The Royal House of Tudor: A Series of Biographical Sketches (1866)

The Royal House of Tudor: A Series of Biographical Sketches. Written by George Wallis (Keeper of the Art Division, South Kensington Museum) Published in London in 1866. (250 pages)

Illustrated With a Series of Portraits Executed From Authentic Contemporary Works, for the Prince's Chamber, in the New Palace at Westminster by Richard Burchett, (Head Master of the National Art Training School, South Kensington). Reduced from Photographs taken from the Originals By C. Thurston Thompson. These illustrations are throughout the book with each biographical sketch.

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Contents:

Preface — Introduction — Henry VII. — Elizabeth of York — Prince Arthur — Katherine of Arragon — Henry VIII. — Anne Boleyn — Jane Seymour — Anne Of Cleves — Catherine Howard — Katherine Parr — Edward VI. — Queen Mary — Philip II. of Spain — Queen Elizabeth — Louis XII. — Princess Mary — Charles Brandon (Duke Of Suffolk) — The Marchioness Of Dorset — Lady Jane Grey — Lord Guildford Dudley — James IV. of Scotland — Princess Margaret — Douglas, Earl Of Angus — James V. of Scotland — Mary Of Guise — Mary Queen Of Scots — Francis II. of France — Lord Darnley

Preface:

.....THE biographical sketches which accompany the portraits forming the leading features of this volume were originally written for the instruction of my own children, and as historical illustrations of the larger series of photographs from the paintings in the Prince's Chamber, at the New Palace of Westminster, issued by the Science and Art Department in 1860.
.....The notices of the more prominent personages in English history, such as Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Elizabeth, and one or two others, have been purposely kept as brief as possible, consistent with giving the leading facts in the career of each; because more detailed information is easily accessible in ordinary histories. Those, however, of the lesser known individuals, especially in Scottish history, have been comparatively extended, for the opposite reason. This will account for the variation in length of the biographical sketches, which do not always correspond in extent to the historical importance of the subjects of them.
.....The labor has been one of more reading than writing; but the end kept in view has been to render the histories acceptable and instructive to the young of both sexes, whilst avoiding strong party or sectarian bias in giving the leading incidents of an age painfully characterized by both.
GEORGE WALLIS.
October, 1865.

Excerpts:

.....The twenty-eight portraits of the Tudor Family, now reproduced by photography, are executed in the latter manner. Each panel is formed of stout millboard, saturated so completely with oil as to be practically impervious to damp—the uncompromising foe and destroyer of the ancient leather hangings of the Middle Ages. In each subject, the details of the ornamentation which surrounds the figure is carefully incised in the surface of the panel, and then the whole is gilt and painted, the effect being essentially architectonic and ornamental, rather than pictorial.
.....It was to the judgment and taste, in other words to the accurate perception of fitness in art matters, of His Royal Highness the late Prince Consort, we owe the scheme of the decorations of this apartment, now so appropriately named.
.....The portraits of the principal members of the Royal House of Tudor occupy the twenty-eight compartments into which the upper portions of the wall are divided, at a suitable height above the doors and fire-places.