LAVISHLY embroidered 17th century church vestments will form part of a new exhibition at Auckland Castle next month.

Plots and Spangles: The Embroidered Vestments of Helena Wintour, will chart the story of one woman’s religious devotion in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot that ended in horrifying punishment for her family.

Helena was six when her father and two uncles were hanged, drawn and quartered for their part in the plot to kill the Protestant King James I and his Parliament on November 5, 1605.

Thirteen of her richly decorated "churchstuffe" will be brought together for the first time since her death in 1671. Fashioned on silk and velvet in gold and silver thread, the vestments are encrusted with sequins, precious stones and pearls.

"They are truly astonishing, and glitter with gold, silver, precious stones and pearls," said Clare Baron, Auckland Castle’s assistant curator.

Decorated with Jesuit symbolism and iconography, the vestments are prominently signed with Helena’s name or initials.

“She would have known that had she been caught making these overtly Catholic vestments, she would have received a severe punishment. She was an extraordinarily brave and independent woman.”

The exhibition, which opens on October 16, will include artefacts linked to the treasonable plot.

One is the lantern Guy Fawkes was carrying when he was caught with 36 barrels of gunpowder under the Houses of Parliament, on loan from Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

Others include a 1623 first folio of Shakespeare’s Histories and Tragedies, with their veiled references to the perceived Catholic threat, and a recusant altar stone and chalice from Ushaw College, Durham.

The most startling item is the preserved human eyeball of Catholic martyr and priest Edward Oldcorne, who was executed alongside Helena’s uncle, John Wintour, in 1606.

Oldcorne, like Guy Fawkes, was born in York. He was caught when fellow clerics fleeing in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot took refuge in his house in Worcestershire. A sympathiser collected the eyeball which had become detached during the execution.

Preserved in a silver reliquary, it is part of a collection of religious relics held at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, with which Auckland Castle is collaborating on Plots and Spangles, along with the British Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and Douai Abbey in Berkshire.

Also on display will be 17th century devotional books of the type Helena would have read and used as inspiration for her vestments.

"The story touches on the Gunpowder Plot which we commemorate each Bonfire Night, the life of undercover priests in England at this time and, most importantly, Helena’s beautiful needlework," said Ms Baron.

“It has been described as the single most important body of work by a named Englishwoman in early modern times. The vestments were her way of communicating her devotion, but also her defiance.”

There are no images of Helena, though it is known she wore glasses, probably as a result of hours spent doing embroidery. She never married and was born, lived and died in her home county of Worcestershire.

Plots and Spangles will explore the role embroidery played in the devotional life of other Catholic women at this time. It will also tell for the first time the story of what happened to her vestments following her death to the present day.

The exhibition will run until April 11.