New display at Audley End describes how the mansion was built, and who was behind it
English Heritage is launching the new display this weekend
English Heritage is launching a new display charting the rise and fall of the dynasty behind Audley End in Saffron Walden.
Launching on Saturday (28 March) and continuing until November, the display marks the 400th anniversary of Thomas Howard, Lord Treasurer to James I – who almost bankrupted himself by building Audley End (the biggest private house in England at the time) and then embezzled the King’s money to keep himself afloat.
The history of the house is told through five portraits, exhibited together for the first time, of three illustrious generations in the 16th and 17th centuries who, from modest beginnings, became one of the most powerful families in the country before crashing into ruin.
Peter Moore, English Heritage's Curator for Audley End said:
"This new display, what it does is it tells the story of how Thomas Howard, the first Earl of Suffolk, transformed a former monastery into a palace that was really designed to impress a King. So it's about power, ambition, and really about how one family reshaped the place we now know as Audley End across 3 generations.
"He does everything he can to become one of the most powerful, influential men in the country. And an important part of that at that time was having a house that could entertain the monarch as they were progressing around the country.
"You really had to kind of try and out-do other courtiers and build somewhere that was the most grand palatial place for the King and Queen to come and stay. So that was really his ambition with Audley End. It was a palace in all but name.
"£200,000 at the time is what it's thought to have cost, which is about £30 million today. And that left him with massive debts and in his position of trusted authority as Lord Treasurer, he started to embezzle royal money. Basically stealing from from the king, and was discovered and imprisoned in the Tower of London, sent back to Audley End in disgrace, where he retired and later died.
"For us, it's really important. So it's 400 years since his death and you know, 400 anniversaries are quite rare. And for him, it's his death. We're not marking his birth, it's his death. And really that that's quite important here because it marks the end of an era. It's this period where the whole site is completely reshaped."