The woman who put the Spencer family on the map
Born in 1559, Alice Spencer, a formidable networker, matchmaker and patron of the arts, was the muse of poets including Edmund Spenser and John Milton
A passion for painting at the early Stuart courts
Charles I’s patronage of the arts, in particular, inspired his courtiers to commission their own family portraits and spend fortunes on acquiring Venetian masterpieces
The machinations of the Dudleys make Game of Thrones look tame
This is the gripping story of the ever-fluctuating fortunes of three generations of the Dudley dynasty, servants to — and…
The magnificence of Elizabethan portraiture
Roy Strong first encountered the portraiture of Elizabeth I and her court while a schoolboy in post-war Edmonton. In the…
