Parham House in West Sussex is one of the finest Elizabethan Houses in the country. It was one of the earliest houses of its size to be opened to the public, boasts the third longest long gallery, an early icehouse, and a very special painting, which represents one of the greatest ‘what ifs’ in British history.
The portrait, which hangs in Parham’s Great Hall, is by Robert Peake the Elder, a painter active in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean period. It depicts Prince Henry Frederick Stuart, the eldest son of King James VI of Scotland and I of England, a name not recognised by many, but whose early death changed the course of British history.
For just as King Henry VIII was never supposed to be king and ascended the throne following the death of his brother, Arthur, so too was King Charles I only ever supposed to be the ‘spare’ standing in the wings as his brother, the ‘heir’ took to the throne, but alas it was not to
