and I have put around it all the most famous people who have been to Dean either for tea or for lunch or stayed or for dinner and we've got um obviously Queen Elizabeth the first because she stayed here for her one night uh we have Prince Philip because he came here for the um 1954 anniversary of The Charge of the Light Brigade dinner and we've got Prince Michael of Kent um I put Earl of Cardigan but that's rather generic isn't it because they were seven of them yeah we also had a visit from her Majid Queen Mary Queen Mary came after here in 1937. did she take anything no she didn't she did point out that she had something that we had and my husband's Greek grandmother said oh we'd quite like it back but that's apocryphal right what she did do is she went round went round the house and um she sort of saw all the shredded walls and said um amazing family that's been here for so many years such a shame there's no money I thought okay this is brilliant this I love this though this sort of on plasma that is it's very clever for dinner parties yeah for dinner parties how spectacular Dean Park is nestled in the northamptonshire landscape in future episodes I'll be exploring that landscape with the manager of the Brunel Estates Mark Coombs lovely long grass this is all part of a poplin restoration scheme okay we've stopped putting fertilizer on here about two years ago fantastic anything like that and you can see that well the butterflies all all about the biodiversity and vertebrate life is really it's really kicked in it's beautiful and helping prepare for a wedding right so this I can tell is just a huge wedding you've got the dance floor so dance floor in the middle tomorrow um the DJ will be setting up we've got a big screen going behind the dance floor with the DJ booth and all the lights [Music] lovely room to come into for drinks can you just tell me a little bit about this glorious room and the shape I think is rather Splendid because you've got sort of it the square edges there and then it has the the bow which is why it's called the bow room right so in this room we have probably one of our prize possessions which is the Brewton ultrashram Library and it is a very important late 16th century Library where we have books that are written in Spanish French Latin Greek English it's a collection that belonged to Sir Thomas tresham right and so Thomas tresham's youngest daughter married to Thomas Bruno who was also an antiquarian so a lot of the books were his and I reckon that it was her wedding diary this wonderful library was confiscated by the Parliamentary troops in 1643 when they came to raid Dean and the Earl of Cardigan who was then Sir Thomas Law Bruton or he escaped and they took his Library away and he had quite an adventure which I won't go into but when he was let out of the Tower of London he had to buy his Library bag now and the library was brought back except for some of the books which are now in an Oxford library right but he was able to get the majority up or she had to pay also I think it was more of a fine than a repurchase this is 16th century most of these yes and beginning of 17 seconds yeah in this Library here do you have a few favorites would you say I have one very special book here right one very special book here and I know where it is because it's all under lock and key yes yes and this is the almanac the Diary of Sir Edmund Brunel on August the 12th in 1565 it has got Regina appledine so we have the absolute proof that Queen Elizabeth the first came here for the night of August the 12th and August the 13th oh my goodness so when people say oh she never came to Northampton she did she did she did and she stayed here for one night for one night you have this proof absolutely we have this proof see that's what's pretty spectacular but you have this in writing so cheers to that absolutely juicy Queen Elizabeth the first absolutely and a one night stay she never came back thank heavens [Music] foreign 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Channel: American Viscountess

Views: 116,150

Keywords: julie montagu mapperton house, julie montagu american aristocrat, mapperton house, aristocracy documentary, meghan markle, prince harry, american aristocrat, American viscountess, julie montagu, mapperton, viscountess, viscount, Luke montagu, prince and princess of wales, the royal family, all things royal, royalty, real royalty, bridgerton, the crown, royally obsessed, Henry VIII, Tudor Mansion

Id: RsQU4KcUvqE

Length: 31min 54sec (1914 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 12 2022