Portrait of Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke

The white staff in his hand is the wand of office of the Lord Chamberlain, the post that ranked above every other at the court of Charles I except the king's own. Philip Herbert had risen young as a favourite of James I, inherited the Pembroke earldom in 1630, and by about 1634, when van Dyck painted him in the blue ribbon of the Garter, he had held the chamberlain's place for eight years.

He lost it in 1641. On 19 July he struck Lord Mowbray twice with his staff during a sitting of the House of Lords, and Charles used the brawl as grounds to take the office away and give it to the Earl of Essex. Observers at the time thought the real grievance was older, that Pembroke had encouraged the crowds who pressed Parliament in May to put the king's minister Strafford to death. Pembroke went over to the parliamentary side. Van Dyck died in London five months after the staff was taken away.