Portrait of Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey, Studio or Circle of William Dobson.

Oil on canvas in a reproduction frame of appropriate type.

This is a very fine portrait, typical of Dobson, with a sympathetic and insightful view of the sitter, a figure of importance and great interest during the Civil Wars.

In the right hand corner, the three battering rams of the Bertie family are shown surrounded by the garter of the Order of the Knights of the Garter, which honour was granted to Montagu in 1661.

MONTAGU BERTIE, 2nd Earl of Lindsey, KG, PC (1608 – 25 July 1666) was an English soldier, courtier, and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1624 and 1626. He was created Baron Willoughby de Eresby by writ of acceleration in 1640 and inherited the peerage of Earl of Lindsey in 1642. He fought in the Royalist army in the English Civil War.

Bertie was born in Grimsthorpe Castle, Grimsthorpe, the eldest son of Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey, and his wife Elizabeth Montagu, daughter of Edward Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu of Boughton. After a brief term at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1623, Bertie then served as Member of Parliament for Lincolnshire in 1624 and Stamford from 1625 to 1626, when, upon his father's elevation to an earldom, he assumed the style of Lord Willoughby de Eresby.

Both Lord Willoughby and his father supported the King and raised a regiment of cavalry in Lincolnshire on his behalf. Lord Willoughby commanded the Life Guards at Edgehill, where his father was mortally wounded. Willoughby surrendered to the Parliamentarians in order to attend his father, whom he now succeeded as Earl of Lindsey and Lord Great Chamberlain. He was imprisoned in Warwick Castle, where he wrote a defiant declaration and justification of his loyalty to the King. He was not released until a prisoner exchange in July 1643, whereupon he re-joined the King at Oxford and was appointed a Privy Counsellor in December. As Colonel of the King's Life Guards of Foot and subsequently Lieutenant-General of the Life Guards "and all the foot", he fought at the First Battle of Newbury, Cropredy Bridge, Lostwithiel, Second Battle of Newbury, and was wounded at Naseby.

Lindsey was present at the surrender of Oxford in June 1646, attended the King in 1647, and finally served as a commissioner for the Treaty of Newport in 1648. He continued to attend the King during his trial and accompanied the King's body to its burial at Windsor.

After the Restoration, Lindsey was re-appointed to the Privy Council, admitted as Lord Great Chamberlain, and appointed Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire. He was made a Knight of the Garter on 1 April 1661 and officiated as Lord Great Chamberlain at the coronation of Charles II on 23 April 1661. In 1662, the office of Earl Marshal was placed in commission and he was named one of the commissioners. Lindsey died in 1666.

Bertie had married, firstly, Martha Ramsay (nee Cockayne), Dowager Countess of Holderness, and secondly Bridget Wray, Baroness Norris. These two marriages produced a total of 12 offspring.

WILLIAM DOBSON (1611-1646 was a portraitist and one of the first significant English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as "the most excellent painter that England has yet bred".

Little is known of Dobson's career in the 1630s, but when Van Dyck died in 1641, the opportunity arose for him to gain royal commissions from King Charles.

During the English Civil War Dobson was based at the Royalist centre of Oxford and painted many leading Cavaliers. His portrait of the future Charles II as Prince of Wales at the age of around twelve is a notable baroque composition, and perhaps his finest work. He also painted at least the head of Duke of York, as well as portraits of leading Royalists such as Charles Lucas and John Byron, Prince Rupert of the Rhine and Prince Maurice.

SIZE: 28 x 23 inches including the frame.

PROVENANCE: by descent in the family seat at Uffington, then by descent into Ayton Castle, Berwickshire.