Titan Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
Yet she lacked the political skill and intuition to rule successfully in Scotland and was embroiled in marriages that ended in murder and scandal. For a queen who has inspired artists, scholars, playwrights, composers and poets, it is surprising that there are very few portraits of her painted during her life. For the most part her iconography is known through portraits painted following her son’s accession to the English throne in 1603 (hen her son ascended the English throne he began a campaign to altar Mary’s image from traitoress to heroine and thus portraits were produced to elevated her into the status of pious victim – martyred for her beliefs and misunderstood). Her history acquired a romantic aura and demand for her portrait grew in the 17th and 18th centuries reaching its zenith in the 19th century. Most portraits are 18th or 19th century. Our portrait is a rare survival on oak panel (later cradled) from the 17th century. It contains an inscription (on the hairband) “Mary Regina” and a date “1?58”. The upper left contains latin text and the words “Blesse and Rejoyce with me”.
The only daughter of the late James V of the ruling Stewart dynasty, Mary became Queen of Scots at only six days of age. She spent most of her childhood in France while Scotland was ruled by regents, and in 1558, she married the Dauphin of France, Francis (this was the same year when Mary Tudor, England’s Catholic queen, died and was succeeded by her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth. Mary believed that she had the stronger claim to the English throne). Her new husband ascended the French throne as King Francis II in 1559, and Mary briefly became queen consort of France, until his death in December 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland in 1561 and four years later she married her first cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. In 1566 they had a son, James.
On 10th February 1567 an enormous explosion destroyed the lodgings at Kirk o’ Field in which Darnley was staying. The bodies of Darnley and his servant were found in the rubble. Darnley had been murdered in mysterious circumstances, and Mary herself was implicated in the plot. The prime suspect was the man who was to become her third husband, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. How Mary dealt with this incident sealed her fate.
She fled to England in 1568, hoping for the help of her cousin, Elizabeth I. Her presence was dangerous for the English queen, who feared Catholic plotting on Mary’s behalf. The two queens never met and Mary remained imprisoned for the next nineteen years. She was executed in 1587 by orders of the English government and all of her possessions were burned. In 1603, upon Elizabeth’s death, Mary’s son became king of England as James I and in 1612 he moved her body to a magnificent tomb in Westminster Abbey, London.
Towards the end of her life, during her time in captivity as Elizabeth’s prisoner, Mary embroidered the following epitaph-like motto: “In my end is my beginning”. She also exclaimed “Rejoice don’t weep” to one of her servants before her execution. These words have become somewhat prophetic as, in a sense, Mary won against Elizabeth in the end. Her son James VI of Scots became James I of England on the death of Elizabeth in 1603. Thus, every reigning British monarch since then has been descended from Mary, rather than from Elizabeth, who died childless.
Provenance: Private UK collection
Measurements: Height 102cm, Width 87cm framed (Height 40”, Width 34.25” framed)
Titan Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
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Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587); 17th Century British School, Oil on Cradled Panel
