The Many Faces of Mary Tudor (Queen of France)

Available on Amazon UK, Amazon US

and Amazon AU

I chose to write about Mary because I’d researched her birth and early life for my previous book, Henry – Book Three of the Tudor Trilogy. In the trilogy I’d moved forward one generation with each book, so it appealed to me to write a ‘sequel’ which did the same. I’d become intrigued with Mary’s story of how she risked everything to defy her brother when he became King Henry VIII.

There are several well-known portraits of Mary and I’d assumed that one of them would be suitable for use on the cover. Then I began researching them and found, that as with most things in life, it’s not as simple as it seems. The best known is the ‘wedding portrait’ with her second husband, Sir Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk:

When I began to look at other portraits, however, I realised all is not as it seems. The image of Mary in the wedding portrait is stylised, wearing the French crown jewels and possibly has overpainting, and in the many copies Mary’s face gradually becomes more bland and generic. ln the pencil drawing of her time as Queen of France she looks quite different:

Although Tudor portraits are sometimes hard to attribute, we can be reasonably confident this is Mary, as the drawing has her French title at the bottom.

Similarly, another pencil drawing of Mary’s time in France has been helpfully annotated in what is thought to have been the hand of her ‘stepson’ King Francis I ‘plus sale que royne‘ which means ‘more dirty than queenly.’

Another controversial portrait, (which was Mary’s main picture on Wikipedia until I changed it). This portrait is used on the cover of at least two books about Mary, yet experts say it is of a quite different princess. The jewels worn in the portrait are the Crown Jewels of Castile and a more likely candidate for the sitter would be Isabella I of Castile.

There is also another well-known portrait of Mary which doesn’t fit well with any of the above, and doesn’t have the French hood, which she was said to prefer:

I wanted to explore Mary’s vulnerability as well as her strengths for the cover of Mary - Tudor Princess, and needed the cover portrait to reflect this. After trying several ideas, I contacted a professional photographer, Lisa Lucas (www.lisalucasphotography.com) who works with historical re-enactors, the Cavalry of Heroes. The brief was to recreate the ‘wedding portrait’ but with Mary looking suitably vulnerable yet still with the confidence of a Tudor princess.

The companion books to Mary - Tudor Princess, tell the story of Mary Tudor's husband, Charles Brandon, who was King Henry VIII's lifelong friend. Brandon - Tudor Knight, as well as the story of Brandon's last wife, Katherine Willoughby, Katherine - Tudor Duchess, are available on Amazon as the Brandon trilogy.

Tony Riches