Tudor (38 page)

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Authors: Leanda de Lisle

BOOK: Tudor
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Elizabeth of York – the eldest daughter of Edward IV and wife of Henry VII. Their marriage embodied the union of the houses of York and Lancaster.

Painted funeral effigy of Henry VII: a king of many seasons, Henry VII won the crown of England and left his heir rich, with a kingdom at peace at home and respected abroad.

Miniature prayer books such as this one were often listed as ‘tablets' in inventories of the period, and it is possible this is the tablet picture of Henry VIII that his niece Margaret Douglas described in her will.

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots, elder sister of Henry VIII, with her first husband, James IV of Scots, pictured in the Seton Armorial.

Mary Tudor, the French Queen, younger sister of Henry VIII. The drawing is marked with the graffiti ‘Plus sale que royane', that is, ‘more dirty than queenly', an allusion to her, as the widow of Louis XII, marrying the lowly born Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

The dominating presence of Henry VIII in this Holbein family portrait of the king with his long-dead parents, and the more recently deceased Jane Seymour, mother of his son Edward, is reflected in the words written on the central altar which boast that Henry VIII is greater than his father for ‘The presumption of Popes has yielded to unerring virtue and with Henry VIII bearing the sceptre in his hand, religion has been restored'.

Henry VIII is depicted looking straight at the viewer with the late Jane Seymour, and their son and heir, Edward. To the left and right are the princesses Mary and Elizabeth. It has been suggested that the view behind them hints at a possible life outside the royal palaces, with marriages and households of their own.

Katherine of Aragon.

Anne Boleyn's daughter Elizabeth wore this ring after she became queen.

Jane Seymour by Hans Holbein.

Dress was important at the Tudor court with Anne Boleyn one of its most fashionably dressed women. By contrast the ugly German costume worn here by Anne of Cleves made her repulsive to Henry VIII.

The jewellery in this portrait has prompted historians to claim it is Katherine Howard, but it has also been suggested that it is a portrait of Margaret Douglas, and certainly it resembles portraits of her as an older woman.

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