Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Southwell (Nee Cromwell) C. 1680; Circle of Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Oil on canvas in gilt cassetta frame.

An intimate small portrait of the young Elizabeth.

Lady Elizabeth Cromwell (c.1672-1709) was the only daughter of Vere Essex Cromwell of Oakham, 4th Earl of Ardglass and his wife Catherine Hamilton.

When her father died in 1687, she claimed the title of 8th Baroness Cromwell of Oakham, although his Earldom and Viscountship became extinct; she was ranked with the Peeresses at the funeral of Queen Mary II and the coronation of Queen Anne, but her claim appears to have been a mistake.

Whether she was entitled to succeed her father depends on how the barony was created. A barony by writ descends to an only daughter, if a baron has no sons; a barony by patent follows the rule of descent given in the patent - normally to the male heirs of the grantee, which would exclude daughters.

The Barony of Cromwell has a patent, granted in 1540 to Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell of Oakham (and his heirs male), son of Henry VIII's Minister Thomas Cromwell, after his father's fall and execution. But the antiquarian William Dugdale had claimed in the 1670s that there was also a writ summoning Gregory Cromwell as Baron Cromwell, dated 28 May 1539. Although he gives a text of the writ, the form is not standard, and no writs at all are recorded as being issued on that day - the first day of Parliament, and so rather late to summon men to attend it; the Complete Peerage conjectures that Dugdale saw a reference to Lord Cromwell in the proceedings of the Parliament, deduced that it meant the son - not the father - and supplied the writ he assumed must exist.

Elizabeth married Edward Southwell, Secretary of State for Ireland, in 1703, a year after the death of his father, Sir Robert Southwell; their son Edward Southwell did not call himself Baron Cromwell of Oakham. Her grandson inherited the much older and more distinguished Barony of Clifford as its 20th holder.

(The fourth image is of Lady Southwell in later life).

SIR GODFREY KNELLER (1646-1723) was the most distinguished painter of baroque portraits in England.

Born in Lubeck, he trained with Bol and Rembrandt, coming to London in 1676.

By 1679 he had painted the King and remained the most famous and successful portrait painter in England until his death.

n 1688 he was made Principal Painter to the King and was knighted in 1692 and a made a baronet in 1715.

His style had a profound influence on British portraiture and a large number of artists, many very talented in their own right, emulated his fashionable style.

SIZE: 19 x 15.75 inches inc. frame.

PROVENANCE:

*Private Collection, Devon.

*With Roy Precious Fine Art.

*Private Collection, Sussex.

VERSO: indistinct inscription on the stretcher "Lady Southwell By ........"