This brought him into close contact with senior figures including Queen Henrietta Maria of France, Charles II and Clarendon, connections which became important in later years.

His father was Surveyor of Marine Victuals, while the St Johns owned large estates in Lydiard Tregoze (Wiltshire) and Ireland, and were connected by marriage to the powerful Villiers family.

[2] George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was a favourite of both James VI and I and his son Charles I, and with his help the elder Apsley was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower of London in 1617.

He died in May 1630 leaving huge debts, and when Lucy's second marriage ended after less than a year, the result was a series of bitter property disputes; until he reached the age of 21 in 1637, Apsley was a Royal ward and so these often had to be settled by Charles himself.

[7] Apsley was made deputy to John Berkeley, appointed Royalist governor of Exeter shortly before it was attacked in December 1642, although the city did not fall until September 1643.

[10] [a] His position in Exeter brought Apsley into close contact with Queen Henrietta Maria of France, who spent much of 1644 there, as did the Prince of Wales and Clarendon after January 1645.

After the execution of Charles in January 1649, he avoided involvement in Royalist conspiracies in order not to compromise his brother-in-law, although in 1651 his brother James allegedly tried to assassinate Oliver St John, Commonwealth ambassador to the Dutch Republic.

[17] Hutchinson was re-arrested in 1663 and charged with involvement in a "Papist plot"; since he was well known to be a devout Puritan this was recognised as highly unlikely, but Apsley was unable to have him freed and he died in prison in September 1664.

[19] In partial compensation, he was appointed secretary to the Royal African Company, established to challenge the Dutch dominance of the slave trade and whose principal shareholders included Charles and James.

[16] The epic poem "Order and Disorder", published anonymously in 1679 during the Exclusion Crisis, was for many years attributed to Apsley but is now considered the work of his sister Lucy.