The Oxburgh Hangings are needlework bed hangings that are held in Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, England, made by Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick, during the period of Mary's captivity in England. [1]
The Oxburgh Hangings are needlework bed hangings that are held in Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, England, made by Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick, during the period of Mary's captivity in England. [1]
The hangings were made between the years 1570 and approximately 1585. [2] [3] An accomplished needlewoman, Bess of Hardwick joined Mary at Chatsworth House for extended periods in 1569, 1570, and 1571, during which time they worked together on the hangings. [4] At that time Mary was imprisoned, in the custody of Bess' husband the Earl of Shrewsbury. [3] One of the embroidery panels, signed as the work of Bess of Hardwick, is dated 1570. [5]
Some of the materials for the textile projects came from France. One of Mary's French administrators, Du Verger, sent silks to Bess of Hardwick in 1574, [6] and in 1577, when Mary was at Sheffield, he sent the Queen a range of coloured silk threads for embroidery, which she called soyes de nuances pour mes ouvrages. [7]
The embroidered panels have been made into a wall hanging, two bed curtains, and a valance. This was probably not the original arrangement of the needlework, and seems likely to be an arrangement sewn together in the late 17th century. [3] There is also another group of 33 embroideries which are the remains of another hanging. [3]
The Oxburgh Hangings consist of green velvet hangings, each with a square centrepiece with octagonal embroidered panels of emblems of plants and animals surrounding it. [8] [9]
The embroidered panels, of which there are over a hundred, were worked in cross stitch on the canvas. The designs of the panels were mostly based on four continental emblem books which Mary owned. The designs were copied from wood-cut illustrations in books by well-known authors such as Claude Paradin, Conrad Gessner, and Pierre Belon. [3] [10] [9] Some of the designs featured exotic and mythical animals copied from the woodcuts of a French book, André Thevet's Les Singularitez de la France Antartique (Paris, 1558). Details featured in the borders of some rectangular panels were derived from the engravings of Hans Vredeman de Vries. [11] Some panels include a phoenix (the symbol of Mary's mother Marie of Guise), and a dragon and a unicorn. [8]
The designs were probably devised and first drawn by a professional textile artist at her request and drawn on the canvas. [10] Mary's servant Bastian Pagez was involved in the design process, helping her to pass the time, apparently working up images from her books, and the queen bequeathed some of her embroideries and sewing equipment to another of her French servants, Renée de Rallay. [12] In 1586, Mary's embroiderer was Charles Plouvart. [13] Bess of Hardwick had employed professional embroiderers since 1549. [14]
The panels made by Mary have her monogram, the letters MA superimposed on the Greek letter phi, and the panels made by Bess have the initials ES. [15] [3] One of the Earl of Shrewsbury's letters mentions the two women working together, with some of Mary's other companions, presenting this as an innocent domestic activity not likely to result in conspiracy or sedition:
"This Queen [Mary] continueth daily to resort unto my wife's chamber, where with the Lady Leviston and Mrs Seton, she useth to sit working with the needle in which she much delighteth and in devising works; and her talk is altogether of indifferent, trifling matters". [16]
The nature of the surviving emblems and their apparent reference to Mary's political situation contradicts Shrewsbury's opinion. [17] A visitor at Tutbury Castle, Nicholas White, mentioned embroidery as Mary's indoor pastime in wet weather. [18] The diversity of the coloured silks relieved the tedium of the labour of the stitch. Mary gave a speech comparing carving, painting and needlework. [19] [20]
The hangings are now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, although they are on permanent long-term loan at Oxburgh Hall. [3] It is thought that the embroideries were once kept at Cowdray Park, and were brought to Oxburgh in 1761 when Mary Browne married Richard Bedingfield. The Browne family seem to have inherited objects and relics associated with Mary from the Howard family. Possibly these relics included a group of Mary's embroideries which had been bought in 1611 from Arbella Stuart (a granddaughter of Bess of Hardwick) by Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, a daughter of Bess of Hardwick and the mother of Alethea Howard, Countess of Arundel. [21]
31 more octagonal panels of embroidery, with emblematic designs, some signed "ES", resembling the slips at Oxburgh remain at Hardwick Hall mounted on a screen. [22]
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk was executed in 1572 for treason, his part in the Rising of the North, and planning to marry Mary, Queen of Scots. During the trial it was mentioned that Mary had sent him a cushion with the Latin motto Virescit Vulnere Virtus, Virtue flourishes from its wounds. John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, testified that he had seen Mary's servant Bortwick deliver the cushion to the Earl, with the motto and device of a knife cutting vines, "all which work was made by the Scots Queen's own hand". This was interpreted as Mary's signal that she was willing to marry the Earl of Norfolk, perhaps by suggesting that the royal branch needed pruning for new fruit. One of the Oxburgh embroidered panels, signed with Mary's monogram, answers Leslie's description exactly, although it seems likely that Mary made two versions of the design and so the surviving panel may not be the work gifted to Norfolk. [23]
James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, her ally in France, sent Mary a watch in January 1575/6, and she wrote to thank him for its jolie devises. [24] Although the watch does not survive, the devices or emblems were copied down. [25] Some of these emblems, referring to enduring adversity, were recorded amongst Mary's embroideries. [26]
John Leslie served as Mary's secretary, and his copy of Conrad Gessner's illustrated work on four-footed mammals, De Quadrupedibus Viviparis (Zürich, 1551), survives in the library of the University of St Andrews. Leslie and his book may have been involved in the production of the embroideries. An embroidered panel featuring a cat is copied from the woodcut in Gessner, and in Leslie's copy an unknown hand has added a translation, "ane catt". However, several other translations used by Mary and Bess as captions differ from those offered in the St Andrew's volume. [27] The embroidered cat panel, labelled "A CATTE", features Mary's monogram and a mouse, and is supposed to represent Elizabeth I oppressing Mary. The textile historian Margaret Swain thought the choice of ginger for the cat's fur reflected Elizabeth's red hair. Alternatively, Mary may have had an emblem of Claude Paradin in mind, in which he used the cat as an emblem of liberty and freedom from imprisonment. This panel was once part of the Oxburgh collection and in 1957 was acquired by the Royal Collection for display at Holyroodhouse. [28]
The son of the Duke of Norfolk, Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel married Anne Dacre. After his father's execution, Philip Howard neglected his wife and attended Elizabeth I, in order to regain royal favour. Mary, hearing of this, sent Anne Dacre an embroidery worked in silks and silver. It depicted two turtle doves eating leaves from a tree. The meaning was interpreted by Anne Dacre's priest that Mary and Anne both loved members of the same family. The novel complicated device and Latin inscriptions were designed by Mary and her embroiderer. [29]
An emblem mentioned by the historian William Camden and recorded by William Drummond of Hawthornden on a bed returned to Holyrood Palace made a similar reference to fruit and the royal succession. The device was an apple tree and a thorn with the motto Per Vincula Cresco or Per Vincula Crescit, meaning to flourish in captivity or in chains. This emblem was also engraved on one of Mary's watches with related motifs. [30] Camden wrote that Mary's use of emblems and a motto Veritas Armata meaning "Truth armed" and forming an anagram Maria Steuarta, were regarded with suspicion and resulted in her transfer from the keeping of the Earl of Shrewsbury to the custody of Amias Paulet and Drue Drury. [31]
At Hardwick Hall a pair of cushion covers include roundels at the four corners and centre, worked in tent stitch, one with Mary's monogram. The designs of the roundels are derived from Gabriello Faerno's Fabulae Centum (Rome, 1563), an Italian version of Aesop's Fables. These designs can be interpreted to mean Elizabeth I, like the protagonists of the fables, would receive her just deserts. [32]
Elizabeth Cavendish, later Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, known as Bess of Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, was a notable figure of Elizabethan English society. By a series of well-made marriages, she rose to the highest levels of English nobility and became enormously wealthy. Bess was reportedly a shrewd businesswoman, increasing her assets with business interests including mines and glass-making workshops.
Lady Arbella Stuart was an English noblewoman who was considered a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. During the reign of King James VI and I, she married William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, another claimant to the English throne, in secret. King James imprisoned William Seymour and placed her under house arrest. When she and her husband tried to escape England, she was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where she died at age 39.
Crewel embroidery, or crewelwork, is a type of surface embroidery using wool. A wide variety of different embroidery stitches are used to follow a design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old.
Sheffield Manor Lodge, also known as Sheffield Manor or locally as Manor Castle, is a lodge built about 1516 in what then was a large deer park southeast of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, to provide a country retreat and further accommodate George Talbot, the 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, and his large family. The remnant of this estate is now known as Norfolk Park. The housing estate of Manor is named after Sheffield Manor Lodge.
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, 6th Earl of Waterford, 12th Baron Talbot, KG, Earl Marshal (c. 1522/1528 – 18 November 1590) was an English magnate and military commander. He also held the subsidiary titles of 15th Baron Strange of Blackmere and 11th Baron Furnivall. He was best known for his tenure as keeper of Mary, Queen of Scots between 1568 and 1585, his marriage to his second wife Elizabeth Talbot, as well as his surviving collection of written work.
Tutbury Castle is a largely ruined medieval castle at Tutbury, Staffordshire, England, in the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster and hence currently of King Charles III. It is a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building. People who have stayed in the castle include Eleanor of Aquitaine and Mary, Queen of Scots, who was a prisoner there.
Oxburgh Hall is a moated country house in Oxborough, Norfolk, England. The hall was built for Sir Edmund Bedingfeld who obtained a licence to crenellate in 1482. The Bedingfelds gained the manor of Oxborough through marriage in the early 15th century, and the family has lived at the hall since its construction, although ownership passed to the National Trust in 1952. The house underwent extensive refurbishment in the mid 19th century under John Chessell Buckler and Augustus Pugin.
Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke was the wife of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.
Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (1556–1632) was the wife of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury.
English embroidery includes embroidery worked in England or by English people abroad from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. The oldest surviving English embroideries include items from the early 10th century preserved in Durham Cathedral and the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, if it was worked in England. The professional workshops of Medieval England created rich embroidery in metal thread and silk for ecclesiastical and secular uses. This style was called Opus Anglicanum or "English work", and was famous throughout Europe.
Bastian Pagez was a French servant and musician at the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was born in Auvergne. He devised part of the entertainment at the baptism of Prince James at Stirling Castle in 1566. When Mary was exiled in England, Bastian and his family continued in her service. The 19th-century historians Agnes Strickland and William Barclay Turnbull considered his court role as equivalent to the English Master of the Revels; in England he was Mary's chamber valet and designed her embroidery patterns.
Claude Paradin, was a French writer, collector of emblems or "devises", historian, and genealogist.
Andrew Melville of Garvock was a Scottish courtier and servant of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Sir Charles Cavendish was an English landowner. He was a son of Bess of Hardwick and William Cavendish (1505–1557).
Bed hangings or bed curtains are fabric panels that surround a bed; they were used from medieval times through to the 19th century. Bed hangings provided privacy when the master or great bed was in a public room, such as the parlor. They also kept warmth in, and were a way of showing one's wealth. When bedrooms became more common in the mid-1700s, the use of bed hangings diminished.
Mademoiselle Rallay or Madame Raylie was a Scottish courtier. She served as chamberwoman and then lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots. She was described as one of Mary's favorites. Her niece Renée Rallay, also known as Beauregard, also served Mary, Queen of Scots.
Elizabeth or Bess Pierrepont (1568–1648) was a gentlewoman in household of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary hoped that she could be trained to join the household of Queen Elizabeth, and prevented her marrying as her father wished.
The wardrobe of Mary, Queen of Scots, was described in several contemporary documents, and many records of her costume have been published.
Jewels belonging to Arbella Stuart were noted in several lists. They include jewels which she inherited from her grandmother, Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, which were taken to Scotland by her mother's executor.
John Somers or Somer or Sommers was an English diplomat and courtier. He served as joint keeper of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Tutbury Castle with Ralph Sadler. Somers is said to have been Sadler's son-in-law.
