Tudor Paintings

The painting below is by far the one most usually associated with Frances. For centuries, it was misidentified as a portrait of her and her second husband, Adrian Stokes. Recent scholarship has identified it as one of Mary Neville and her son, Gregory Fiennes, but centuries of error die hard. As dozens of books, nonfiction and fiction alike, have relied on this painting in depicting Frances’s physical appearance (and even her personality), it’s likely that it will be associated with Frances for years to come. (Incidentally, the myth that Adrian Stokes was half Frances’s age rests largely upon this portrait; Stokes was actually only a couple of years Frances’s junior. Before joining her household he was the marshal of Newhaven in France, where he commanded ten men until the fortress fell to the French in 1549.)