Sir William Compton

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sir William Compton

by Henry Peart the Elder, after Sir Peter Lely
oil on canvas, based on a work of circa 1660
49 1/4 in. x 39 3/4 in. (1251 mm x 1010 mm)
Purchased, 1908
Primary Collection
NPG 1522

On display at Gawthorpe Hall, Burnley

Sitterback to top

Artistsback to top

  • Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 843 portraits, Sitter in 19 portraits.
  • Henry Peart the Elder (circa 1637-circa 1697 or 1698), Artist. Artist or producer associated with 4 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Piper, David, Catalogue of Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, 1625-1714, 1963, p. 79
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 139

Events of 1655back to top

Current affairs

Secretary of State, John Thurloe, implements a highly efficient intelligence service and thwarts plans for a series of royalist uprisings which produced only Penruddock's revolt.
Following ineffectual royalist riots, Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, appoints nineteen Major-generals to manage regional government and prevent future challenges to the protectorate.

Art and science

Publication of the controversial work De corpore, by philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, prompts mathematician, John Wallis to scornfully refute the work in Elenchus geometriae Hobbianae, starting a bitter, long-running polemical dispute between the two men.



International

General Robert Venables and Admiral William Penn lead an expedition to the Caribbean to threaten Spanish trade routes and weaken Catholic influence in the New World. An integral part of Cromwell's foreign policy to curb Spanish power, the campaign, Cromwell's 'western design', fails leading to war in Europe.

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