Portrait of Edwin Sandys, Bishop of London and later Archbishop of York (1519-1588), half-length, in a black fur-trimmed gown and hat, holding a page in a book

Edwin Sandys was born at Esthwaite Hall near Hawkshead, then in Lancashire. His tenure in academia and the Church brought him several titles; Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London, and finally Archbishop of York. Sandys was staunchly Puritan and anti-Catholic. Upon the death of Edward VI in July 1553, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sought to avoid a Roman Catholic monarchy by placing Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Sandys preached in her favour but when Dudley's coup failed, Mary Tudor assumed the throne and Sandys was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was to spend twenty-nine weeks there, before being relocated to the Marshalsea in Southwark. He later escaped to Antwerp and eventually to Strasbourg, where his first wife and son joined him, only to pass away the same year.

Upon his return to England in 1559, Sandys married Cicely (d. 1611) (see lot 16), daughter of Sir Thomas Wilford of Cranbrook, Kent. The marriage produced nine children; the eldest of their seven sons was Samuel, who established the family seat at Ombersley, and the youngest was the eminent writer and traveller George Sandys. In 1571, Sandys was one year into his term as Bishop of London. An unusual double portrait of Sandys and Cicely by an unknown later hand (National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 1268), depicts the couple bust-length and side-by-side, their likenesses reproduced from the present painting and its pendant.