Many followers of the Tudor Society will have read articles by J Stephan Edwards as he regularly contributed to the Tudor Life Magazine. We are happy to announce that Stephan will be talking at two prestigious lectures at the Society of Antiquaries of London on Thursday, 4th April. Both are free and open to the public, but you must register if you want to attend:
Searching for a Portrait of Jane Grey Dudley, England’s ‘Nine-Days Queen’ of 1553
Thursday, 4th April
Society of Antiquaries of London
REGISTER HERE - https://www.sal.org.uk/event/portrait-of-jane/
This extensively illustrated lecture examines some of the better-known ersatz images and uncovers the likely or actual identity of many of the sitters depicted. Particular attention will be devoted to an image formerly in the collections of the American financier John Pierpont Morgan and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art with identification until the 1950s as a portrait of Jane Grey by François Clouet. That image, known as the Berry Hill Portrait owing to having last been held by Berry Hill Galleries of New York, vanished into an unknown private collection in 1961. But the portrait briefly re-emerged at auction in November 2021 with an initial identification as Mary, Queen of Scots. The evidence is regrettably inconclusive for definitively identifying the sitter, however. The candidates are limited to just two royal women, however. The most likely identification, in my opinion, is Jane’s younger sister Katherine Grey as she appeared circa 1558-1561, during which time she was heir-presumptive to Queen Elizabeth I. But it is also quite possible that the portrait is the first ad vivum portrait of Elizabeth herself following her accession and can be dated very narrowly to late 1558 or very early 1559. In the absence of definitive evidence, I will argue that the portrait should properly be labeled, pending discovery of definitive evidence to resolve the difference, as “Unknown lady circa 1558-1562, likely either Katherine Grey or Elizabeth Tudor.
Queen Jane’s Proclamation of Accession of 1553 and Gendering of the English Monarchy
Thursday, 4th April
Society of Antiquaries of London
Register Here - https://www.sal.org.uk/event/queen-janes-proclamation-of-accession-of-1553-and-gendering-of-the-english-monarchy/
This lecture will analyze the text of the Proclamation of Accession of Queen Jane (Grey Dudley) through the lens of gender and relative to specific gender role expectations prevalent in England during the Tudor period. The document is effectively unique among English and British proclamations of accession in that it presents an argument for altering the line of succession in contravention of feudal custom related to the royal succession and of the Third Act for the Succession of 1543/4. The lecture will argue that the proclamation is a heavily gendered document that attempts, albeit cryptically, to persuade the populace of a necessity to preserve the English monarchy as gendered exclusively male.
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