Probably Sir William Butts

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Probably Sir William Butts

by Wenceslaus Hollar, published by Adam Alexius Bierling, after Hans Holbein the Younger
etching, 1649
5 1/2 in. x 3 7/8 in. (141 mm x 98 mm) paper size
Purchased, 1893
Reference Collection
NPG D7976

Sitterback to top

  • Sir William Butts (1485-1545), Physician and confidant of Henry VIII. Sitter associated with 7 portraits.

Artistsback to top

  • Adam Alexius Bierling (active 1646). Artist or producer associated with 8 portraits.
  • Hans Holbein the Younger (1497 or 1498-1543), Painter, printmaker and designer; son of Hans Holbein the Elder. Artist or producer associated with 310 portraits, Sitter associated with 25 portraits.
  • Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677), Etcher. Artist or producer associated with 540 portraits, Sitter associated with 10 portraits.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D17892: Probably Sir William Butts (from same plate)
  • NPG D24334: Probably Sir William Butts (from same plate)
  • NPG D7975: Probably Sir William Butts (from same plate)

Events of 1649back to top

Current affairs

Charged with subverting the nation's laws and liberties and cruelly making war against Parliament and the English people, Charles I is found guilty by a court of 159 commissioners, and beheaded outside the Banqueting House, Whitehall.
England is declared a commonwealth and power is entrusted to a Council of State.

Art and science

Eikon Basilike, a self-exonerating account of Charles I's rule, is published days after his death. Allegedly written by the king himself, John Gauden, Bishop of Worcester, claimed authorship after the Restoration. Other tributes followed the king's death giving rise to a royalist cult of Charles the Martyr.

International

Oliver Cromwell, as lord lieutenant of Ireland, begins his campaign in Ireland to subdue royalist support, and leads English Parliamentarian forces against the Royalist-Confederate coalition. The campaign's bloody massacres, in particular, the Siege of Drogheda and Wexford where Cromwell's troops slaughtered soldiers and civilians alike, became notorious.



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