DENBIGH, WILLIAM FEILDING, I ST EARL OF (d. 1643), British naval and military officer, son of Basil Feilding and of Elizabeth Aston, was educated at Emmanuel college, Cambridge, and knighted in 1603. He married Susan Villiers, sister of the future duke of Buckingham, and on the rise of the favourite received various offices and dignities. Created baron and viscount Feilding in 162o, and earl of Denbigh on Sept. 14, 1622, he attended Prince Charles on the Spanish adventure, served as admiral in the unsuccessful expedition to Cadiz in 1625, and com manded the disastrous attempt upon Rochelle in 1628, becoming the same year a member of the council of war, and in 1633 a member of the council of Wales. In the Civil War he served under prince Rupert and was present at Edgehill. On April 3, 1643, during Rupert's attack on Birmingham, he was wounded, and died from the effects on the 8th. The descent of the Feildings from the house of Habsburg, through the counts of Laufenburg and Rheinfelden, long considered authentic, and immortalized by Gibbon, has been proved to have been based on forged docu ments. See J. H. Round, Peerage and Family History (I 90 1) .
See E. Lodge, Portraits iv. 113; (185o), J. Nichols, Hist. of Leicestershire, iv. pt. 1, 273 (1807) , Hist. MSS. Comm. Ser., 4th Rep. app. 254; Cal. of Statc Papers, Dom; J. H. Round, Studies in Peerage and Family History, 216 (19oi) .
His eldest son, BASIL FEILDING, end earl of Denbigh (c. 1608— 7 5), was sent in 1634 by Charles I. as ambassador to Venice, where he remained for five years. During the Civil War Feilding ranged himself among the Parliamentarians, led a regiment of horse at Edgehill, and, having become earl of Denbigh in April 1643, was made commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary Army in the Midlands and lord-lieutenant of Warwickshire. He re signed his command after the passing of the self-denying ordi nance in April 1645. At Uxbridge (1645) and at Carisbrooke (1647) Denbigh was one of the commissioners appointed to treat with the king. He supported the army in its dispute with the parliament, but he would take no part in the trial of Charles I. Under the Commonwealth Denbigh was a member of the council of state, but later he came to be regarded as a royal ist. He died without issue on Nov. 28, His titles devolved on his nephew WILLIAM FEILDING (1640 85), son and heir of his brother George (created Baron Feilding of Lecaghe, Viscount Callan and earl of Desmond), and the earldom of Desmond has been held by his descendants to the present day in conjunction with the earldom of Denbigh.