Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland (24 January 1602 – 12 February 1666), styled Lord le Despenser between 1624 and 1628, was an English nobleman, politician and writer. Life One of seven sons of Francis Fane by his wife Mary Mildmay, granddaughter of Sir Walter Mildmay, Mildmay Fane was born in Kent and educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (matriculated 1618). He became MP for Peterborough in 1620 and for Kent in 1625. He succeeded his father as Earl of Westmorland and Lord le Despenser on 23 March 1629. A friend of Robert Herrick, he supported the Royalist party at the outbreak of the English Civil War (King Charles I had stood as godfather to Fane's eldest son in 1635). Following a brief period of imprisonment by Parliament, however, he retired to his estate at Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire. Writing One hundred and thirty-seven poems by Fane appeared in his self-published collection Otia Sacra in 1648—the first time a peer of England published his own verse. It was only at the end of the twentieth century that a larger body of Fane's verse was identified: some 500 poems by Fane, composed between 1621 and 1665, were published in 2001. The poems survived in manuscript collections preserved at Fulbeck Hall in Lincolnshire, Houghton Library at Harvard University, and the Westmorland papers preserved at the Northamptonshire Record Office. Fane also wrote masques and stage plays; six of these "politicized entertainments" were performed at Apethorpe during the decade of the 1640s by Fane's children and servants. For his 1641 masque Candia Restaurata, Fane designed sets and stage effects and composed some of the music used in the production. Virtue's Triumph features personifications of Ambition and Impudence, Lies and Deceits; Nobility and Learning are married and the parents of Truth. The protagonist of De Pugna Animi is Lord Mens (Mind), who is assisted by figures like Sir Ratio Prudens in resisting a revolt of the five senses. Fane wrote his play The Change during his imprisonment in the Tower of London early in the Civil War. One of his plays, titled Ladrones, was known in manuscript in the 19th century and reportedly featured Sir Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, and Ferdinand Magellan as characters; but the MS. has been lost. Fane's total extant literary output includes over 900 poems in English and Latin, and eight plays or entertainments. Family Fane married twice: firstly, in 1620, to