CAPTIVATED A KING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22164, 18 January 1934, Page 10

CAPTIVATED A KING

THE ORIGINAL “BRITANNIA” LADY ON' COINAGE FIGURE. Memories of a maid of hynour who captivated a king, and who sat for the original figure of Britannia on the coinage, are revived by Mr Lawrence E. Tanner, F.S.A., Keeper of the Muniments, Westminster Abbey. The lady was Frances Stuart, “La Belle Stuart,” as she was called, a grand-daughter of the first Lord Blautyre She had been brought up in France, and it was only with great reluctance that Louis XIV allowed her to take up an appointment in the Court of Charles II of England. Mr Tanner relates in The Times that it was not long before Charles II was more nearly in love with her than he ever was with anyone else in his life. To escape his attentions she eloped in 1667 with Charles Stuart, the last Duke of Richmond and Lennox of that line. “La Bello Stuart” died in 1702, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In accordance with her will her ciligy in wax was modelled and was placed in Henry VIPs Chapel. This elligy has now been cleaned, and through the wonderful skill of the authorities of the Textile Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum it is now possible to see again in much of its first freshness what was said at the time to be “ the richest figure that ever was set up in King Henry’s Chapel.” By the side of the duchess has always been perched the stuffed parrot which “ had lived with her grace for 40 years, and only survived her a few days.” It is a West African grey parrot, and it has been skilfully cleaned by the authorities at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. It is probably the oldest stuffed bird in England.