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Lot Essay
Sir Charles Stanhope (1595-1675) succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Stanhope, of Harrington, in 1620. He was knighted on 4 June 1610 on the creation of Prince Henry as Prince of Wales. Knights created at Coronations were known as Knights of the Bath. The present work is important as the apparent earliest known visual evidence for the badge of a Knight of the Bath.
Written references to the badge of a Knight of the Bath are not recorded until the 17th Century. According to Peter Galloway in The Order of the Bath (London, 2006, p.392), after the Coronation of King Charles I in 1625, the Earl Marshal commanded that the Knights of the Bath should wear an enamelled gold badge with three crowns in the centre formed from branches and leaves. In 1661, King Charles II invested the new Knights of the Bath at his Coronation with a badge bearing the motto 'TRIA IUNCTA IN UNO', and James Risk suggests in The History of the Order of the Bath (London,1972, p.144) that 'there are some grounds for thinking that such a device already existed in the reign of James I'. Indeed, in the present work, datable to as early as c.1610, the badge is clearly formed of three crowns of branches and leaves, and also bears the motto TRIA IVNCTA IN VNA.
Sir Charles Stanhope died without issue in 1675. The present portrait passed to the Earls of Dalhousie through the marriage of Sir Charles's first cousin, Frances Stanhope to Patrick Maule, 1st Earl of Panmure, whose great-granddaughter Jean Maule married George, Lord Ramsay, and was the mother of the 7th and 8th Earls of Dalhousie.
Written references to the badge of a Knight of the Bath are not recorded until the 17th Century. According to Peter Galloway in The Order of the Bath (London, 2006, p.392), after the Coronation of King Charles I in 1625, the Earl Marshal commanded that the Knights of the Bath should wear an enamelled gold badge with three crowns in the centre formed from branches and leaves. In 1661, King Charles II invested the new Knights of the Bath at his Coronation with a badge bearing the motto 'TRIA IUNCTA IN UNO', and James Risk suggests in The History of the Order of the Bath (London,1972, p.144) that 'there are some grounds for thinking that such a device already existed in the reign of James I'. Indeed, in the present work, datable to as early as c.1610, the badge is clearly formed of three crowns of branches and leaves, and also bears the motto TRIA IVNCTA IN VNA.
Sir Charles Stanhope died without issue in 1675. The present portrait passed to the Earls of Dalhousie through the marriage of Sir Charles's first cousin, Frances Stanhope to Patrick Maule, 1st Earl of Panmure, whose great-granddaughter Jean Maule married George, Lord Ramsay, and was the mother of the 7th and 8th Earls of Dalhousie.