Sample of Italian terracotta from Westhorpe Manor showing Charles Brandon’s lion

As part of the research for my new book, “Brandon – Tudor Knight”, I decided to travel to Suffolk to see what I could uncover about his manor house at Westhorpe. Their manor house features prominently in my new book, as well as in my previous book, Mary – Tudor Princess. Although, like many Tudor houses, it was demolished in the mid-eighteenth century, I was keen to see what I could learn from the site and its location in the Suffolk landscape. Westhorpe became the main residence for the Brandon family up to the time of Mary’s death. Charles Brandon had been made Duke of Suffolk by King Henry VIII and built Westhorpe using Mary’s French dower income. He used the moated site of the former de la Pole property, although the new building was on a grander scale.