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Market Square => Renaissance Art => Topic started by: DonaCatalina on September 23, 2010, 05:21:33 AM

Title: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on September 23, 2010, 05:21:33 AM
Has a Renaisance portrait led you to become fascinated or curious about the person? If so, post here and tell us a little about them.

I'll start off with this one. Dona Leonor de Zapata was a Spanish Lady in Waiting to Eleonor of Austria when Jean Clouet did this portrait in red and black chalk.
She later married Don Juan de Moncayo, the Lord of Coscojuela de Fontava, they had one son also named Juan before she died and he married the Marquesa de Moncada.
Her Brother may have been Don Luis de Zapata, Carlos V official biographer, and companion of Felipe II.
(http://www.panpuzzles.com/tienda/img/8/p_20.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on September 23, 2010, 07:57:51 AM
Wonderful topic, Dona Catlina!

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Sandro_Botticelli_066.jpg/434px-Sandro_Botticelli_066.jpg)

Simonetta Vespucci--considered to be the model for Botticelli.
Best to read about her on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simonetta_Vespucci

It looks to be a case of unrequited love.  Botticelli requested to be buried at her feet and the wish was carried out.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on September 24, 2010, 05:52:10 AM
Thank you for sharing Wenchie. That was someone I'd never heard much about. I hope more people find this thread.
Appropriately enough for this area of the Forum, I'd like to mention Mencia de Mendoza ( Jadraque , Spain , 1508 - 1554 ). (http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a914504045)
A descendant of the great cardinal Mendoza, Mencía de Mendoza (1508-1554), was the daughter of Rodrigo, first Marques of Zenete and Maria de Fonseca and Toledo. Born in Jadraque, she soon left for Calahorra (Granada) and, later, to Valencia. Like most of her other famed Mendoza cousins, Mencía was educated in a humanist tradition, and was an avid collector of art.
She inheriyed her father's title and became Marques de Zenete. Mencia de Mendoza worked all her life for the dignity of women and the transformation of society through education.
(http://www.flg.es/revista_goya/imagenes/imagenes_grandes/313_314/mujer_mendoza.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on September 26, 2010, 05:43:59 PM
Is Mencia the lady you modeled  Dona from? You look like her in your avatar. :)

I find myself wondering about portraits with the simple title "Portrait of a Lady" or some other mysterious description.. More often than not it's nearly impossible to discover who they are.

This one is intriguing. It struck me when I first saw it. Such an unvarnished depiction and an odd choice of clothing for a portrait I think.  I'd read something of it being a self portrait of the artist. I wanted to know more about who he was as a man.

(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/Marianna00/442px-Jan_van_Eyck_091.jpg)

From the website below:

"On the frame of the painting Jan van Eyck has written
his own personal motto, which translates to English as "The best I am capable of
doing."  note, the moto is actually "AlC IXH XAN ("I Do as I Can"), This motto expresses the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance; the
endeavor to produce the most perfect, yet most realistic pieces of art humanly
possible."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_van_Eyck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_a_Man_(Self_Portrait%3F)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/682/Jan-Van-Eyck-and-the-Man-In-A-Red-Turban




Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: bellevivre on September 26, 2010, 06:09:11 PM
Bia de Medici

(http://www-cvr.ai.uiuc.edu/~slazebni/personal_page/scrapbook/paintings/bronzino_bia_de_medici.jpg)

She was the illegitimate daughter of Cosimo I, but was raised in her father's court along with his legitimiate children by his wife, Eleanora de Toledo... she apparently died of a fast moving fever, and her grieving father had this portrait comissioned after her death.

it's such a sweet picture, and has always struck me- she has such an openess about her...
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on September 26, 2010, 06:34:36 PM
What a beautiful child, Bellevivre!
And thanks for an intelligent topic, Dona. I majored in art and still love it.

Portrait of a Young Woman
, or as it is known in Italy as la Fornarina which means 'bakeress'.

More details on this exquisite painting are here--
http://www.haberarts.com/raphael.htm

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Fornarina.jpg/220px-Fornarina.jpg)

Margherita Luti is most probably the model. She was Raphael's mistress. Evidently she was quite a woman. Or at least Raphael thought so.

Most of what we know about Raphael's love life comes from Vasari's vivid biographical account in Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550-68). Raphael was, Vasari tells us, "a very amorous person, delighting much in women and ever ready to serve them," but never married. According to Vasari, toward the end of his life, when he was trying to complete the frescos in Agostino Chigi's villa in Rome, Raphael grew so obsessed by his girlfriend, Margherita Luti, that he couldn't focus on his work, so he had her installed in one of the villa's rooms where he could visit her whenever he felt the urge. Not long after this, Raphael's rock-starlike lifestyle caught up with him, and he died at age 37 from a fever brought on by too much sex. If we believe Vasari's story, Luti was the ultimate femme fatale.

Raphael was reluctant to tell his doctor what he had been up to and was given the wrong cure which killed him.
Can there be too much of a good thing?
I guess so.

Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on September 26, 2010, 06:42:58 PM
Bellevivre, your picture of Bia reminds me of another Medici. Maria de Medici. Same lovely face.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/Maria_de%27_Medici_(1540%E2%80%931557


(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/Marianna00/Maria20deMedici20by20Agnolo20Bronzino1551.jpg)

In keeping with your theme of half naked women WW... ;D

This intrigues me. Is she dressing or undressing? Who is she? Anyone know how to find out?

Portrait of a Young Woman by Tiziano Vecellio (Titian)

(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/Marianna00/Portrait-of-a-Young-Woman-1530s.jpg)






Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: bellevivre on September 26, 2010, 07:10:10 PM
Quote from: Anna Iram on September 26, 2010, 06:42:58 PM
Bellevivre, your picture of Bia reminds me of another Medici. Maria de Medici. Same lovely face.


(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/Marianna00/Maria20deMedici20by20Agnolo20Bronzino1551.jpg)

In keeping with your theme of half naked women WW... ;D

This intrigues me. Is she dressing or undressing? Who is she? Anyone know how to find out?

http://www.titian-tizianovecellio.org/Portrait-of-a-Young-Woman-1530s.html


actually, her half sister, isabella, apparently was a dead ringer for her, if you'll excuse the pun... those Medici's had some STRONG genes!
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on September 26, 2010, 08:23:38 PM
Nudity is not the issue here.
It's art.

While not renaissance art or a portrait, Little Gracie Watson has a story that is poignant.

Gracie's father was the manager of the Pulaski House in Savannah, Georgia. Gracie was their only child. She died of pneumonia in 1889 at the age of six. Her parents were devastated and life would never be the same for them. Her father commissioned a sculpture by a local artist, John Walz, from a photograph he gave him of Gracie.
Gracie has been vandalized in previous years and is now behind a wrought iron fence, fully restored.

If you are ever in Savannah, I highly recommend a visit to Bonaventure Cemetery. Stop by and pay a call on Gracie.
It's very touching.

Now back to renaissance paintings.

(http://image1.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2008/286/5743256_122388038540.jpg)

Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on September 27, 2010, 05:10:22 AM
This one is simply called Potrait of a Florentine Noblewoman by Agnolo Brozino. It was painted during the period when Bronzino was doing portraits almost exclusively for the Medici family. This and the fact that she has a strong resemblamce to Eleonor Alvarez de Toledo has led to some speculation that she is a maternal relative.
Ana Alvarez de Toledo Y Pimental was Eleonor's younger sister, this portrait could very well be her.
(http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.geneall.net/H/per_page.php%3Fid%3D2545&ei=BWygTKaAOcWBlAfE5rzsAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=5&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQ7gEwBA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DJuana%2BOsorio%2BPimentel,%2BII%2BMarquesa%2Bde%2BVillafranca%2B.%26hl%3Den%26prmd%3Divo)
(http://img0.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/b/3/30/107/30107325_Unknown_Portrait_of_a_Florentine_Noblewoman_1540s.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on September 27, 2010, 08:34:51 AM
Yep, I can see that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Toledo

I admit a *huge* fascination with the Medici and their family tree. A bit off topic, but a few years ago a luxery residence came on the market in Venice. Just down river of the Doge's Palace, and former home to the Medici. How I would love to see that.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on September 27, 2010, 07:37:36 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Anna_Maria_Luisa_child.jpg/493px-Anna_Maria_Luisa_child.jpg)

Anna Maria Luisa de Medici---there is just too much to post about this fascinating woman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Maria_Luisa_de'_Medici

However, an interesting story and true. We were in Florence in the Pitti Palace museum and noticed that quite a few of the male statues had something broken off.
So my friend Mike asked what happened. 
It turns out Anna Maria Luisa was so offended by them that she had them broken off.
Now, my theory is she wasn't offended. It was the equivalent of a castration. I don't know what happened in her life to make her so hostile towards that part of the anatomy. Possibly because it is thought she contracted syphillis from her husband?  But really..couldn't she have used them for a towel hook?
I think somewhere in her dresser drawer she had a collection.

Some people collect tea pots but whatever interests you.... :)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on September 27, 2010, 08:49:12 PM
It does look as though she wasn't treated very well by some of her male relatives. Must have been hard to be a strong woman in that family and in those times.

Interesting story about the missing parts, and I'm not saying it isn't so, but I can't help but wonder if Napoleon had anything to do with this. He did occupy the Pitti Palace at one point in time and he certainly was famous for that sort of calling card.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on September 28, 2010, 05:56:36 AM
Don Juan de Austria was an illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He became a military leader in the service of his half-brother, Philip of Spain and is best known for his naval victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 against the Ottoman Empire. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Austria) Don Juan, a handsome blonde man, was not acknowledged until after Carlos V's will was read. He spent the first eleven years of his life being educated as a gentleman's servant. This is the fairy tale of the Little Lost Prince come to life. Ironically enough he formed a lifelong friendship with Alejandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, who's mother was an illegitimate daughter of Carlos V, thus making them uncle and nephew by blood.
(http://valentin-corpus.blogspot.es/img/DonJuandeAustria.jpeg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on September 28, 2010, 11:46:34 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Portrait_of_Nell_Gwynne.jpg)

Nell Gwyn rose from orange girl to actress to mistress of Charles II in Restoration England. Known as 'pretty, witty Nell,' her quips were classic.
When her son Charles was six years old, on the arrival of the King, Nell said, "Come here, you little bastard, and say hello to your father."
You have to love this woman!

Charles II bought Salisbury Hall for her in Hertfordshire and is said to be haunted by the laughing ghost of Nell Gwyn. Also a Cavalier who took his own life rather than be captured.

Perhaps he and Nell...?
Naw.... :-\
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on September 29, 2010, 04:57:32 AM
This is what makes history more interesting...the people who had lives just like we do, joys, disappointments, hopes and sorrows.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on September 29, 2010, 06:17:12 AM
Nell was always a favorite of mine. I love Restoration England ever since I read Forever Amber.

And some of the pranks she pulled were classics. Almost makes me wish I could do what she did sometimes.  :D

Thanks again for a wonderful, intelligent topic. The negative and 'how much' topics get wearisome.

Now...back to portraits!  ;D
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on September 29, 2010, 06:38:43 AM
I agree Dona that this is a wonderful topic. Reminds one to look beyond the beautiful clothing and find out a little more about the person. I've said this many times, but it must have been so hard to be a woman back then. Or for that matter a man. Life was full of intrigues at every step, and wars and disease....and hopefully some sucesses and some loves.  If you didn't want to drown you HAD to live by your wits!

For my picture, I will admit to looking for the picture after the fact rather than it being my inspiration, but given this Lady's story, I felt it would fit in nicely here. It surprises me I can't find anything other than a picture of her chastisement. She was said to be truely lovely. The Rose of London.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Shore

(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/Marianna00/250px-Jane_Shore_William_Blake.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on September 29, 2010, 04:15:44 PM
Quote from: Anna Iram on September 29, 2010, 06:38:43 AM


For my picture, I will admit to looking for the picture after the fact rather than it being my inspiration, but given this Lady's story, I felt it would fit in nicely here. It surprises me I can't find anything other than a picture of her chastisement. She was said to be truely lovely. The Rose of London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Shore
(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/Marianna00/250px-Jane_Shore_William_Blake.jpg)

http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-women/jane-shore.htm
Unfortunately Jane Shore lived in a time where almost the only portraits of women were those in personal books of hourly prayers showing her as a supplicant before a saint, or on altar pieces as the donor. Usually the altar pieces showed the benafactress as a supplicant also.
Apparently she and her husband did have tomb brasses in Hinxworth Church, Hertfordshire, England, but they were destroyed during the reformation.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on September 29, 2010, 08:12:21 PM
(http://barista.media2.org/wp-content/kings%20mistresse.jpg)

Barbara Palmer, known as Lady Castlemaine, was Charles II's mistress. She gave him five children. Maybe six. The last is up for grabs.

She married Roger Palmer against his family's wishes; his father predicted that she would make him one of the most miserable men in the world. Palmer was a Roman Catholic. The two separated in 1662, following the birth of her first son. They remained married for his lifetime, but it is believed that Palmer did not father any of his wife's children.

Barbara was known for her dual nature. Diarist John Evelyn called her "the curse of the nation" yet others described her as great fun, keeping a good table and with a heart to match her famous temper. Lady Barbara took advantage of her influence over the King, using it to her own benefit. She would help herself to money from the Privy Purse and take bribes from the Spanish and the French. She was famously extravagant and promiscuous.

To put Nell Gwyn in her place, Lady Castlemaine drove her luxurious new coach drawn by six horses back and forth in front of Nell's house. The King had never given Nell anything half so valuable.
The following day, Nell drove a broken down cart pulled by six oxen in front of Barbara's house and yelled, "Whores to market, ho!"

Oh, to be at King Charles' Court now that spring is here!  ;D
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on October 01, 2010, 05:18:02 AM
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haus_Manrique_de_Lara  
This portrait by Corneille Lyon is presumed to be the same lady as this chalk drawing by Jean Clouet.
Labeled Dona Ana Mauriquez, the painting is actually of Dona Ana Manrique de Lara. Between 1531 and 1536 she served as a lady in waiting for Eleonor of Austria who was queen of France. During this time three portraits were made, two chalk drawings by Jean Clouet and one painting by Corneille Lyon. Ana was the daughter of Juan II Fernández Manrique de Lara, third Marqués de Aguilar de Campóo. In 1536 she married Antonio Manrique de Lara, fifth Conde de Paredes de Nava and had a daughter Inés. Unfortunately Dona Ana died on the 6th of January, 1542. She was probably 29 at the time of her death. Wenchie comes up with funny stories, I come up with sad ones.
(http://images.artnet.com/images_US/magazine/features/jeromack/jeromack10-31-2.jpg)
(http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/image/joconde/0044/m505201_02de8727_p.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on October 03, 2010, 08:12:39 AM
Today you get a double dose of tragedy.
Isabel de Avis and Trastámara was born in Lisbon , October 24 of 1503. She was also known as Isabel of Portugal. In 1521 Isabel's father died and her brother succeeded to the throne as king John III. The marriage negotiations between the Portuguese and Spanish began almost immediately. It was agreed that the new king would marry Catherine of Austria, Charles V's younger sister. The union between Charles and Isabel only took place three years later, by procuration in 1525. The Infanta travelled to Seville where the wedding took place on 11 March 1526.  Although it was a political union, the marriage proved to be a love-match. Records say that during their honeymoon "when [Charles and Isabel] are together, although there are many people around, they do not notice anyone else; they talk and laugh, and nothing else distracts them." They had six children, the youngest being Juan ( April 30 of 1539 ) as a result of whose birth killed Isabel of Portugal. She died in Toledo , May 1 of 1539, while Carlos was in Austria. He was so distraught over her death that he refused to marry again.
(http://www.titian-tizianovecellio.org/Empress-Isabel-of-Portugal-1548.jpg)
Beatriz of Portugal, the younger sister of Isabel was born December 31 of 1504. She married Charles III, Duke of Savoy . They had nine children, but only Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy ( born 1528) would reach adulthood. The birth of her ninth child, John of Savoy, on January 8 of 1538 resulted in her death, the same fate which would overtake her sister the next year.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PhBoBG4o3-c/SxFEx8qbIWI/AAAAAAAAHO8/Tv4ge6v0R0Y/s320/beatriz+portugal.jpg)
For a long time I've tried to find the name of the painter or a larger photo of this portrait, the sisters look so much alike.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: operafantomet on October 03, 2010, 09:38:42 AM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/bronzino1533.jpg)

Long known as "Portrait of a lady" by Pontormo, most scholars today attribute it to Bronzino, albeit influenced by his master Pontormo. So who is she?

Gabrielle Langdon, author of "Medici Women" has given an intriguing and plausible interpretation. Due to the presence of Medici heraldry (green and red were Medici colours, and those sleeves of her are actually green, though they appear black. She also wears a pointed Medici diamond on her finger) she ought to be a member of the Medici family. The lapdog points to her role as a faithful woman. But the most interesting aspect still is the book behind the chair. Langdon comments on the black bands of the book, and suggests the sitter is Maria Salviati, wife of Giovanni delle Bande Nere (black bands). If that is the case the portrait was most likely painted in 1525 or 1526, right before she was widowed. In her widowed state she always wore novice clothes of black, grey and white, with a veil over her head. She was known for her pious soul and religious faith. There are several depictions of her as widow, like these two by Pontormo:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/th_pontormo1530smariasalviatiandgiuliabaltomore.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/pontormo1530smariasalviatiandgiuliabaltomore.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/th_pontormo1543mariasalviati.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/pontormo1543mariasalviati.jpg)

She was a Medici both by birth and by marriage, and albeit her short marriage only gave her one child, this child managed to marry a most fertile woman and got 11 children with her (8 who survived infantry), as well as various children before and after that marriage. Most of these children were in the care of Maria Salviati. Not that the parent didn't care for them. They were much loved children. But their grandmother was responsible for their upbringing and teaching, as was common in noble families. Here's some of the children she had in her care:
http://aneafiles.webs.com/renaissancegallery/medicis.html

The parents (or of some guards) of these children were duke Cosimo I de' Medici and Eleonora di Toledo:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/th_bronzino1545cosimodetroit.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/bronzino1545cosimodetroit.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/th_bronzino1545.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/bronzino1545.jpg)
(Eleonora is depicted with their son Giovanni, which became both cardinal and arch bishop of Pisa, and he would probably have become pope too had he not died young. He died of malaria in Pisa, shortly before his mother).

Some of you have already commented on the beautiful portrait of Bianca "Bia" de' Medici, which was Cosimo's illegitimate daughter. She was a much loved child, and very similar to her father. In the portrait of her in white dress ("bianca") she's actually wearing her father's medallion around her neck, to erase all doubt of her parentage. Only Cosimo and maria Salviati knew who the girl's mother was, and they took that secret with them to the grave.

Maria, Cosimo's eldest daughter, was also very much alike her father. And not just in looks. Cosimo once said "she is my mirror" or something like that, because she reminded of him in temper and spirit too. Her premature death were greatly mourned. Maria Salviati died the year after Bianca, in 1543, and her death was considered a great loss. Not only had she brought up her only son and his many children, she also contributed greatly to his advantageous marriage to the princess Eleonora, daughter of viceroy of Naples. The fact that Cosimo was a true Medici both through his mother and father also contributed to his election as duke of Florence. She was very much the woman behind Cosimo until her death. If it is true that the woman in red is indeed Maria Salviati (I think it looks a lot like her too, compared to the known portraits), it helps flesh out the image of a woman who played a great part in the Florentine aristocracy.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on October 05, 2010, 08:40:40 AM
This is one lady who changed the course of world history.
Isabel de Castilla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile) (22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504) was Queen of Castile and León. Isabella was of a very fair complexion, had blue eyes, and had a hair color that was between reddish-blonde and auburn; these were typical in members of the Trastámara family who were descendants of Pedro I of Castile. Most painting of her make her hair appear to be darker. Queen Isabella rejected Christopher Columbus's plan to reach the Indies by sailing west (2000 miles, according to Columbus) more than three times before changing her mind. It actually took her about 1-2 years to agree to his plan. She pawned her jewels to finance the expedition. One interesting story recorded by the a contemporary source shows her wit and personal strength. When Ferdinand was pressed by Aragonese nobles to assume sole control over their joint kingdoms, Isabel answered him that God had given them yet one child, a daughter. If the hereditary tradions of Castile should be set aside for his sake, then he should expect that if the two of them passed leaving only the one child, the same fate would befall her. Would he wish to see some nobleman of Castile assert male ascendency over the legitimate heir and usurp the Aragonese throne of his forefathers?
Ferdinand acceded to her argument and Spanish law thereafter recognized inheritance by male or female equally.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Isabel_la_reina_catolica.jpg)
(http://www.cecilgoitia.com.ar/Isabel--castilla03.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on October 07, 2010, 08:10:54 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Mignard%2C_Louise_de_K%C3%A9rouaille.jpg)

The daughter of a Breton family of ancient and distinguished lineage, Louise de Kérouaille was maid of honour to the Duchess of Orleans, Charles' sister, who took her her to England in 1670. The King fell for Louise's baby-faced beauty on sight and she became maitresse en titre-official mistress-in 1671. The following year she gave birth to her first child, Charles Lennox, later Duke of Richmond. Louise herself was created Duchess of Portsmouth.

She attempted to persuade Charles to become an Catholic, a suicidal move in strongly Protestant England. Charles was canny enough to resist, despite his own Catholic leanings. She reportedly engineered the disgrace of the prominent courtier, the Duke of Buckingham and in 1677, another of Charles' mistresses, Lady Castlemaine. She fought off several rivals, including the Duchess of Mazarin, a further mistress, and the young Duke of Monmouth. She ingratiated herself, sometimes through sexual favours, with powerful men, including the influential statesman the Earl of Danby.

Meanwhile, Louise was building a substantial nest-egg. She enjoyed a splendid apartment at Whitehall Palace, which was redesigned three times to satisfy her expensive tastes. In addition, she was allowed £40,000 a year from the royal coffers. In total, the rapacious Louise accumulated over £136,668 from her royal connection.

Nell's name for Louise who had a slight cast in on eye, was Squintabella. Another name Nell gave her was 'weeping willow', since Louise would use tears to prize some gift or favour from the King. Both nicknames infuriated Louise, but amused Charles.

Wouldn't you just love to be at a cocktail party with those two?  :D


Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on October 12, 2010, 09:23:18 AM
Martín de Gurrea y Aragón (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_de_Arag%C3%B3n). In this portrait we have the iconic image of a Spanish nobleman, or at least how popular opinion came to think of him. Born in Pedrola ( Zaragoza ), Spain in 1526, he inherited the titles of Duke of Villahermosa and Count of Ribagorza. Don Martin was married in the early 1540's to Dona Luisa de Borja y Aragon, the family of the Dukes of Gandia , great granddaughter of the Borgia Pope Alexander VI and sister of Francisco de Borja . Doña Luisa died in 1560 after giving birth to eight children: Juan, Fernando, Ana Martin, Francis, Mary, Agnes and Juana (who died as a child). Don Martin was a friend of Cardinal Granville and Phillip II who he accompanied to England for the marriage with Mary I of England.
He died in Veruela Monastery in 1581
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Mart%C3%ADn_de_arag%C3%B3n.jpg/418px-Mart%C3%ADn_de_arag%C3%B3n.jpg)
(do his ears look rather Spockish?)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Rowan MacD on October 12, 2010, 09:54:26 AM
Quote from: Welsh Wench on October 07, 2010, 08:10:54 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Mignard%2C_Louise_de_K%C3%A9rouaille.jpg)
The daughter of a Breton family of ancient and distinguished lineage, Louise de Kérouaille was maid of honour to the Duchess of Orleans, Charles' sister, who took her her to England in 1670. The King fell for Louise's baby-faced beauty on sight and she became maitresse en titre-official mistress-in 1671. The following year she gave birth to her first child, Charles Lennox, later Duke of Richmond. Louise herself was created Duchess of Portsmouth.
Nell's name for Louise who had a slight cast in on eye, was Squintabella. Another name Nell gave her was 'weeping willow', since Louise would use tears to prize some gift or favour from the King. Both nicknames infuriated Louise, but amused Charles.
Wouldn't you just love to be at a cocktail party with those two?  :D
She was also Barbara Palmers' successor as the Royal mistress. 
  Note: I recently finished Dark Angels by Karleen Koen; a fun and well researched fictional account of the court of Charles II.  Louise and Barbara Palmer are both portrayed, with Louise in a much more sympathetic light than her predecessor.   
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on October 12, 2010, 01:09:27 PM
Rowen, I think you would like Forever Amber.
It was banned in Boston in 1944.

But then...what wasn't?   :D

Aside from Nell Gwyn--who was an absolute delight---Barbara Palmer is quite the character too!
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on October 12, 2010, 03:25:32 PM
I may have to give this book another try myself. I've had it for years, since you'd recommended it to me several years ago. I'm not really into romantic novels, preferring biographies more, but perhaps this will be a good winter read for me as well.  :)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on October 17, 2010, 08:12:33 AM
Eleanor of Austria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Austria) (15 November 1498 – 25 February 1558), Born in Louvain as the eldest child of Philip of Austria and Joanna of Castile, who would later become co-sovereigns of Castile. Her siblings were: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, Queen Isabella of Denmark, Queen Mary of Hungary and Queen Catherine of Portugal.
In 1529, by the treaty called "La Paz de las Damas" (The Ladies' Peace), it was stipulated that a marriage should take place. She was married to Francois I of France (her second husband) on 4 July 1530. They had no children as Francis ignored her except in matters of state and preferred his mistresses. As Chartles V favorite sister, she was the unofficial liaison between the two monarchs. It seems she did not mind missing Francois's bed in exchange for wealth and influence.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3332/3344003157_b5c5278df1.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3578/3413804104_6737536e6f.jpg?v=0)
(http://ritratti.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/eleonora-queen-of-france-joos-van-clevebmp.jpg?w=477&h=571)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Yawehtah on October 17, 2010, 02:47:52 PM
The Four Georges and their relationship to the Bighton Pavillion:

A Prussian Palace do you think fit for German Princes? (George I-IV) er, I mean King's of England.

(http://emerylee.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/800px-pavilion.jpg)

(http://emerylee.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/226px-georgeikneller1714.jpg)
GEORGE I of Great Britain, France, and Defender of the Faith

Upon the death of Queen Anne in 1714,  when the crown of Great Britain passed over fifty closer aspirants (All Catholic), to the sole Protestant, the  Elector of Hanover, he was in no great hurry to accept it. This German Princeling, who so reluctantly accepted "the throne of his ancestors" , didn't even speak the English language.

(http://emerylee.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/362px-george_ii_by_thomas_hudson2.jpg)
George II


Like his father George I, his first languages were German and French, but unlike George I, he was also very fluent in English (although he spoke with a heavy German accent), as well as Latin, Dutch, and Spanish. As king, he was discontent with Parliament's great control of government which gravitated him more and more over the years back to his beloved homeland of Hanover, where as Elector, he reigned supreme.


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/George_III_of_the_United_Kingdom-e.jpg)
George III

Born 4 June 1738, George was the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. Upon his father's premature death in 1751, he became heir to the throne, succeeding his grandfather, George II, in 1760. Although best remembered for losing the American colonies and his later bouts of madness, he was, setting aside these periods of illness, the best ruler of the four Georges.


(http://emerylee.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/george_iv_.jpg)
George IV

Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Monsignor de Beaumanoir on October 18, 2010, 08:05:01 AM
The life of the Crusader Rex:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England
http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_2.htm

Images of the Lionheart:

(http://i53.tinypic.com/2ynnz10.jpg)
(http://i56.tinypic.com/29bing3.jpg)
(http://i55.tinypic.com/sn10l0.jpg)
(http://i51.tinypic.com/2rp8b9f.jpg)

Good references:

Richard the Lionheart; The Mighty Crusader by D. Miller

Dungeon, Fire, and Sword, The Knights Templar in the Crusades by Robinson (Shows Richard as a Soldier's King)

Richard the Lionheart  by J. Gillingham (does a lot to dispel the myth of homosexuality)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Lady Rebecca on October 18, 2010, 11:12:11 AM
I assume the second portrait of Richard is a modern one, right?
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Monsignor de Beaumanoir on October 18, 2010, 11:45:49 AM
Yes, from the cover a board game known as Crusader Rex. Its focus being on the Third Crusade.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Don_Juan_deCordoba on October 20, 2010, 11:06:34 AM
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 2nd husband of Mary, Queen of Scots
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3446/3385522579_7889a971ac.jpg)

Henry Stuart, 1st Duke of Albany (7 December 1545 – 10 February 1567), commonly known as Lord Darnley, was a Prince Consort of Scotland, the first cousin and second husband of Mary I, Queen of Scots, and the father of her son King James VI, who also succeeded Queen Elizabeth I as King James I of England. Mary was not prepared for Scotland and took little action as queen there. Her biggest mistake was to marry Charles Darnley, a Catholic noble from England. The marriage was a disaster from the start. Darnley was a power hungry drunk who alienated much of Mary's court and they soon separated.
In Mary's defense, her cousin Elizabeth hinted strongly that if Mary tried to marry one of the continental nobles, England would be mobilized for war against Scotland. Henry was unpopular with the other nobles and had a mean and violent streak, aggravated by a drinking problem. By many accounts Henry Stuart was the worse for drink sometimes for entire days. There was also some evidence that he suffered from syphilis, which would account for his erratic and violent outbursts. On 10 February 1567, the bodies of Henry and his servant at the time were discovered in the orchard of Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, where they had been staying. Henry was dressed only in his nightshirt, suggesting he had fled in some haste from his bedchamber. A violent explosion had occurred that night at the house, but the evidence pointed to Henry escaping assassination, only to be murdered when he got outside. There was strong evidence that Henry and his valet had been strangled and that the explosion was set as an attempt to cover up the murders.



Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on October 21, 2010, 01:47:10 PM
James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell

There's alot that can be said about this fellow. He's said to have been instrumental in the assasination of Henry Stuart. Kind of hard to like this fellow. Read more in his Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hepburn,_4th_Earl_of_Bothwell


(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/Marianna00/Bothwell.jpg)

Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on October 22, 2010, 08:53:00 AM
Apparently quite a few women fell for this dashing scoundrel. He weathered several charges of adultery before his marriage to the queen.
Sir William Drury, who reported to London,  noted that although it looked as if Mary had been forced into the marriage by Bothwell, things were not as they appeared. There was evidence that Mary had shown an interest in Bothwell in October 1566 when she travelled four hours by horseback to visit him at Hermitage Castle when he was ill. It was all very suspicious.
Read more: http://www.elizabethfiles.com/the-murder-of-lord-darnley/3559/#ixzz135ypWYsk
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: operafantomet on October 25, 2010, 04:07:19 PM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/th_isabmedici1565ca.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/isabmedici1565ca.jpg)(http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze3/th_bronschool1560isabellauffizi.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze3/bronschool1560isabellauffizi.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/th_isabellademedici1560s1.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/isabellademedici1560s1.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/th_isabellademedici1560sb.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/isabellademedici1560sb.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/th_allori1570sisabella.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/allori1570sisabella.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/th_1587isabellademedicivienna.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/1587isabellademedicivienna.jpg)(http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze3/th_allorischool156070isabellamedici.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze3/allorischool156070isabellamedici.jpg)


Isabella de' Medici (1542 - 1576) was the nesteldest daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici and Eleonora di Toledo.

She was born right after her half sister Bianca (Bia) died, and is said to have been of great comfort to her father. She also acted as first lady of Florence after her mother died and before her father married for the second time. She seems to be the one who most constantly adopted her mothers love for pearl earrings, and as mentioned she also took her mother's place as first lady, and filled the role well. She was considered a beauty, she was musically gifted, she was versed in Homer and Virgil, and her home attracted artists and intellectuals. She also took care of the upbringing of young Medici offsprings, like her younger brother Pietro.

Isabella married Roman Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, in 1555. She was only 13 years old, but the union was first "consummated" three years later, and it took two more years before they were together on a more permanent basis. And even after this Isabella spent most of her time in the Medici household. I in 1567 it is noted her husband was heading towards Florence to visit her, because she was ill with smallpox - meaning she lived in Florence, and he elsewhere. She was the owner of Poggio Imperiale, one of the many Medici villas in Tuscany, and lived a fairly independent life. She is said to have miscarried several times, and getting her first child in her late 20s. But the fact that she and her husband barely saw eachother might also have something to do with that...

She took great care of her father after he was hit by several strokes in the 1570s, and they appears to have had a close relationship. No wonder, since he by then had lost his wife, four daughters and four sons. Isabella was the only surviving daughter at this point. However, her protective father died in 1574, and some two years later Isabella was murdered by her husband, when she was 34 years old. 

But this was without consequence for him. It was a honour killing, because infidelity was suspected (probably rightfully so), and Orsini acted as a Medici court official both before and after the murder of Isabella. She appears to have suffered from a "damnatio memorae", meaning that her memory was erased by for example removing all portraits of her. However, when her other brother Ferdinando became Grand Duke in 1587, this seems to have been reversed, as Isabella and Ferdinando was close in their lifetime. This might be why her portrait appears in the posthumous miniatures made in 1587, while it is not to be found in the otherwise complete miniature set of all of Cosimo and Eleonora's children from some 15 years earlier.

Her life and death is described in the book "Murder of a Medici Princess" by Caroline P. Murphy. I haven't read it yet, but it's high on my list! There's also an interesting chapter about her in Gabrielle Langdon's "Medici Women".

Many other portraits are also said to be of her; for example the one used at Wikipedia (of which there are several versions). However, these shows a very pointed hairline - and to my eye also rather different facial features. In all certain portraits of her she is depicted with a very high brow with rounded hairline, and she also have particularly dark eyes. I've therefore only added those who are certain attributions. But here is some which might pop up as her as well:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze3/allori1575-1.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze3/allori1574isdmson.jpg
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on October 25, 2010, 07:34:23 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/HortenseManciniJacobFerdinandVoet1675.jpg/220px-HortenseManciniJacobFerdinandVoet1675.jpg)

What a woman Hortense Mancini  was! She was the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of France and yep! Another one of Charles II's main squeezes!

There were five Mancini sisters and two cousins who were  known as the MazarinETTES in Louis XIV's Court. One of the cousins married into the Modena family and became the mother of Mary of Modena who was the wife of James II.
All the women married well.
When she was fifteen, Hortense married  Armand-Charles de la Porte, duc de La Meilleraye and became one of the richest women in Europe. When the Cardinal died, Hortense was left an inheritance including the Palais Mazarin in Paris with a great collection of art.

Armand had some real sexual hang ups and was another one that painted over and chipped away at the anatomy of the art. So..Hortense turned to a female for a lover. His solution was to send both women to a convent! This tactic failed, as the two plagued the nuns with pranks: they added ink to the holy water, flooded the nuns' beds, and headed for freedom up the chimney!

However the managed it, Armand and Hortense had four children. She decided to bail and left her four small children behind. She came under the protection of the Duke of Savoy and established her house as a sort of Algonquin Round Table. But Savoy's widow became a bit perturbed about the affair and kicked Hortense out when Savoy died.

Hortense was in financial straits so set her sights on Charles II. After all, her husband froze her assets.
She traveled to London under the pretext of a visit to her young cousin, Mary of Modena the new wife of Charles II's younger brother, James.  She was dressed as a man; her penchant for cross-dressing is thought to be an outward expression of her bisexuality.

Her plan worked and she scored with Charles. She even got £4,000 pension and replaced Louise de Kerouaille.
HOWEVER.....Hortense ended up in a relationship with the king's daughter Anne, Countess of Sussex.
This culminated in a very public, friendly fencing match in St James Park, with the women clad in nightgowns, after which Anne's husband ordered his wife to the country. There she refused to do anything but lie in bed, repeatedly kissing a miniature of Hortense.

Hortense may have committed suicide, keeping her life dramatic until the very end. Her husband managed to continue the drama after her death; he carted her body around with him on his travels in France, before finally allowing it to be interred by the tomb of her uncle, Cardinal Mazarin.

Well, I would like to think she and Nell Gwyn would have been friends!
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Lady Rebecca on October 26, 2010, 01:16:09 AM
I must say, I would love for a movie to be made about all of Charles II's mistresses. I think it would be fascinating, and very entertaining!
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on October 26, 2010, 08:07:21 AM
Seventeen known mistresses and fourteen acknowledged children.
I'll get to all of them yet!

And I think a made-for-TV movie that would run...oh, at least a year!

Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on October 26, 2010, 09:14:02 AM
It would certainly be a feast for the eye...all those wonderful Restoration frocks.  :) Certainly an interesting story as well, but for me it would depend on the filmakers point of view.

From what I've read Hortense never replaced Louise entirely. She was just the newest trick in the stable. Louise (and Nell) continued to fascinate Charles to his end. As a side note Louise's descendants include Diana, Princess of Wales, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Sarah, Duchess of York.

Okay, so my contribution today..well a couple really:

Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, Marquise de Verneuil (1579–1633)

(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/Marianna00/454px-Catherine_Henriette_de_Balzac_dEntragues.jpg)

Forgive me, but I'm short on time so I'll just quote from the Wiki rather than offer up my own words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Henriette_de_Balzac_d%27Entragues


"Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, Marquise de Verneuil (1579–1633) was the favourite mistress of Henry IV of France after Gabrielle d'Estrées died. She was the daughter of Charles Balzac d'Entragues and his wife Marie Touchet, who was formerly the sole mistress of Charles IX of France

Catherine Henriette de Balzac was raised at a time when women often sought to become a mistress to royalty, and her mother Marie had previously been a mistress to Charles IX before her birth. Ambitious, pretty and intriguing, by her late teens she had succeeded in becoming a mistress to Henry IV, and induced him into a promise to marry her following the death of the king's favoured official mistress, Gabrielle d'Estrées. This alleged promise led to bitter scenes of jealousy and arguing at the court when shortly afterwards Henry married Marie de' Medici instead.

Terribly infuriated and feeling betrayed, she carried her spite so far as to be deeply compromised in a conspiracy against the king in 1606, but escaped with only a slight punishment after the plot was foiled, and in 1608 Henry actually took her back into favour again as one of his mistresses. She was later involved in the Spanish intrigues which preceded the death of the King in 1610. Upon the King's death, his wife, Queen Marie de Medici, was named Regent by Parliament, and immediately banished Catherine from the royal court. Little is known of Catherine's life after that."


So back to me and my own thoughts. First, there's a heck of alot of Henry's and Charles between France and England, get's to be a bit tangled.  :D Second,  The story of Maria de Medici as Regent and Queen of France (standing in for her son Louie XIII until he came of age) is an interesting one. The Medici did have their fingers in all the political pies of the times.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_de%27_Medici

"Not long after her crowning she was soon "entirely under the influence of her maid Leonora "Galigaia"and the latter's unscrupulous Italian husband, Concino Concini, who was created Marquis d'Ancre and Marshal of France, despite never having fought a battle. A side note here, Leonora was later tried and judged guilty for practising black nmagic and bewitching the Regent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonora_Dori

They dismissed Henry IV's able minister, the duc de Sully. Through Concini and the Regent, Italian representatives of the Roman Catholic Church hoped to force the suppression of Protestantism in France. Half Habsburg herself, she abandoned the traditional anti-Habsburg French policy. Lending her support to Habsburg Spain, she arranged the marriage of her daughter, Elisabeth to the future Philip IV of Spain."




Under the regent's lax and capricious rule, the princes of the blood and the great nobles of the kingdom revolted, and the queen, too weak to assert her authority, consented (15 May 1614) to buy off the discontented princes. The opposition was led by Henry de Bourbon-Condé, Duc d'Enghien, who pressured Marie into convoking the Estates General (1614–15), the last time they would meet in France until the opening events of the French Revolution."

In 1616 her policy was strengthened by the accession to her councils of Richelieu, who had come to the fore at the meeting of the Estates General. However, in 1617 her son Louis XIII, already several years into his legal majority, asserted his authority. The king overturned the pro-Habsburg, pro-Spanish policy by ordering the assassination of Concini, exiling the Queen to the Château de Blois and appointing Richelieu to his bishopric

After the death of his favourite, the duke of Luynes, Louis turned increasingly for guidance to Richelieu. Marie de Medici's attempts to displace Richelieu ultimately led to her attempted coup; for a single day, the Day of the Dupes, in November 1630, she seemed to have succeeded; but the triumph of Richelieu was followed by her exile to Compiègne in 1630, from where she escaped to Brussels in 1631 and Amsterdam in 1638.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dupes


Honoré de Balzac encapsulated the Romantic generation's negative view:

"Marie de' Medici, all of whose actions were prejudicial to France, has escaped the shame which ought to cover her name. Marie de' Medici wasted the wealth amassed by Henry IV; she never purged herself of the charge of having known of the king's assassination; her intimate was d'Épernon, who did not ward off Ravaillac's blow, and who was proved to have known the murderer personally for a long time. Marie's conduct was such that she forced her son to banish her from France, where she was encouraging her other son, Gaston, to rebel; and the victory Richelieu at last won over her (on the Day of the Dupes) was due solely to the discovery the cardinal made, and imparted to Louis XIII, of secret documents relating to the death of Henry IV." – Essay Catherine de Medicis





Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on October 26, 2010, 01:14:57 PM
Louise was a weepy mess.

A pension of £4,000 is not bad for Hortense's  romp with Old Rowley.
Other sources differ in the replacement value. It depends on what you read.

http://books.google.com/books?id=sdL2dVF8hywC&pg=PA194&lpg=PA194&dq=did#v=onepage&q=did&f=false
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on October 27, 2010, 09:02:29 AM
Anne Stanhope (c. 1497 – 16 April 1587) was the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, who held the office of Lord Protector during the first part of the reign of his nephew King Edward VI. After Henry VIII's death, Edward Seymour acted as King in all but name. With this power, Anne considered herself the first lady of the realm, claiming precedence over Katharine Parr, Henry VIII's widow, following the latter's marriage to Anne's brother-in-law, Thomas Seymour.
Sir John Hayward wrote that:
The Duke had taken to wife Anne Stanhope a woman for many
imperfections intolerable, but for pride monstrous.... She was
exceeding both subtle and violent in accomplishing her ends, for
which she spurred over all respects both of conscience and of
shame. This woman did bear such invincible hate, first against the
Queen Dowager for light causes and woman's quarrels, especially
for that she had precedence of place before her.... That albeit the
Queen Dowager died by childbirth, yet would not her malice
either die or decrease.
(http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/images/Stanhope,Anne(DSomerset)01.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on October 27, 2010, 11:08:44 AM
She called herself Lady of the Realm!!!?? Hey! That's MY title you witch!! * Anna reaches back 500 years and beyotch slaps Anne, pulling her hair and stepping on her train for good measure.*

Sadly I think she really did mean to stand above the other ladies of the court. My title was merely meant as a cast of character sort of thing. A lady, not The lady. I heard this stirred up quite the passions around here!

It is kind of funny what witches woman can be toward one another. I can't copy paste the link right now as I'm on my phone and haven't figured out how, but I was reading about Anne after your post, Dona and she really does seem to be power hungry. I laughed when I read of her on Tudor place. Com of refusing to carry Catherine's train and pushing her out of the way during their entances and exits at court. She was quoted as saying she was teaching her manners while Catherine is said to have callled her "That Hell". Lol




Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: operafantomet on October 27, 2010, 02:50:17 PM
Quote from: Anna Iram on October 27, 2010, 11:08:44 AM
It is kind of funny what witches woman can be toward one another. I can't copy paste the link right now as I'm on my phone and haven't figured out how, but I was reading about Anne after your post, Dona and she really does seem to be power hungry. I laughed when I read of her on Tudor place. Com of refusing to carry Catherine's train and pushing her out of the way during their entances and exits at court. She was quoted as saying she was teaching her manners while Catherine is said to have callled her "That Hell". Lol

Sad though, had she been a man she would be called "determined" and "powerful".

NOT applauding her behaviour, if it was as bad as reported. But men get away with way worse stuff and are called heroes. Take a guy like Alexander the Great. He was known for his violent temper. He had all his rivals to the throne murdered, killed all men of Gaza and sold the women and children as slaves cause they fought for their city, and he burned down the grand Persian city of Persepolis (reason isn't known). We rate this man a hero and a grand figure in history. Sure, times were different, but his idea of a world empire and the ways he went to achieve it is not (in my eyes) something to praise. Same with various knights, kings and popes and whatnot. But if a woman shows similar tendencies, I.E. lust for power, for status, and works to achieve their goal, their name gets a bad scratch.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on October 27, 2010, 04:42:52 PM
Agreed. That still holds true today, but especially in the past women who wanted it all had to marry well, or mistress well and keep their eye on the prize.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on October 27, 2010, 04:50:19 PM
Not disagreeing with you; but some of the things she did would have been condemned even in a man. She confiscated the Queen's jewels from the treasury for her own use and reportedly sold access to her husband.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Anna Iram on October 27, 2010, 05:11:32 PM
Yeah, she definitly went off the edge. I only read the one article, but it sounds like she was a real fury. I'm sure it wasn't pretty to watch at the time, but I still think it's funny to imagine such behaviour. Not the theft or the other really vicious stuff, but the hissy fits at court.

Same for all those ladies in Charles II court. It's funny now to think of the pranks and such but at the time lives were at stake. Getting tossed from his side meant some pretty rough going and a pretty hard fall. As it was I think Louise, once Charles passed on, struggled with debt until she passed. Her own doing certainly as I believe she was often called "rapacious", but weren't they all in their way to some degree or other? Men and women of the courts struggled daily to keep their positions.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Rowan MacD on October 27, 2010, 05:38:49 PM
  You gotta love Anne's dress though.  I love the simple elegance and those artful slashes *sigh*
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on October 27, 2010, 07:50:37 PM
(http://www.philipmould.com/i/med/studio_sir_peter_lely_actress_mary_moll_davis.jpg)

Charles really used the theatre as his own personal trolling grounds.  And it was here that he encountered another actress--Moll Davis.

Mrs. Pepys, wife of Samuel Pepys the diarist, called her 'the most impertinent slut in the world'. But she did get a new coach--kind of like getting a car--and a ring worth £600.

Moll had a daughter by Charles the next year but Nell Gwyn was not about to gracefully go gentle into that good night.  Hearing that Moll was due to sleep with the king on a night early in 1668, Nell invited her to eat some sweetmeats she had prepared. Unknown to Moll, her rival had mixed in a hefty dose of the laxative jalap. After that, the night in the royal bed did not exactly go as planned. Charles, too, had a sharp sense of humour, but this time, he was not amused and Moll was summarily dismissed. Being a generous man, though, Charles sent Moll packing with a pension of £1,000 a year.

Maybe it is good Nell didn't know about cannabis butter.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on November 03, 2010, 10:40:46 AM
Charles Brandon 1st Duke of Suffolk portrait c1545 unknown artist.
(http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/images/Brandon,Charles(1DSuffolk)02.jpg)
Charles was born about 1483/1484, the son of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn.
He contracted to marry Elizabeth Grey, 5th Baroness Lisle (1505 – 1519). The contract was annulled. No issue.
First marriage: Before February 1506, he married Margaret Mortimer (née Neville). The marriage was annulled in 1507. There was no issue.
Second marriage: About 1508, he married Anne Browne (d. 1511) daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, Standard Bearer of England 1485 and Eleanor Oughtred.
Third marriage: In May 1515, he married Mary Tudor, Queen Dowager of France (18 March 1496 – 25 June 1533).
On 7 September 1533, he married Catherine Willoughby (1 April 1520 - 19 September 1580)
Fourth marriage: On 7 September 1533, he married Catherine Willoughby (1 April 1520 - 19 September 1580)
Yes, at the age of 50, Charles Brandon married a 13 year old girl. The kinder view of this was that he realized his son would never live to marry the girl and married her to keep from returning the dowry. Less kind are suggestions from some historians that he may have preferred underage girls.
One early incident is used to support this view. On the 15th of May 1513 he was created Viscount Lisle, having entered into a marriage contract with his ward, Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle in her own right, who, however, refused to marry him when she came of age. Some like to romanticize his marrige to Mary Tudor; but many contemporary sources say that the desire was all on her side and Charles only married her under much pressure. Her brother King Henry VIII was reported to be enraged at the marriage. But Brandon knew he probably had more to fear from Henry if Mary claimed ravishment in the event that Brandon refused to marry her. The truth was that Henry was anxious to obtain from Francis the gold plate and jewels which had been given or promised to the Queen May by Louis in addition to the reimbursement of the expenses of her marriage with the king; and he practically made his acquiescence in Suffolk's suit dependent on his obtaining them. Knowing Henry as well as he did, Brandon probably knew very well that sufficient payment would smooth over any dispute over the marriage.





Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on November 03, 2010, 07:42:32 PM
Is it just me or does he look like a Weeble?

What is interesting is the bouquet of what looks like dead flowers and the one-gloved hand.
And here MJ thought he had that idea patented!

I don't know what it is but there is something about him.....something cold and callused in the eyes.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on November 08, 2010, 05:52:47 AM
(http://www.welshleigh.org/genealogy/biographies/images/lucywalker2.jpg)

In his idleness during his exile, Charles had little to do but womanize. After all, what's a monarch to do with that free time? I mean, you can't hunt and fish all the time but it looks like Charles could do a lot of other things all the time.

The first pretty girl to catch his eye was a Welshwoman, Lucy Walter whom he met in The Hague in the summer of 1648. Lucy took up with Charles shortly after his arrival , and in 1649 gave birth to his first child, James, later Duke of Monmouth. Lucy was her lover's constant companion, but he made the mistake of leaving her behind when he left The Hague in 1650. He returned to find she had been 'intriguing' with Colonel Henry Bennet. Charles ended the affaire there and then. She died 'of a disease incident to her profession'  in 1658.

Poor Lucy.
The saddest tragedy of Lucy's life is that at this time when she most needed to be calm, reasonable, and disciplined, she instead turned into a hysterical, unreasonable nag. She came from a broken home as her father abandoned her mother when she was about eleven, and her mother had to go to court to obtain his financial support. Lucy was naive and excitable. Probably only the most stable personality could have resisted the pressures she was under. Her desperate need of money, her frustrated sense that she should be treated as queen or at least as mother of the royal heir, her need for powerful supportive parents or advisers, and her lack of a stable household of her own, took a great toll. She demanded the large allowance Charles had promised her and her son, but which he literally had not a shilling to pay. She neglected the education of her young son, she threatened Charles, and worst of all she created public scandals around him while he was himself still dependent upon the good will of foreign royalty for his own support.

Sounds like Lucy could have used some 21st century medication.

Then there was the controversy of the 'black box'.
Did Charles really marry Lucy? Or was it just a ploy to get in Lucy's bloomers?

Antonia Fraser in 1979 wrote that Lucy was "neither a whore, as one legend suggests, nor the chosen bride of the Prince of Wales.... But she did belong to that restless and inevitably light-moralled generation of young ladies who grew up in the untrammelled times of the Civil War.... As their brothers, who had grown up frequently without fathers, became the undisciplined high-spirited bucks of the 1660s, so those young ladies who survived to the merrier times of the Restoration became the great ladies of the Court."

Sounds like Court was a fun place to be!  ;)

Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: operafantomet on November 08, 2010, 04:09:01 PM
Quote from: Welsh Wench on November 03, 2010, 07:42:32 PM
What is interesting is the bouquet of what looks like dead flowers and the one-gloved hand.

My immediate thought was that the portrait presents him as a suitor or groom. Holding flowers like that usually implies a marriage or love affaire. It doesn't make sense that he is presented in such manner in a portrait painted the same year he died, though. He was around 60 at that point. But I don't think the flowers are meant to be dead, it's more that the square shapes and dry quality of the portrait due to... well, the style of an artist who wasn't in the top league. Compared to another portrait of Charles Brandon the first one posted really is second rate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Brandon_Duke_of_Suffolk.jpg
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on November 18, 2010, 08:33:02 AM
James V of Scotland was King of Scots from 9 September 1513 until his premature death at the age of 30.
He was the nephew of Henry VIII of England, and was just seventeen months old when his father was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field on 9 September 1513. The young king was controlled as a virtual prisoner by the 6th Earl of Angus until 1528 and assumed the reins of government himself.
James sailed to France for his first marriage and fathered his only legitimate child, Mary Stuart.
According to legend, James was nicknamed "King of the Commons" as he would sometimes travel around Scotland, disguised as a common man, describing himself as the Gudeman of Ballengeich. Also according to legend, what he learned of the Scottish people while out like that convinced him that his heir should not marry Edward, Henry's son. The memory of Edward, Hammer of the Highlands, was strong among the common people. The 'rough wooing' that Henry VIII pursued reinforced fears of what would happen to Scotland if an English monarch sat on the throne. By the time of James V death, most of the nobility had come to agree with him, regardless of bribes and blandishments from England. Who know how history might have turned had he lived longer.
(http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/thumbnail/141375/1/James-V-Of-Scotland-$281512-42$29,-C.1536-37.jpg)
(http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/images/Stuart,JamesV01.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Lady Kett on November 18, 2010, 06:44:26 PM
Quote from: DonaCatalina on November 18, 2010, 08:33:02 AM

James sailed to France for his first marriage and fathered his only legitimate child, Mary Stuart.


I really should know this, and I know I can go look it up on any of a gazillion websites, but the Mary's in English and Scottish history continually confound me as to who is who...so...

Is this Mary Stuart the same as Mary, Queen of Scots that QE1 had imprisoned and executed?

Many thanks friends...
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Lady Rebecca on November 19, 2010, 03:07:34 AM
Yes.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on December 23, 2010, 09:33:35 PM
(http://www.nndb.com/people/500/000097209/diane-de-poitiers-1-sized.jpg)

Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France. And what a looker she was!

http://www.dianedepoitiers.sharibeck.com/king.htm

So...Henri gave her the chateau next door to his and then there was a passageway that connected the  two chateaus...Catherine d'Medici must have been fit to be tied!

Anyways her tomb was desecrated during the French Revolution and buried in a mass grave. Unearthing her remains years later revealed an inordinate amount of gold in her system. It seems she drank gold as an elixir to stay beautiful.

You know--I like her!
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on January 05, 2011, 01:43:46 PM
Juana de Castilla also known as Juana la Loca.
Below is a rare portrait of herself with her two oldest children Eleonor(later Queen of France) and Carlos (later Emperor)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qxq9iTGa0H0/S-BKE5zlvbI/AAAAAAAADl0/FyOhFkLTmVI/s400/Joanna_of_castile_with_her_children.jpg)
Juana (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), was the first Queen regnant of both the Crown of Castile (1504–55) and the Crown of Aragon (1516–55), a union which evolved into modern Spain.
Besides the kingdoms of Spain, she also ruled the kingdoms of Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples in Italy; a vast colonial empire in the Americas; and was Countess of Burgundy and the consort of the Burgundian Netherlands, thus initiating Spanish interests there. She was the last monarch of the House of Trastámara and her marriage to Philip the Handsome initiated the rule of the Habsburgs in Spain. Throughout most of her long reign  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_of_Castile) she was under the regency of either her husband, father or son, and she was long confined to a nunnery under the pretense of mental illness. She was insanely jealous of her husband's paramours and her violent outbursts gave her husband and father ammunition to convince others of her madness and bolster their own power.


Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: operafantomet on January 18, 2011, 05:21:23 PM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze1/raphael1506.jpg)
Maddalena Strozzi Doni

The Tuscan family Strozzi had a long story of being patronages of art and artists, and Maddalena Strozzi continued that in her marriage. She married the rich cloth merchant Agnolo Doni in 1503 or 1504, and the portraits of the couple were painted some two years later by Raphael. At this point Raphael had probably seen Leonardo's "Mona Lisa", and used that portrait's idea of a seated woman in 3/4 profile towards a landscape in the portrait of Maddalena.

The attest to her husband's profession can be seen in the striking fabrics she's wearing. She also displays three rings and a pendant with red and green gems and with a big drop pearl. Such pendants were common for brides, so she's probably showing off her status as a fairly newly wed woman. Her dress is quite typical for early 16th century Florentine dresses, except her front lacing. Such front lacing was more common in the north. But it do occur in other dresses of the era. The tie-on sleeves of a different fabric and the semi-long bodice is typical, though.

Around the same time as the portraits, the couple also commissioned a Holy Family depiction from Michelangelo. This is usually referred to as "The Doni tondo", and is one of Michelangelo's most famous paintings apart from the Sistine Chapel, of course. It's suggested it was ordered in connection with the birth of their first daughter, or to commemorate their marriage, and the family and domestic focus of the tondo has been commented on by several. The Strozzi coat-of-arms with three crescent moons are included in the period frame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doni_Tondo

Both the Doni tondo and the portraits of the Doni couple is in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, in the same room. The portraits are of the same size and with a similar background and poses. They also wear almost opposite colours of eachother. They're meant to hang together. Luckilly they still do. Too many pendant portraits have been separated through the years. Both portraits can be seen here:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritratto_di_Maddalena_Strozzi

Italian brides didn't take the last name of their husband, but kept their own family name. In Italy the woman depicted is still referred to as Maddalena Strozzi. However, Victorians used the name of her husband, so in English languaged literature she is called Maddalena Doni. As a compromise she is often called by both last names...
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: RenResearcher on March 20, 2011, 11:54:56 PM
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_5LQUwWKtBKk/TYbPP_zGWwI/AAAAAAAAAHg/Zuix7ck-n7g/s800/Peasant%20in%20Wedding%20Dance%20by%20Pieter%20Bruegel%20the%20Elder%2C%201566.jpg)

The above picture is an excerpt from The Wedding Dance painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1566. The identity of this person is unknown; lost to history, if indeed even an accurate depiction of an actual individual. It is a tribute to Bruegel's skills that I am totally able to connect with the expression of relaxed enjoyment on his face and in his posture as he dances. This is one of my favorite paintings.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Becky10 on March 21, 2011, 02:02:50 AM
Quote from: DonaCatalina on November 18, 2010, 08:33:02 AM
James V of Scotland was King of Scots from 9 September 1513 until his premature death at the age of 30.
He was the nephew of Henry VIII of England, and was just seventeen months old when his father was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field on 9 September 1513. The young king was controlled as a virtual prisoner by the 6th Earl of Angus until 1528 and assumed the reins of government himself.
James sailed to France for his first marriage and fathered his only legitimate child, Mary Stuart.
According to legend, James was nicknamed "King of the Commons" as he would sometimes travel around Scotland, disguised as a common man, describing himself as the Gudeman of Ballengeich. Also according to legend, what he learned of the Scottish people while out like that convinced him that his heir should not marry Edward, Henry's son. The memory of Edward, Hammer of the Highlands, was strong among the common people. The 'rough wooing' that Henry VIII pursued reinforced fears of what would happen to Scotland if an English monarch sat on the throne. By the time of James V death, most of the nobility had come to agree with him, regardless of bribes and blandishments from England. Who know how history might have turned had he lived longer.

My idea of a good looking guy. ..This is probably why I have trouble finding men that I think are attractive.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on September 09, 2011, 02:16:09 PM
MARGARET AUDLEY (1539-January 10, 1564)

Margaret Audley was one of the wealthiest young women in England when she was married at thirteen to Lord Henry Dudley (1531-August 27,1557), younger son of the duke of Northumberland. The only child of Thomas Audley, 1st baron Audley (1488-April 30,1544) and Elizabeth Grey (c.1510-c.1564), she had inherited lands worth £1000 per annum, including Cree Church Place in London and Audley End on the outskirts of Saffron Walden. These were confiscated when the duke was found guilty of treason and executed. Henry Dudley was restored in blood on July 5,1556 and his wife's lands were returned, but he died in France after the Battle of Saint Quentin the following year.  In December 1558, she became the second wife of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, who was her fifth cousin, through their descent from Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Richard Woodville. Margaret's line of descent came from the marriage of Elizabeth Woodville and John Grey, while Thomas Howard's line of descent came through Elizabeth Woodville's sister, Catherine, who had married Henry Stafford. Parliament ratified the marriage in March, 1559. After participating in the coronation, Margaret and her new husband retired to Kenninghall and did not return to London until the following autumn. The marriage appears to have been a love match and produced four children, Elizabeth (1560-d. yng), Thomas (1561-1626), Margaret (1562-1591), and William (December, 1563-1640). So great was Margaret's desire to rejoin her husband for Christmas in 1563 that she left Audley End when she was still weak from childbirth. She died on 9 January 1564, three weeks after the birth of her last child. She was buried at St. John the Baptist's church at Norwich.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/MargaretAudley.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Archer on November 28, 2011, 07:48:16 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Hans_Holbein_d._J._065.jpg/476px-Hans_Holbein_d._J._065.jpg)

          Sir Thomas More, English lawyer.   7 February 1478  – 6 July 1535

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Thomas_More (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Thomas_More)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on December 11, 2011, 07:21:18 PM
The last of the 'uncrowned queen of France',, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson became the mistress of Louis XV, the grandson of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Known to her family as Reinette because a fortune teller predicted she would reign over the heart of a king, this fascinating woman became Madame de Pompadour

Too much to write on her life, I will just post the link. Click on for some facets of her life including her checkbook expenditures.

http://www.madamedepompadour.com/_eng_pomp/home.htm


A fascinating, beautiful woman.  Dr Who thought so too.


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qfv-gvDhbWw/TYR1V1hAoCI/AAAAAAAABWQ/MljzbBcJkzQ/s1600/Madame%2Bde%2BPompadour.jpg)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Adriana Rose on December 17, 2011, 10:19:33 AM
I loved that episode! " I just snogged Madame Depompadour!" hehe
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on December 17, 2011, 10:27:21 AM
Oh, to be at Versailles now that the Doctor is there......*sigh*  ;)
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on January 05, 2012, 04:05:33 PM
(http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/thumbnail/134382/1/Louise-De-Clermont-Tallard-$28c.1518-C.1596$29-Duchess-Of-Uzes,-C.1535.jpg)

Madame de Clermont-Tallard LOUISE, (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.nemausensis.com/personnages/ClermontTonnerre.htm&ei=oBwGT4qxEMGi2gX0s6A1&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CE0Q7gEwBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3DLouise%2Bde%2BClermont-Tallard%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1271%26bih%3D853%26prmd%3Dimvnso)
Larger image here (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Louise_de_Clermont_3.jpg)
Countess of Tonnerre,
first Duchess of Uzès
1504 at the Château de Tallard
Louise was a maid of honor and a friend of Queen Catherine de Medicis.
She married, April 10, 1556, Antoine de Crussol, born in Uzès June 21, 1528.
She was outspoken and enjoyed the familiarity of the Royal Court. For a time she toyed with Protestantism, but to the dismay of Catholic and Calvinist authorities, she gave herself great freedom in religious interpretation. Poets published works in her honor and called her the jewel of the court. It was at Mont-de-Marsan , in May 1565 , that Catherine de Medici rewarded the loyalty of Antoine de Crussol by elevating him as Duke of Uzès, making her friend Louise the Duchess.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on January 06, 2012, 07:37:46 AM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Edward_I_of_England_and_Eleanor_of_Castile,_Lincoln_Cathedral.jpg)
Edward I of England. This effigy portrait is the basis for most modern representations.
Edward,Ned to his family, was born 17 June 1239. As a person and a king, the movie Braveheart was not too far off the mark in its representation. The years 1264–1267 saw the conflict known as the Second Barons' War, in which baronial forces led by Simon de Montfort fought against those who remained resisted royal abuses by King Henry III. The first scene of battle was the city of Gloucester, which Edward managed to retake from the enemy. When Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby, came to the assistance of the rebels, Edward negotiated a truce with the earl, the terms of which he later broke. This set the model for his life and reputation. Though the average citizen loved him as the model of royalty; to his contemporaries he was known as a Pard, a leopard who could change its spots at will. The instances of King Edwrad's oathbreaking are too numerous to list here. To secure his position as Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llywelyn_ap_Gruffudd)made a treaty with Edward I as a vassal of the Crown. His reward was for King Edward to encourage the Marcher Lords to raid Wales and give sanctuary to would-be assassins such as Owen de la Pole and Llywelyn's own brother Daffyd. The straw that broke the camel's back was when King Edward abducted Eleanor de Monfort, Llywelyn's wife and Princess of Wales. Edward held her prisoner for three years until he forced Llywelyn to surrender Wales through a war of conquest.

It was the example of the last Prince of Wales that Robert the Bruce had before him when offered the Crown of Scotland in exchange for homage to England's king.
He died on 7 July 1307 of an lingering case of Dysentery; perhaps a fitting end to a liar, oath-breaker, murderer and thief.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on January 06, 2012, 03:31:40 PM
Quote from: DonaCatalina on January 06, 2012, 07:37:46 AM


He died on 7 July 1307 of an lingering case of Dysentery; perhaps a fitting end to a liar, oath-breaker, murderer and thief.

Coming from a long line of Welshmen, I whole-heartedly agree.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: angusmacinnes on January 06, 2012, 06:33:48 PM
Being Scottish I am glad to know he probably turned over in his grave when JAmesVI of Scotland became James I of England.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Welsh Wench on January 14, 2012, 10:57:55 AM
The reconstruction of the face of Eleanor of Acquitaine. This is really  neat!

She really needs no introduction. Her reputation precedes her.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVOFwLfchWA&feature=related
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Lady Renee Buchanan on January 14, 2012, 02:01:55 PM
Quote from: Welsh Wench on January 14, 2012, 10:57:55 AM
The reconstruction of the face of Eleanor of Acquitaine. This is really  neat!

She really needs no introduction. Her reputation precedes her.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVOFwLfchWA&feature=related

That was amazing!  Loved the re-creation.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: JimsDana on January 14, 2012, 07:57:04 PM
Wow!
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Bob of the Lake on January 15, 2012, 11:36:56 AM
Very cool!
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: DonaCatalina on January 16, 2012, 04:53:30 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYmBqhayDPM&feature=endscreen&NR=1

It looks like the same person did Richard I. It was a little creepy when he opened his eyes.
Title: Re: The person behind the portrait
Post by: Rowan MacD on March 28, 2012, 12:58:16 PM
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/therowen9/Alonso_Snchez_Coello_003.jpg)
Anna of Austria (1 November 1549 – 26 October 1580), was Queen consort of Spain and Portugal by virtue of her marriage to King Philip II of Spain.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_of_Austria_%281549-1580%29
 A beautiful woman.  I just love this gown....
edit to add close up:
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/therowen9/Alonso_Snchez_Coello_003b.jpg)