Edward Grimston

In 1446 Edward Grimston, an English diplomat, was abroad on King Henry VI's business, dealing with the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, whose lands took in the rich towns of Flanders. While there he sat to Petrus Christus in Bruges, and an inscription on the back of the panel gives the painter's name and the year. Grimston wears a black hat with a long hanging scarf and a green brocade jacket over a red doublet. Over his hand runs a chain of linked S shapes, the collar that marked a servant of the House of Lancaster, Henry VI's dynasty. The shield on the wall behind him carries the Grimston arms. The Lancastrians lost the English throne in 1461, and Grimston lived on until 1478. The portrait still belongs to his descendants and is lent to the National Gallery by the Earl of Verulam.