Written and researched by Meg Mcgath

While researching Sir William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, I came upon this portrait AGAIN! According to Susan James’ “Catherine Parr: Henry VIII’s Last Love”, written in 2009, this portrait may be his closest companion, Sir John Dudley, Lord Lisle, later Duke of Northumberland. *Note: Parr had his portrait done by Holbein.

The portrait is also featured in an article for the future Duke. While this website sometimes checks out, it’s not always 100% reliable unless sources are listed. Here it’s labeled “An unidentified man, possibly John Dudley by Hans Holbein”.

On the site Alamy, I have found this portrait. It is a later copy of the original “An unidentified man”.

There are a few more that say it’s possibly John Dudley.

The copy of the original pops up again a few more times with no identity.

The portrait pops up on Tudors Dynasty which says “possibly John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland”.

Dudley seems to have one portrait which was done around 1605-08, well after his death. Any similarities? Is it a copy of another portrait from his lifetime?

Another possible candidate?

The portrait was recently uploaded to Wikipedia as “Unknown man, Possibly George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford.jpg” on 28 November 2018 by username “UrikSweden”. The user uploaded a few things on 26, 28, and Dec 1. The history of the page shows the revision at 18:58 on 28 November by UrikSweden which originally stated,

Description English: A portrait drawing of an unidentified man, possibly George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford Date c.1532-43 Source Royal Collection

By 10 August 2020, the portrait had already circulated online and was the official portrait on his Wikipedia. Username “Ammelida” edits from 04:52 to 05:48. Her first edit,

Added [en] caption: An unidentified man c.1532-43, Hans Holbein the Younger

By the last edit, Ammelida has completely redone the page. They take out the original description by UrikSweden (above) and replace it with,

description = {{en|1=A portrait drawing of an unidentified man. A bust length portrait facing three-quarters to the right. He wears a fur collar and hat with a feather and gold ornaments pinned to its brim.}}

Added as reference: “https://www.rct.uk/collection/912260/an-unidentified-man RCIN 912260” and “Parker, K. T. (1945). ”The Drawings of Hans Holbein in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle.” London: Phaidon Press, p. 48, pl. 44.”

So let’s look at the link to RCT (Royal Collection Trust).

As of 22 March 2022, the Royal Collection Trust has it labeled as “An unidentified man”. There is no mention of George Boleyn or John Dudley for that matter.

So what’s all this? Wikipedia is where it seems to have originated. There are articles that feature this portrait as “George Boleyn”, they use the Wikipedia upload as a source.

Was it used in a documentary? Did they not see Susan James’ biography on Katherine Parr from 2009 saying it may be John Dudley? There just is NO source as to where the identification came from. With Dudley, at least there is a copy of the “An unidentified man” identified as “possibly John Dudley”.

At 01:31, username Ammelida takes the portrait out of George Boleyn’s Wikipedia stating,

Deleted image: the drawing by Holbein is that of an unidentified man. Parker, K. T. (1983). The Drawings of Hans Holbein in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle. London: Phaidon Press, pl. 44.

Hever Castle, home to the Boleyns, at one point started displaying it as “possibly George”. I think the description of the portrait states Dr Owen Emmerson as the expert. Comments?

I found a photo of the display at Hever. I commented on it. Brought up the identification of John Dudley and asked why it was thought to be George? No answer. Also note that it’s dated c.1526 here. The date for the portrait on RCT is c.1532-43. Not sure if that really matters.

Discussions of the portrait possibly being George have arisen on Facebook. Dr Sarah Morris was brought up as another expert who thinks it’s “George”. Comments?

On the Facebook page for Gareth Russell, author of Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII, he has a post about it. On 2 February 2023 he wrote,

Is this the long-lost face of George Boleyn?

Anne Boleyn’s brother was a prominent, early, and enthusiastic supporter of the Protestant Reformation. He was also described as being as handsome as Adonis. Framed and executed on a charge of incest in 1536, it’s been assumed for centuries that all portraits of George, Lord Rochford, were lost or destroyed.

But there’s a modern theory that this sketch could be him.

It’s possible – and some see a similarity between this man and a sketch alleged to show his sister, Queen Anne. However, the two of them had dozens of first cousins on their mother Lady Ormond’s side, for instance. There were also Butler and Boleyn cousins on their father’s side. So people with a physical resemblance to Anne or George wouldn’t have been hard to find at court. Cousins often look as alike, or more alike, than siblings.

It’s not impossible that this shows George Boleyn, but it’s also possible it shows some other prominent courtier.

What do you think?

Response from yours truly as “Queen Catherine Parr”:

That’s the only reason people have started associating this with George? A similarity between the portrait and the one thought to be Queen Anne? You guys gotta do better than that. We don’t even know what Anne really looks like. Thanks to some random person it was uploaded as possibly George Boleyn to Wiki and it’s been showing up as factually correct all over the internet. However, if people took the time to click on the portrait (actually do some research on the portrait) they would eventually see that there is a link to the drawing in the RCT where it remains unidentified and there is no mention of this ridiculous idea of it being George.

So… ya’ll it’s “An unidentified man”… but copies say it could possibly be John Dudley…comments, thoughts?

Update: I just found the portrait has been uploaded to Wikipedia twice before. The uploads are still identified as “An unknown man”, but the portraits were added to the media page for John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. When you click on the portraits for more info, you find the portraits remain unidentified, but were added to the media collection for Dudley in 2015.

Another one for “possibly John Dudley”