The Blanche Parry Embroidery

There in front of me, hanging in Hatfield House, was The Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, painted c.1603, a beautiful portrait full of symbolism and colour, the Queen gazing steadily at the onlooker. I was absolutely enthralled, as I realised that, incredibly, the Queen's dress exactly matched the Blanche Parry Embroidery[1] in St. Faith's Church, Bacton, Herefordshire, which I knew well and had studied so carefully.

Sunday, 17th August 2003 was, for me, a beautiful day and I was thoroughly enjoying our visit to the house owned by the Marquess of Salisbury, a descendant of Blanche Parry's cousin and close friend Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley. Only one wing survives of the earlier Hatfield House, now known as the Old Palace, where Elizabeth was allowed to live, under house-arrest, during the dangerous days of the reign of her sister Queen Mary and it was here, at Hatfield, that Elizabeth learned of her accession to the throne when Mary died. For me the whole site was evocative as I knew that Blanche Parry had also lived here, devotedly attending her mistress.

The previous day I had visited, with my husband Terry, the Elizabeth Exhibition[2] at Greenwich and I had been able to examine the original painting of Queen Elizabeth I's Presence Chamber[3] which clearly records Blanche Parry's position in the Elizabethan Royal Court. Now, at Hatfield, my 'mind's eye' wandered back into the 16th century to visualise Blanche and her beloved Elizabeth together in the Old Palace[4] from where the view across to the Church is still markedly the same. Lord Burghley's son, Robert 1st Marquess of Salisbury, is entombed there. The portrait of Lord Burghley[5] resplendent in his robes as Queen Elizabeth's Lord Treasurer, hangs on the walls of the later house built by this same Robert Cecil. I had researched Lord Burghley; I even knew his handwriting and I knew how he had helped his cousin Blanche. They were both members of the close circle around Queen Elizabeth that is shown in the painting of Queen Elizabeth I's Presence Chamber[6] . Then, turning from Lord Burghley, I had been confronted with the Queen's famous Rainbow Portrait[7] . I was utterly and completely stupefied. I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

__________

[1] Richardson, Ruth E., Blanche Parry & Queen Elizabeth I, 2012, picture for January with full text.

[2] Held 1st May to 14th September 2003.

[3] The usual title for this picture is Queen Elizabeth receiving Dutch Ambassadors in the Presence Chamber. Water-colour by an unknown artist, probably German, c.1570-75. (picture Gouache on paper, ©Staatliche Museen – Graphische Sammlung Kassel 10430) The two kneeling ambassadors are named as Vestlan and Walsbrun but the Dutch National Archives confirmed that these names are not Dutch. See Richardson, Ruth E., Mistress Blanche Queen Elizabeth I's Confidante, 2007, pages 78-82. Richardson, 2012, picture for October. For this and other pictures see here.

[4] Richardson, 2012, picture for November with full text.

[5] Ibid, for March.

[6] This important painting of Queen Elizabeth receiving two emissaries, from Hesse-Kassel in Germany, records the power structure at Queen Elizabeth's Court c.1569-1573. Those standing are: Sir William Cecil Lord Burghley, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, Edward Fiennes de Clinton Lord Admiral, Blanche Parry, Christopher Hatton, Queen Elizabeth I, and Francis Walsingham. Some names - 'Lister', 'Admiral', 'Konigin' (Queen) and 'Ambassador' for Walsingham - were added later. Blanche was mistakenly identified as Mary Queen of Scots ('Konigin von Scotland') who never met Elizabeth. Blanche is here as Elizabeth's chaperone and she was at the centre of the Royal Court. She was in charge of the Privy Chamber controlling access to the Queen on her behalf, the Queen's jewels, and for a time the Great Seal of England. She received books, furs and money for the Queen. She acted as the Queen's personal assistant and was a conduit for passing information, even Parliamentary bills, to the Queen. See Richardson, 2007.

[7] The Rainbow Portrait was attributed to Marcus Gheeraets the Younger who grew up in England. He certainly painted the queen around the 1590s (the Ditchley Portrait is c.1592) so, if he was the painter, the The Rainbow Portrait could be earlier than the 1600-1602 usually ascribed to it due to the Queen's visit to Hatfield in 1602. More recently it has been attributed to Isaac Oliver, or Olivier, a French Huguenot, and Marcus Gheeraets' brother-in-law, who lived in London 1568-1617. He was primarily a painter of miniatures.