Mary Villiers (d.1658) was the daughter of George Villiers and Lady Katherin Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland. She married firstly Lord Charles Herbert, son of Philip, 4th Earl of Pembroke, in shose great family group at Wilton House, by Van Dyck, she can be seen with her future husband. Unfortunately Herbert died young and she married in 1637 James Stuart, 4th duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond, cousin and favourite of the King Charles I, and elder brother of Lords John and Bernart Strat the subjects of the celebrated double portrait by Van Dyck now in the National Gallery. Both she and her husband were painted numerous times by Van Dyck, autograph examples of portraits of her are in the Royal Collection, Hovingham Hall, and Wilton. As Larsen (op.cit.) points out the pose and form of the present picture is identical to the portrait of Lady Elizabeth Cecil, Countess of Devonshire, but with the head substituted.