Inscription bottom right 'Aet 32. Ao 1645' (Aged 32 in 1645), also bears intitials 'DMf' ("Daniel Mytens fecit" i.e. Daniel Mytens made this).
Upper left the Babington coat of arms with the motto "Foy est Tout" (Faith is All) a phrase reputedly said to Henry V on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt in 1431 by Thomas Babington, a squire in the King's personal retinue.
The sitter is expensively and fashionably dressed with much play of silk, lace and silver; in the background the formal gardens of Rothley Temple.
The house still stands; now known as Rothley Court, it has been an hotel since 1960. (See image 5).
Rothley Temple originally belonged to the Knights Templar from 1203, then the Knights Hospitaller until their supression in the 1560s, when it was acquired by the Babingtons.
MATTHEW BABINGTON, Lord of the Manor and Soke of Rothley (1612-1669) son of Thomas Babington and Catherine, daughter of George Kendall of Smithsby, Derbyshire. He was educated at Queens College, Cambridge, then the Inner Temple in 1631, called to the Bar in 1640.
He had married (with £2000) Anne Hopkins in 1634.
Babington was a Justice of the Peace 1657-9 and Commissioner for Militia in 1660.
The Babingtons had moved into the East Midlands early in the 15th century, one of them sitting for Nottinghamshire in 1426. Matthew's father was a member of the County Committee and his brother Thomas was a Captain of Horse for Parliament during the Civil War and was involved in Booth's Rising in 1659.
Matthew himself was a Royalist who was imprisoned in Lambeth House on a charge of levying war against Parliament and corresponding with the enemy.
On the Accession of Charles II in 1660 Babington became M.P. for Leicester and used his Royalist service to the King to get his brother, Thomas, pardoned and, in fact, advanced to be a Major in the Royal Service!
Two years after Matthew's death in 1669 King Charles II obtained a Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, for his younger son, also Matthew, in consideration of Babington's "eminent loyalty...both to the hazard of his life and the impairing of his estate".
SIZE: canvas 44 x 39 inches.
PROVENANCE: by descent through the Babington family.
IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS PORTRAIT IS SOLD AS A COMPANION TO THE ONE OF ANNE BABINGTON AND THE PRICE IS FOR THE PAIR.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Sold.....pair of Portraits of Matthew and Anne Babington 1645; Circle of Daniel Mytens.
