Sir Peter Lely

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 27th September 1946, lot 117, as a Portrait of Persiana Bard, (bt. for £105 by the father of the present owner)

R. B. Beckett, Lely, London 1951, p. 36, no. 26, illus. pl. 83

STRUCTURE The canvas has an old lining. PAINT SURFACE The painting appears to be in very good condition. There is an old, slightly discoloured varnish, particularly in the background areas, and there is one very small scratch at the extreme top edge of the canvas. ULTRAVIOLET Examination under ultraviolet light reveals scattered minor retouching overall, as well as some strengthening to the Urn on the right, and to the sky upper left. FRAME Held in a carved and gilded British Baroque frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Frances, also known as Francesca, was the eldest of three daughters of Henry Bard, 1^st Viscount Bellomont (1616-1656), and his wife Anne (d.c.1668), daughter of Sir William Gardiner of Peckham, Surrey. Following the Restoration she met and had an affair with Prince Rupert of the Rhine (1619-1682) the nephew of Charles I. Frances was Rupert's mistress between 1664 and 1667, and it has been alleged that the couple might even have married. A purported marriage contract, dated at Petersham, Surrey, 30^th July 1664, is known to survive. However if such a relationship did exist it was never acknowledged by the Prince and must certainly have been morganatic. Despite this Frances, a staunch Roman Catholic, maintained that a marriage ceremony had taken place, though contemporaries doubted whether the fact could be proved and Rupert's cousin, Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orléans, believed that she had been deceived, and that one of the royal servants had been disguised as a clergyman. Married or not she had sufficient claim over the Prince to obtain from the Emperor, Leopold I, the sum of 20,000 crowns in 1695[i]. 

Frances's father, who had been raised to the Irish Peerage as 1^st Baron Bard of Bromboy, of County Eastmeath, and Viscount Bellomont, of County Dublin, in 1645, was an old follower of the Prince, and fellow royalist officer during the Civil War. Born of an old-establish Lincolnshire family he was, like Rupert, of a bold and roving disposition, a nature which led him to travel extensively, and mainly on foot, in Western Europe, Turkey, Palestine, Arabia and Egypt. Returning to England in 1642 his reputation as a traveller and linguist secured him a colonel's commission at the outbreak of the Civil War, and he was knighted in November 1643. During the campaigns and successive battles that followed he gained the confidence of the Prince, who commanded the King's cavalry, and he sent him to Ireland where Bard raised two Regiments of Foot. He was later appointed Governor of Guernsey and Captain of Cornet Castle. On 8^th October 1644 he was created a Baronet and joined the King at Oxford, being given command of a brigade. Bard's relationship with the Prince was further reinforced in 1645 when, having played a distinguished role in the capture of Leicester, he commanded a division at the Battle of Naseby with Sir George Lisle, where Rupert was in command of the King's army.    

Frances had a son by Rupert, Dudley Bard (1666/7-1686), who was educated at Eton under his father's patronage. Dudley later followed his father's career as a soldier and was killed fighting for the Holy League against the Turks at the Siege of Buda in 1686. Though both a Catholic and a Jacobite, Frances later resided at the court of Hanover, and was a close friend of Rupert's younger sister, the Electress Sophia. In Hanover she took her father's title, styling herself Lady Bellomont. To the fury of many English envoys she used her position at court to harbour many British papists and royalist fugitives, and as the only English speaking figure in Sophia's circle at Hanover made herself indispensable in diplomacy with the court of Charles II, by then resident at St. Germain.

The identity of the present portrait has in the past been confused with Frances's younger sister, Persiana, who married her cousin, Nathaniel Bard, of Caversfield, Oxfordshire. The couple had three daughters who, being born Catholics, spent much of their childhood at court in Hanover with Frances, where they boldly referred to their aunt as 'Princess Rupert'. Persiana was presumably named in memory of her father's envoy to Shah Abbas II of Persia in 1653, which he undertook in an effort to raise money on behalf of the exiled Charles II and the royalist cause. The money was to be raised from an alleged debt owed to the English Crown for naval aid in the capture of Hormoz in 1622. Travelling through Turkey and Armenia in disguise Bellomont reached Tabriz early in September 1654, and though he found the Shah friendly he proved slow to agree to a pecuniary settlement. Following many travels in the east he died at Hodal, near Agra, where he was buried, probably in the Roman Catholic cemetery.

i. J. F. Chance, 'A Jacobite at the Court of Hanover', The English Historical Review, Vol. 11, No. 43 (July 1896), pp. 527-530