Andrea del Sarto: ‘a faultless painter’ eclipsed by his contemporaries

On the 16th of July 1486, Andrea del Sarto was born in Florence.  Sarto’s family name was likely to be Lanfranchi, and his father seems to have been a tailor.  Little is known about his childhood perhaps because they were quite uneventful.   With two short exceptions, he lived in Florence....

Young Henry FitzRoy’s death: tinged in selfish and painful hues for King Henry VIII

On the 22nd or 23rd of July 1536, Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, died at St James’s Palace in London.  Although Henry VIII took enough mistresses in his date, he had only one acknowledged illegitimate son – Henry FitzRoy, whose mother was his mistress, Lady Elizabeth Blount.   As...