Elizabeth Countess of Portsmouth

If the family stories handed down to you included the fate of two first cousins twice removed, beheaded by a tyrannical King, you could be forgiven for being a bit anti-monarchist. Add into the sticky mix a great grandfather who was possibly the illegitimate son of the same red bearded, big cod piece wearing bully and a great great grandmother whose maiden name was Boleyn – well its enough to turn a good gentlewoman a bit, how shall we say, republican!

Elizabeth Howard – a miniature from the studio of John Hoskins the elder. Courtesy of Ham House, Surrey

Elizabeth Howard was the only surviving child of William Howard and his wife Ann. It was William who could trace his lineage through his mother Katherine Carey, the daughter of Henry Carey who was the son of Mary Boleyn and, rumour has it, Henry VIII.

William’s father, Charles 1st Earl of Nottingham was the grandson of the powerful Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and first cousin to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s second and fifth wives.

Elizabeth Howard was born on January 19, 1603 at Arundel House, the London Howard family home – “a large and old built house, with a spacious yard for stabling towards the Strand, and with a gate to enclose it, where there was a porter’s lodge, and as large a garden towards the Thames near St Clement Danes.” (British History Online.)

Elizabeth divided her time between her father’s London home and Bletchingley Palace, a manor house given to the family by Queen Elizabeth and once belonging to her father’s fourth wife the unattractive, so say, but extremely fortunate Anne of Cleves.

The year 1603 was a momentous one. A year in which the old Tudor Queen Elizabeth died and James VI of Scotland added the English crown to his portfolio.

Elizabeth Howard by Anthony van Dyck

In 1620 Elizabeth married John Mordaunt, who had his own monarchical problems. John was the son of Henry Mordaunt, imprisoned in the Tower of London on suspicion of being involved in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Whether the Crown ever had a case against Henry remains up for debate. He was eventually released after a year in the fortress prison, during which time his son was removed from the family home and made a ward of the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott.

Fortunately the handsome young Mordaunt heir had caught the eye of King James who had a weakness for a comely pair of male legs. In 1616 he made John a Knight of the Bath as part of the celebrations of the investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales and on March 9, 1628 Charles himself created John 1st Earl of Peterborough. So everything was hunky dory on the royal front then?

However as an impending civil war loomed on the horizon, Elizabeth made no bones about whose side she was on, and it wasn’t the King’s.

Elizabeth and John had three surviving children, sons Henry and John and a daughter Elizabeth.

John died in 1642. Elizabeth outlived him by almost 30 years. She died at their Drayton home in Northamptonshire in 1671. Her body was interred in the churchyard at Chelsea Old Church alongside her father and grandmother Katherine Carey.

So I know you are waiting for the great St John reveal. Well the first connection is straightforward. Elizabeth’s mother was Ann St John of Bletsoe, the daughter of John 2nd Baron St John of Bletsoe and Catherine Dormer from the senior branch of the family descended from Margaret Beauchamp’s elder son John.

 

Anne Leighton

But there is another …

Remember Elizabeth’s father William Howard traced his ancestry back to Henry Carey, the son of Mary Boleyn, and possibly Henry VIII. Well Mary had a daughter Catherine who may also have been the daughter of Henry VIII. Catherine Carey married Francis Knollys by whom she had a daughter named Elizabeth. Elizabeth Knollys married Sir Thomas Leighton and their daughter Anne married Sir John St John 1st Baronet, whose magnificent alabaster memorial stands in St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze.

Fascinating, isn’t it!

Lady Dorothy Carey

Today it seems incredible that the distinctive work of ‘Curtain Master’ William Larkin remained neglected and in question until 1952 when architectural historian James Lees-Milne rediscovered him.  Larkin lived and worked in the City of London, his relatively short career spanned the years 1609 until his death ten years later.

Famed for his attention to jewellery, embroidery and lace details, Larkin’s signature curtain and carpets frame his full length portraits of early 17th century courtiers, their wives and children.

With her name painted above her head, this magnificent Larkin portrait is identifiable as that of Lady Dorothy Cary.  Or is it?

Dorothy St John was the daughter of Oliver St John, 1st Earl Bolingbroke and his wife Elizabeth Paulet.  The couple married in 1602 and had at least eight children.  Dorothy was one of their elder daughters and although some records suggest she was born in 1612 her birth date was more likely 1605.

Dorothy St John married John Carey, Viscount Rochford and later 2nd Earl Dover on May 9, 1628.  Like so many husbands of St John women John Carey came from an illustrious and possibly illegitimate line.  John had wealth and status and a family tree that stretched back to Henry Carey, the son of that ‘Other Boleyn Girl’ Mary and it was suggested the offspring of Henry VIII.

Sadly Dorthy and John’s marriage was of a lamentably short duration.  Dorothy died on June 28, just 50 days after her wedding, at the Carey family seat in Hunsdon, Hertfordshire; a palatial property rebuilt by Henry VIII in about 1525 and given to Henry Carey by Queen Elizabeth in 1559.   

Richard Sackville Earl of Dorset

The portrait of Lady Dorothy Cary forms part of the Suffolk collection of 41 paintings given to the nation in 1974 according to the wishes of the 11th Countess of Suffolk and hangs in Kenwood House, Hampstead.  Other portraits include those of Richard Sackville 3rd Earl of Dorset, Anne Cecil, Countess of Stamford and Diana Cecil, Countess of Oxford.

Anne Cecil, Countess of Stamford

Sir Roy Strong, who describes Larkin as a superb technician and a portrait painter of considerable power, writes about the Suffolk collection ‘only one of the sitters defies any kind of placing within a family context, that of Dorothy Cary,’ William Larkin: Icons of Splendour – which might be the first question mark over the identity of this particular lady.

The date of the portrait is estimated to be c1614-1618, some ten years before Dorothy and John’s marriage –  but this does not present a problem.  Dorothy’s married name could easily have been added to an earlier portrait following her death.

But it’s when an examination of these dates is made that some interesting questions arise.  Let’s take 1612 – the latest proposed birthdate for Dorothy.  This would mean she was 16 at the time of her marriage to John – perfectly plausible.  But if the portrait was painted c1614-1618 she would have been just 2 – 6 years old!  If we take the earlier birthdate of c1605 Dorothy’s age comes in at 9 – 13 years old.  Is this the portrait of a 13 year old?

Good Gentlewoman invites your comments and considerations on the portrait of Lady Dorothy Cary – and hopes she has got her maths right!