MINIATURE PORTRAITS AT THE TUDOR COURT, AND BATTLE OF PAVIA

  MINIATURE PORTRAITS AT THE TUDOR COURT, AND THE BATTLE OF PAVIA.

 The Art of the portrait painting in miniature started on the XVI century, arriving to the English Court in the Tudor era, during the reign of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, adding an aura of delightfulness and fascination that still stands to our days.

Henry VIII King of England, Francis I King of France, and Charles I King of Spain who was also the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, (elected following his grandfather Emperor Maximilian's death, in 1519), were friends, enemies, allies and above all rivals.

The French King Francis I decided to declare war against the Emperor Charles V  in view to conquer some Italian territories to add to the French Crown, against his mother wishes.

Mme. Louise of Savoy sent several letters to her son advising and begging him not to fight against the Emperor, he ignored her letters, and with his army crossed the Alps on the 25th October 1524.

On the 24th February of 1525 during the violent Battle of Pavia, Italy, more than 8.000 soldiers died,  the French king was wounded and put in prison, first in Italy and then he was taken to Madrid, Spain, and by orders of the Emperor he was imprisoned in one of the Alcazar towers.

From prison Francis wrote  a letter to his mother saying "from all, I have only left my honour, and my life, this is safe". Francis also wrote to Charles V  hoping to get his freedom back in exchange for a cash ransom,  but the Emperor did not reply.

Dejected and heart-broken King Francis became very ill, rumours  were circulating in France that the king was dead. His sister Marguerite  Duchess of Alencon rushed to his side, Francis had high fever and did not speak ,or recognise anyone, after being ill for nearly a month, he eventually recovered.

Francis was only two years old when his father died, her mother was nineteen  and brought up the children on her own,  the three were  very close, it was said that they had three bodies and only one heart.

Mme. Louise was the Regent of France,( while his son was in prison), she  wrote persuasive and warm-hearted letters to Charles V, she also wrote to Pope Clement VII, and others. There was a lot of negotiations going on behind closed doors.

 The King of England Henry VIII,  who had at the time an alliance with the Emperor Charles V, also received a letter from Louise of Savoy asking for help, the letter arrived together with a present, and a confidential suggestion of a possible guarantee, which could perhaps  satisfy Charles V.

The Emperor Charles V and  also King Charles I of Spain, was the son of Philip the Handsome and Joanne of Castile, Joanne was the sister of Catherine of Aragon so the Emperor was the English King's nephew. 

At the beginning  Francis I refused to sign any treaty. On the 14th of January 1526 after some negotiation which included the King's Mother, an agreement was reached. The Madrid treaty was signed  by both Charles V and Francis I.

The king was to became a free man with the condition that he would return some of the conquered territories, he would marry the Emperor's sister Eleanor of Austria, and his two elders sons, the Dauphine Francois and Henri Duke of Orleans , would remain under the protection of the Emperor as a guaranty that the king would honour the treaty.

Towards November or December of the year 1526, two golden locks housing the miniatures portraits of the two eldest sons of  King Francis I of France, arrived  at the English Court.

They were deliver by the special secretary of the French King's sister, Marguerite of Navarre.(following her husband the Duke of Alencon dead, Marguerite was now married to Henry II d'Albret king of Navarre.)

It was a present for King Henry VIII, and arrived together with the letter (previously mentioned) of Madame the Regent of France Louise of Savoy , most  probably also sign by Marguerite of Navarre, suggesting that the two young princes could stay as the Emperor's  guarantee, in exchange for Francis's  freedom.

In March 1526 Francis  was crossing the border towards France as a free man, saying " I am king again", while the two young princes were also crossing the border towards Spain, to become hostages of Charles V.

 Once in France, the king did not honour the treaty of Madrid, claiming that he signed under duress,. The young princes that were  at the time seven and eight years old respectively, and were under the Emperor's custody, were then move to a fortress where they stay during four very hard and distressing years.

Eventually after some others territorial conflicts, on the 5th August 1529 Louise of Savoy representing her son Francis I, and Margaret of Austria representing her nephew  Charles V, (they were sisters in law) did get together and negotiated and sign the treaty of Chambray.

In this treaty - also known as "Les Dames Paix", ( The Ladies Peace) - both King Francis and the Emperor Charles V renounced some of the conquered territories. The French King would also marry the Emperor's sister, and pay the sum of 1.200.000  gold Crowns in exchange for the freedom of his two young sons.

It took a while to get all the money together, but eventually the money was pay.  Eleanor of Austria sister of Charles V, arrived in France to get married to the King, she arrived in the company of the two princes, now eleven and twelve

The  miniature portraits of the two French Princes that arrived at the English court in November 1526, were painted by the great Flemish painter who lived in France, Jean Clouet , ( father of the also wonderful painter and miniaturist Francois Clouet).

 Jean Clouet  was the king's painter and most probably these miniature  portraits  were the first example that arrived at the British Courts.

 Lover and protector of the Arts, Henry VIII was most probably delighted  to received such wonderful  diminutive portraits, mounted in circular gold lockets, he probably observed such as fine and delicate work in a very intimate way, holding them in the hand.

 For sure it would have been emotive for the King to see the portrait of the two little princes, not only because of the  thought that they would shortly be exchanged to free their father from prison, but also because he wanted so badly a male heir.

At the same time the King would have been fascinated to see the exquisite beauty,  precision and finesse of execution of this new form of art which is  the miniature portrait

Reciprocally in 1527 about March o April Henry VIII sent two miniatures  to the French King, one was his portrait and the other one was the portrait of his daughter Princess Mary Tudor

This miniatures were executed by the Flemish artist Lucas Horenbout, and they were most probably the first miniature portraits produced in England.

It is said that the king commissioned Lucas Horenbout to paint these miniatures in the style of Jean Clouet, and he did so perfectly.

The Horenbout ( or Hornebolte) family was Flemish, they move to England were they worked at the English court, the father Gerard Horenbout worked at the Royal Scriptorium, his daughter Susana(h) was a miniaturist,  the son Lucas trained in his father's workshop, and he was the court painter of Henry VIII.

Lucas Horenbout was responsible for the development of the art of miniature portrait painting in England, in 1528 was promoted to" King's Painter" .

Horenbout painted  very import  miniatures,  including Catherine of Aragon, her daughter princess Mary Tudor, and several portraits of Henry VIII amongst others .

Lucas Horenbout  wonderful  miniature of Catherine of Aragon holding a monkey, is the largest miniature portrait of Henry the VIII first wife .