At court, flowers coloured, scented, adorned, sustained, nourished, and enthralled. These interdisciplinary essays engage with flowers as real, artificial, and represented objects across the Tudor and Stuart courts in gardens, literature, painting, interior furnishing, garments, and as jewels, medicine, and food. Situating this burgeoning floral culture within a European floral revolution of science, natural history, global trade, and colonial expansion, they reveal the court’s distinctive floral identity and history. If the rose operated as a particularly English lingua franca of royal power across two dynasties, this volume sheds light on an array of wild and garden flowers to offer an immersive picture of how the Tudor and Stuart courts lived and functioned, styled and displayed themselves through flowers. It contributes to a revival of interest in the early modern green world and provides a focused view of a court and court culture that used and revelled in blooms.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Table of Illustrations
- Figure 0.1. Title page to John Parkinson, Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (London, 1629). Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2881-302)
- Figure 0.2. Unknown artist, Elizabeth of York, late sixteenth century, based on a work of c. 1500, oil on panel, 56.5 × 41.6 cm. NPG 3111 © National Portrait Gallery, London
- Figure 0.3. Unknown Netherlandish artist, Henry VII, 1505, oil on panel, 42.5 × 30.5 cm. NPG 416 © National Portrait Gallery, London
- Figure 0.4. Workshop of John Hoskins, possibly Samuel Cooper, Sheet of Portrait Medallions of Charles I, Henrietta Maria and Their Eldest Five Children, c. 1641, watercolour on vellum. Paleis Noordeinde, Royal Collections, the Netherlands
- Figure 1.1. William Cecil, First Baron Burghley, riding on his mule, c. 1588. LP 38 © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. CC-BY-NC 4.0
- Figure 1.2. Crispin de Passe, engraved illustration of ‘Spring’ from Hortus Floridus, c. 1614. The Stapleton Collection/Bridgeman Images
- Figure 1.3. Detail of Family of Henry VIII showing a peripheral view into the gardens at Whitehall Palace, c. 1545, oil on canvas. RCIN 405796, Royal Collection Trust © His Majesty King Charles III, 2023
- Figure 1.4. Isaac de Caus, bird’s eye view from Wilton House looking south over the garden from Wilton Garden (c. 1645). Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1927, 27.66.2, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain
- Figure 1.5. Cornelius Johnson, The Capel Family, c. 1639, oil on canvas, 160 × 259.1 cm. NPG 4759 © National Portrait Gallery, London
- Figure 1.6. Attributed to Rowland Lockey after Hans Holbein, Sir Thomas More, His Household and Descendants, 1593–1694, portrait miniature (watercolour on vellum). P.15-1973 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 2.1. Tapestry of millefleur with the royal arms of England in the centre, c. 1485–1509, wool and silk, woven in the southern Netherlands. Courtesy of The Trustees of Haddon Hall
- Figure 2.2. Valance, cream silk taffeta with linen canvas backing, c. 1532–1536. 29.178 a&b © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection / Gifted by Sir William and Lady Burrell to the City of Glasgow, 1944 / Bridgeman Images
- Figure 2.3. British School, The Family of Henry VIII, c. 1545, oil on canvas. RCIN 405796, Royal Collection Trust © His Majesty King Charles III, 2023
- Figure 2.4. Unknown artist (attributed to Steven van der Meulen or Steven van Herwijck), The ‘Hampden’ Portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1563, oil on panel. Hampden House, Buckinghamshire. Photo © Philip Mould Ltd, London / Bridgeman Images
- Figure 2.5. Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, illustration from La Clef de Champs (1586), hand coloured woodcut on paper. 1952,0522.1.27 © Trustees of the British Museum
- Figure 2.6. Detail from the Bacton Altar Cloth, c. 1600, silk and silver camlet, embroidered with silk and metal thread. ©Historic Royal Palaces
- Figure 2.7. Attributed to the Sheldon tapestry workshop (Warwickshire), Arms of the Earl of Leicester, c. 1585, tapestry (wool and silk), 290 × 477.5 cm. T.320-1977 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 2.8. Attributed to the workshop of John Vanderbank the Elder, probably woven by Great Wardrobe (London), The Toilet of a Princess from a pair of Indo-Chinese scenes, 1690–1715, tapestry (wool and silk), 304.8 × 391.2 cm. 53.165.2, Metropolitan Muse
- Figure 3.1. Illustration of the rose, from Leonhart Fuchs’s De historia stirpivm commentarii insignes … adiectis eorvndem vivis plvsqvam quingentis imaginibus … Accessit … uocum difficilium & obscurarum passim in hoc opere ocurrentium explicatio … (1542),
- Figure 3.2. Isaac Oliver, A Young Man Seated Under a Tree, c. 1590–1595, watercolour on vellum laid on card. RCIN 420639, Royal Collection Trust © His Majesty King Charles III, 2023
- Figure 3.3. Portrait of Leonhart Fuchs in De Historia Stirpium (1542). Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0
- Figure 3.4. Detail from the portraits of the artists and engraver in Leonhart Fuchs’s De Historia Stirpium (1542), p. 897. Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0
- Figure 3.5. Map showing Cropthorne, Charleton, and the surrounding area of Worcestershire. Credit: Mike Halliwell
- Figure 3.6. Illustration of the green-wing orchid, from Leonhart Fuchs’s De Historia Stirpium (1542), p. 559. Call #245-316f, Folger Shakespeare Library. Photo: Maria Hayward
- Figure 4.1. Margaret Layton’s waistcoat, c. 1610–1615, linen embroidered with silk, metal threads, T.228-1994; Attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Margaret Layton, c. 1620, oil on oak panel, 81.5 × 62.5 cm. E.214-1994. Acquired with the assistanc
- Figure 4.2. William Larkin, Richard Sackville, third earl of Dorset, 1613, oil on canvas. The Suffolk Collection, gift from Mrs. Greville Howard, 1974, English Heritage, Kenwood. Historic England Archive
- Figure 4.3. Gown (English-made with Italian brocaded silk), 1600–1610. 189-1900 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 4.4. Ring with rubies set in a rosette, The Cheapside Hoard, 1600–1650, gold, enamel and ruby. A.14237, Courtesy of the Museum of London
- Figure 4.5. Dress ornament in the form of enamelled gold openwork floral sprays, set with pearls (probably Central Europe), c. 1600. 610-1872 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 4.6. Pendant of gold and enamel from a gold necklace, England, c. 1517. Treasure case number: 2019T1206 © Birmingham Museums Trust
- Figure 4.7. Jacob Halder (Greenwich), Armor Garniture of George Clifford (1558–1605), Third Earl of Cumberland, 1586, steel, gold, leather, textile. Munsey Fund, 1932, 32.130.6a–y, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain
- Figure 4.8. Crimson silk velvet, Italy, 1470–1529. Given by Miss M. H. Tattersall, T.34-1965 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 4.9. ‘Turpibus exitium’ in Geffrey Whitney, A Choice of Emblemes (1586). Dyce 10585, National Art Library © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 4.10. Glove for a man or woman, English, 1610–1630, leather, embroidered silk and silver-gilt bobbin lace. 201:A-1900 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 4.11. Nicholas Hilliard, Portrait of a Young Man, c. 1585. Bridgeman Images
- Figure 4.12. Gold miniature case, enamelled with flowers around a central rose, probably English, c. 1600–1620. M.67-1975 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 4.13. Portrait miniature with enamelled frame, frame probably French, 1665–1675, gold, enamel, and watercolour on paper, 6.8 × 5 cm. Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf, 1992.528, The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY/ Scala, Florence
- Figure 4.14. Isaac Oliver, A Woman in Masquerade Dress as Flora, c. 1610, painted vellum on playing card. SK-A-4347, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Public domain
- Figure 4.15. Detail of the wedding coat of James, Duke of York, later James II, England, 1673, woollen broadcloth embroidered with silver, silver-gilt threads, and parchment. T.711:1-1995 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 5.1. Anthony van Dyck, Charles I and Henrietta Maria, 1632, oil on canvas, 104 × 176 cm. Kromeriz, Czech Republic
- Figure 5.2. Anonymous, James I and Anna of Denmark, c. 1604–1612, etching. RCIN 601405, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
- Figure 5.3. Willem van de Passe, The Royal Progeny of James VI/I (Triumphus Jacobi Regis, Augustæque Ipsius Prolis), 1623, engraving. RCIN 601472, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
- Figure 5.4. Attributed to Willem de Passe, The Marriage of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, folding print to accompany George Marcelline’s Epithalamium Gallo-Britannicum, 1625, engraving. STC 17308 Engr. Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library
- Figure 5.5. Nicholas Briot, Tribute to Henrietta Maria, 1628, silver medal, Noonans, London, Auction 265, lot 10, auctioned November 23, 2022. Courtesy of Noonans
- Figure 5.6. Nathaniel Bacon, Portrait of Lady Jane Bacon, c. 1614–1617, oil on canvas. By kind permission of Government House Sydney
- Figure 5.7. Anonymous, Henrietta Maria with Her Children, c. 1633, engraving. RCIN 602056, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
- Figure 6.1. Title page to Hannah Woolley, The Ladies Directory (London: T. M., Peter Dring, 1662). University of Glasgow Archives & Special Collections, Ferguson Af-d.45
- Figure 6.2. Abraham Bosse, Smell, c. 1638, etching. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1926, 26.49.24, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain
- Figure 6.3. George Glover, Charles I and Prince Charles, c. 1634–1642, engraving. 1861,1214.416 © The Trustees of the British Museum
- Figure 6.4. Title page to The Accomplisht Ladies Delight in Preserving, Physick, Beautifying and Cookery (London, 1684). Call #W3271. Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library
- Figure 6.5. Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers, a Silver-gilt Goblet, Dried Fruit, Sweetmeats, Bread sticks, Wine and a Pewter Pitcher, 1611, oil on panel, P001620. © Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado
- Figure 6.6. Gerrit Houckgeest, Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, and Charles II when Prince of Wales Dining in Public, 1635, oil on panel, 63.2 × 92.4 cm. RCIN 402966, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
- Figure 6.7. Antonio Verrio, The Banquet of the Gods, c. 1678. RCIN 408425, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023 Photographer: John Freeman
- Figure 7.1. Translation of ‘The Mirror or Glass of the Sinful Soul,’ needlework by Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I), MS. Cherry 36. © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. CC-BY-NC 4.0
- Figure 7.2. Farmers harvesting cochineal and preparing carmine dye in Mexico, c. 1800, from Friedrich Bertuch’s Bilderbuch für Kinder (c. 1792–1830), hand-coloured copperplate engraving. Courtesy of Amy Butler Greenfield
- Figure 7.3. Attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Elizabeth I (‘The Rainbow Portrait’), c. 1602, oil on canvas, 128 × 101.6 cm. Reproduced with permission of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House
- Figure 8.1. Purse (British), late quarter sixteenth century, silk, gold, silver, linen. Purchase, Judith and Gerson Leiber Fund, 1986, 1986.300.1, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain
- Figure 8.2. Purse (British), early seventeenth century, silk and metal thread on canvas. Rogers Fund, by exchange, 1929, 29.23.19, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain
- Figure 8.3. Bag (British), first half of seventeenth century, silk and metal thread. Rogers Fund, by exchange, 1929, 29.23.21, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain
- Figure 8.4. Bag and pin cushion (England), 1600–1629, canvas embroidered with coloured silks and silver threads. 316&A-1898 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 8.5. Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth Talbot Countess of Shrewsbury, detail of the Marian Hanging (central panel), 1570–1585. T.29-1955 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 9.1. Anthony van Dyck, Henrietta Maria, 1632, oil on canvas, 109 × 86.2 cm. RCIN 404430, Royal Collection Trust/ © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
- Figure 9.2. Henri Gascars, Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, c. 1675, oil on canvas, 43 × 38 cm. Private Collection © Philip Mould Ltd, London/Bridgeman Images
- Figure 9.3. Simon Verelst, Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, c. 1675–1678, 125.8 × 102.8 cm. B1979.19, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund. Public domain
- Figure 9.4. Sir Peter Lely, Princess Mary of Orange, c. 1677, oil on canvas, 125.4 × 101.9 cm. NPG 6214 © National Portrait Gallery, London
- Figure 9.5. William Wissing and Jan van der Vaart, Lady Frances Jones and Lady Katherine Jones with an unidentified black attendant, 1687, oil on canvas, 208.3 × 134.6 cm. Private Collection. Photo © Philip Mould Ltd, London/Bridgeman Images
- Figure 9.6. John Smith after Jan van der Vaart, The Lady Frances and the Lady Catharine Jones Daughters to the Right Honble Richard Earle of Ranelagh, 1691, mezzotint. 1902,1011.4639 © Trustees of the British Museum
- Figure 9.7. John Smith after Jan van der Vaart, The Lady Frances and the Lady Catharine Jones, Daughters to the Right Honble Richard, Earle of Ranelagh, 1691, mezzotint. 1874,0808.1258 © Trustees of the British Museum
- Figure 9.8. John Smith after Jan van der Vaart, The Lady Frances and the Lady Catharine Jones, Daughters to the Right Honble Richard, Earle of Ranelagh, 1691, mezzotint. P,8.31 © Trustees of the British Museum
- Figure 9.9. Sir Peter Lely, Mary Capel, Later Duchess of Beaufort and her Sister Elizabeth, Countess of Carnarvon, c. 1657–1658, 130.2 × 170.2 cm. Bequest of Jacob Ruppert, 1939, 39.65.3, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain
- Figure 10.1. Attributed to William Scrots, Edward VI, King of England (c. 1547–1550). Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK © Compton Verney/Bridgeman Images
- Figure 10.2. Charles de La Fosse, Clytie Transformed into a Sunflower, 1688, oil on canvas, 131 × 159 cm. © Peter Willi/Bridgeman Images
- Figure 10.3. Jodocus Hondius the Elder, The Union of the Roses of the Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke, 1589, engraving on paper. 1848,0911.244 © Trustees of the British Museum
- Figure 10.4. Nicholas Hilliard (studio), Queen Elizabeth I, c. 1598–1599, oil on canvas, 223.5 × 168.9 cm. Hardwick Hall, NT 1129128 © National Trust
- Figure 10.5. Firens: Paris, La Representation du Mariage accorde entre les Tres-puissans Roys de France et Angleterret pour Charles Prince de Walles Duc de Cornw, avec Madame Henriette Maria, c. 1624–1625, engraving. RCIN 601886, Royal Collection Trust /
- Figure 10.6. Inigo Jones, Chloris: Final Sketch for Henrietta Maria, c. 1631, pen and ink on paper. The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees/Bridgeman Images
- Figure 10.7. Alexander Marshal, Purple Crocuses, Cloth of Gold Crocus, Liverwort (Double Form), Poppy Anemones and Jay, c. 1650–1682, watercolour. RCIN 924272, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
- Figure 10.8. Alexander Marshal, Velvet Rose, Unidentified Rose, Flaxleaf Pimpernel, Damask Rose, Water Forget-Me-Not, and Austrian Copper Rose, c. 1650–1682, watercolour. RCIN 924345, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
- Figure 10.9. Roses in John Parkinson, Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (London, 1629). Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, DC
- Figure 11.1. Pyramid of Makkum, 2007, to a design of c. 1680–1690, tin-glazed earthenware. Kunstmuseum Den Haag—Bruikleen Koninklijk Tichelaar, Makkum
- Figure 11.2. Adriaen de Hennin, Princess Mary II in the year of her marriage, with an orange tree, 1677, oil on canvas. Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn
- Figure 11.3. Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Portrait of young prince William III of Orange, c. 1661, oil on canvas. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
- Figure 11.4. Maria Sybilla Merian, Auricula and butterfly, c. 1705, watercolour, pen and gouache on parchment. Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Source: RKD
- Figure 11.5. Romeyn de Hooghe, Detail from ’T Konings Loo, showing the Orangery at Paleis Het Loo, c. 1690, engraving on paper. Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn
- Figure 11.6. Johannes Christoph Lotyn, Flower still-life in a terracotta pot on a table, 1691–1694, oil on canvas. Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn
- Figure 11.7. Tile with vase of flowers from the groin vault of Mary II’s kitchen cellar, c. 1686–1692, tin-glazed earthenware. Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn
- Figure 11.8. Frontispiece from Daniel Marot, Nouveau Livre de Taleaux de Portes, c. 1705. Photo: Amy Lim
- Figure 11.9. Antonio Verrio, Ceiling of the King’s Little Bedchamber, 1701–1702, oil on plaster, Hampton Court Palace. © Historic Royal Palaces. Photo: James Brittain
- Figure 11.10. Daniel Marot (design); Johannes Christoph Lotyn (flowers), Ceiling of the Great Hall, Paleis Het Loo, 1692, oil on plaster. Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn. Photo: Eelco Boeijinga
- Figure 11.11. Adrian Kocks, Tulip vase, c. 1694, tin-glazed earthenware. RCIN 1085, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
- Figure 12.1. Jacob Halder, The Almain Armourers’ Album, design for George Clifford, third earl of Cumberland, c. 1587, pen, ink, and watercolour on paper. D.605&A-1894 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Figure 12.2. Unknown artist, Queen Elizabeth I of England receiving Dutch Ambassadors, 1570–1575. Neue Galerie, Kassel, Germany. World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
- Figure 12.3. Carpet with scrolling vines and blossoms, made in northern India or Pakistan, Kashmir or Lahore, c. 1650, silk (warp and weft), pashmina wool (pile). Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913, 14.40.725, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public do
- Figure 12.4. English panel (needlework or crewel), 1675–1725, linen and cotton, embroidered with wool yarn, 205.6 × 132 cm. Gift of Mrs. Clive Runnells, 1967.666, The Art Institute of Chicago. CCO
- Figure 12.5. Palampore (bed cover or hanging), made in Chenai (Madras), India, early eighteenth century, painted and/or printed cotton. Rogers Fund, 1915, 15.101, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain
- Figure 12.6. Chintz jacket and petticoat of painted and dyed cotton chintz, Coromandel Coast, c. 1725. IS.12-1950, IS.14-1950 © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Flowers and the Courts
- Flowering Spaces
- 1. The ‘Greater Delight’: Gardens, Plants, and Flowers and the Tudor and Early Stuart Court
- 2. Canopied with Flowers: Adorning Court Spaces with Floral Tapestries and Hangings
- 3. ‘I Have Them in My Garden Growing’: Henry Dingley’s Life With Flowers in Sixteenth-Century Worcestershire
- Flowers and the Body
- 4. Flowers and Dress: Decorative, Dynastic, and Symbolic
- 5. Blooming Fertility: Henrietta Maria and the Power of Plants as Iconography and Physic
- 6. A Taste for Flowers: Regenerating the Restoration Table
- Performing Flowers
- 7. ‘Fairy Bowers’ and ‘Precious Flowers’ in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Elizabethan Court Culture
- 8. Flowers and Gift Culture at the Elizabethan Court
- 9. Painted Flowers in Later Seventeenth-Century English Portraits
- Global Flowers
- 10. English Knots and French Parterres: English Floriculture in Continental Context
- 11. The Orange and the Rose: Horticultural and Decorative Flowers at the English and Dutch Courts of William III and Mary II
- 12. Floral Culture in a New Imperial Era: Indian Textiles in English Courts and Commons c. 1560–1700
- Index
- Backcover