LORDS JOHN AND BERNARD STUART.
One boy has long curling auburn hair. He wears a white satin vest, and hose, silk stockings, and buff shoes. Blue mantle over one shoulder; his foot is on the base of a pedestal. The other brother wears a crimson dress, with a tawny yellow mantle over his left arm. Dark buff boots.
BOTH killed in action, within a few years of each other. Esmé Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, had seven sons, all of whom he survived, and, on his death, the title merging in the person of his Royal kinsman, Charles II., his Majesty bestowed it on his natural son, by Louise de la Querquaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, ancestor of the present Duke.
Lord John Stuart was the eldest son of Duke Esmé. Grainger, in his description of the portrait in question, speaks most highly of his noble disposition and courage, which ‘he carried indeed to rashness.’ A devoted loyalist, at the battle of Cheriton Down he was charging up-hill in command of a troop of light horse to attack Sir William Waller’s army, when he fell into an ambuscade, having had two horses killed under him. He lay, pierced by innumerable wounds, amidst hundreds of his own men; he was, however, carried off the field while still living (as was Sir John Smith, brother to Lord Carrington), and conveyed first to Reading, and the next day still further on the road, in order to be within help of skilful surgeons. But the gallant youth did not survive the second dressing of his wounds. He was buried at Christchurch, Oxford, as was a younger brother, killed at the battle of Edgehill. Lord Clarendon, speaking of Lord John, says that he was early bent on a military career, being ‘of a tough and choleric disposition,’ and caring little for the ‘softnesses of social life.’ Yet he must have been of a loveable nature, for his death was deeply regretted. Lord Bernard was the youngest son of Duke Esmé. He commanded the gallant troop known as the King’s Bodyguard, consisting of the most eminent Royalists in both Houses of Parliament, and, indeed, in all England. Their servants formed another troop under Sir William Killigrew, and invariably followed their lords and masters to the field. At the battle of Cropedy Bridge, where the King commanded in person, Lord Bernard secured the safety of his Majesty, who was in imminent peril, by charging two bodies of the Roundhead horse, and bearing the brunt of the enemy’s cannon, by remaining stationary in an open field, to cover the free passage of the King. He also distinguished himself greatly at the battle of Naseby, among other engagements, and in consideration of his services was created Earl of Lichfield, an honour he did not long enjoy. He was killed at the battle of Rowton Heath, near Chester, having once more come to the assistance of his Royal master and kinsman. Young Lord Lichfield was deeply regretted. The Duke of Richmond’s seven gallant sons all served in the King’s army, and three of them died, like gallant Cavaliers, on the field of battle.
No. 9.
RACHEL, SECOND WIFE OF THOMAS, LAST EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON.
She is seated in the clouds, habited in blue floating drapery. In her right hand she holds a wand; her left rests on a sphere. A skull lies at her feet.
By Vandyck.