ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

      Brandenburgh House in Hammersmith, which eventually became Elizabeth Craven's home, dated back to Stuart times. The house was built in c.1625-6 for Sir Nicholas Crispe (1598-1666), a local merchant whose family money came from the brick-making trade. This business flourished because the area West of London was rapidly expanding during this period. Throughout his career he was a stout royalist, which brought him some gains and some severe losses. Sir Nicholas Crisp, Bt., line engraving by Robert Hartley Cromek, published 1 May 1795 by T. Cadell & W. Davies, after an unknown artist. NPG D13876        Crispe's house was in an elegant fashionable, Dutch style and built solely of bricks, with no timber structure. This was an innovation in its time. It overlooked the river, less for the purpose of a pretty view than that of transporting heavy goods by water.       In 1628 Crispe purchased most of the shares of the Guinea Compa...

Ashdown House near Lambourn stands on the Berkshire Downs, although nowadays owing to boundary changes it is officially in Oxfordshire. It is a mid-seventeenth century house associated with two famous women, both of them called Elizabeth. One of them is the writer Elizabeth Craven and the other is Elizabeth Stuart, Princess of England, Queen of Bohemia, for whom it was originally built. Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I, married the Elector of Palatine who was crowned King Frederick of Bohemia in 1619. But after only a few months, he was driven from his throne, had to flee Bohemia, and soon he lost his domains in the Palatinate too. He and his young wife got the melancholy titles of the Winter King and Queen.  Portrait of 1st Lord Craven between those of Frederick, King of Bohemia and Elizabeth his wife at Ashdown House. Elizabeth Stuart returned to England where eventually her brother King Charles I suffered an even harsher fate, losing hi...