Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565-1601), three-quarter-length, in a black doublet and ruff

London headquarters of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses, Baynard's Castle was reconstructed as a royal palace by Henry VII at the end of the 15th Century, and Henry VIII gave it to Catherine of Aragon on the eve of their wedding. After Henry's death the Castle passed to Catherine Parr's brother-in-law, the Earl of Pembroke and was left in ruins after the Great Fire of London in 1666.