Tudor (39 page)

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Authors: Leanda de Lisle

BOOK: Tudor
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Katherine Parr, attributed to Master John.

Mary Tudor by Master John. The physical similarities suggest the Tudor sisters have more in common than history has credited.

A portrait of Elizabeth in a crimson dress is listed in an inventory of Henry VIII's possessions at his death so this picture may date from as early as 1546.

The infant Edward Tudor, dressed to mimic his father and offering an apparent blessing on the viewer like the Christ child. The Latin inscription urges him to imitate or even surpass the achievements of his father.

Edward VI, attributed to William Scrots. Behind the public image of the godly prince was a boy keen to please, prone to hero worship, anxious to do the right thing and fond of boyish pursuits.

This famous nineteenth-century painting of Jane Grey's execution encapsulates the myth of Jane as an innocent virgin, sacrificed on the altar of adult political ambition. In reality Jane was a religious leader and no mere victim.

Mary I, already drawn and ill, is here wearing La Pelegrina, the largest pearl in the world at that time, and a gift from her husband Philip of Spain. It would later be bought by the actor Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor. Mary holds the red rose of the House of Lancaster from whom she and her husband both claimed descent.

The earliest known portrait of an English mother and her child, this depicts Lady Katherine Grey – the heir to Queen Elizabeth I under Henry VIII's will – and her son, Lord Beauchamp, as Madonna and child.

Elizabeth I's face is a mask of beauty and eternal youth, although when the Rainbow portrait was painted she was already an old woman, missing several teeth.

This portrait was sold in the nineteenth century as Lady Jane Grey/Dudley. The style of the costume, however, dates the portrait much earlier. If it is an English court lady, as is the current view (despite the style being French), then it may well be Margaret Douglas, which would fit with the sitter's buttons marked with the initial D. Like her ancestress and namesake, Margaret Beaufort, whom she in many ways resembled, Margaret Douglas has suffered from the absence of authenticated portraits of her in her youth.

Funeral effigy of Margaret Douglas and four of her eight children.

When this limning of Mary, Queen of Scots was painted by Hilliard she had already been Elizabeth's prisoner for over a decade.

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