- William Segar
Sir William Segar (in or before 1564–1633) was a
portrait painter andofficer of arms to the court ofElizabeth I of England who became Garter King of Arms under James I.Like other
artists of the Tudor court , Segar was active in more than one medium, painting portraits of luminaries of the court in addition to his duties in theCollege of Arms . He painted Elizabeth'sfavourite the Earl of Essex in his "Sable sad" (black) armour for theAccession Day tilt of 1590. The famous "Ermine Portrait" of Elizabeth is sometimes attributed to Segar. [Strong, "Gloriana"]Personal life
William Segar may have been the son of one Nicholas Segar or of Francis Nycholson, alias Seager, who became a freeman of the
Stationers' Company in 1557. Once thought to be of Dutch origin, Segar is now believed to have been born inEngland of an English mother. By 1584 William had married Helen Somers, and had three sons and three daughters. By 1596 Segar was married to Maria Browne and had four sons, includingThomas Segar who later becameBluemantle Pursuivant , and three daughters. In December of 1616 one of Segar's rivals,York Herald Ralph Brooke, tricked him into confirming foreign royal arms to Gregory Brandon, a common hangman ofLondon who was masquerading as agentleman . Brooke then reported him to James I, who imprisoned both Brooke and Segar inMarshalsea . They were released a few days later and the Lord Chamberlain hoped that the experience would make Brooke more honest and Segar more wise. [Wagner, "Heralds of England", p. 219-220]Heraldic career
Segar was trained as a
scrivener and found employment with SirThomas Heneage , vice-chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. Through Heneage's influence, Segar was admitted to the College of Arms in June 1585. [http://www.answers.com/topic/sir-william-segar-2 Sir William Segar: Information and Much More from Answers.com ] ] Strong 1969, "English Icon", p. 17-18] Moule, Thomas, "Bibliotheca heraldica Magnæ Britanniæ", 1822, at [http://books.google.com/books?id=GRkCAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover Google Books] , retrieved 7 December 2007] While serving asPortcullis Pursuivant , he "reluctantly" accompanied Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester on his 1586 expedition to theNetherlands [Hearn, "Dynasties", p.97] to serve as theMaster of ceremonies for theSt. George's Day festivities in Utrecht. A description of this festival inJohn Stow 's "Annales" is based on "the true and faithful description by one William Segar, alias Portclose [Portcullis] , an officer of arms in that service."Segar was promoted to
Somerset Herald in 1589 and to Norroy King of Arms in 1593 [Strong 1969 gives the date as 1602; see "English Icon", p. 17.] During his tenure as Norroy,Robert Cooke ,Clarenceux King of Arms , was encroaching on the traditional privileges of Garter King of Arms, SirWilliam Dethick . In 1595 Segar sided with Dethick, criticizing Cooke for his inability to write clearly and for making many grants of arms to "base and unworthy persons for his private gaine onely." [Wagner, "Heralds of England", p. 207]In 1596, Segar accompanied the Earl of Shrewsbury to invest
Henry IV of France with theOrder of the Garter , witnessing Henry's famedRoyal entry intoRouen .As Norroy, Segar carried the
Sword of state in thefuneral procession of Elizabeth I (1603). A comtemporary manuscript shows Segar in the blackgown andhood withliripipe ofTudor courtmourning [For the traditional, essentially medieval dress associated with Court mourning under the Tudors, see Hayward, "Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII", p. 169-170] worn with his herald'stabard (image, left). That same year, Segar was made deputy Garter to investChristian IV of Denmark with the Order of the Garter in place of the unpopular Dethick. He was appointed as Garter by a signet bill in January 1604, although Dethick (who now described Segar as "a poor, base, beggarly painter, and an ignorant peasant") refused to resign until December 1606. Segar obtained a great seal patent, confirming him as Garter, on 17 January 1607. [Marks and Payne, "British Heraldry", p. 50] In 1612 he investedMaurice, Prince of Orange , with the Garter, and the same year was granted arms. He was knighted on 5 November 1616. [Noble, "A History of the College of Arms", p. 172]Segar was the author of "The Booke of Honour and Armes" which was published anonymously in 1590. An expanded and illustrated version was published as "Honour Military and Civil" 1602; some editions had an engraved
frontispiece byFrancis Delaram (image, above right).Court painter
Francis Meres in his "Palladia Tamia" (1598) lists "William and Francis Segar brethren" among famous painters of the day. Little is known about Francis, who was residing abroad by 1605.Segar's first documented activity is an illumination of Dean Colet in the Statute Book of St. Paul's School, for which payment is recorded in the accounts for 1585/86. The "Ermine Portrait" of Elizabeth I is dated to the same period. Segar was heavily patronized by Essex in the early 1590s, and also painted portraits of Leicester, Sir
Francis Drake , and other members of the court. The last recorded payment to Segar as a painter is for a portrait of the queen in 1597. Twosonnet s by one "Ch.M." in honour of his lady Oriana were addressed to Segar, who seems to have been painting her portrait; these probably date to the 1590s.Portraits
ee also
*
Heraldry
*Artists of the Tudor court Notes
References
*"Sir William Segar." "The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art." Oxford University Press, Inc., 2002. Answers.com, retrieved 08 December 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/sir-william-segar-2
*Hayward, Maria: "Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII", Maney Publishing, 2007, ISBN 1905981414
*Hearn, Karen, ed. "Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630". New York: Rizzoli, 1995. ISBN 0-8478-1940-X.
*Marks, Richard, and Anne Payne, eds.:"British Heraldry, from its origins to c. 1800", British Museum Publications, 1978.
*Moule, Thomas, "Bibliotheca heraldica Magnæ Britanniæ," 1822, at Google Books, retrieved 7 December 2007
*Noble, Mark, "A History of The College of Arms and the Lives of all the Kings, Heralds, and Pursuivants, from the Reign of Richard III Founder of the College until the Present Time", London: T. Egerton, 1805.
*Strong, Roy: "The Cult of Elizabeth", 1977, Thames and Hudson, London, ISBN 0500232636 (Strong 1977)
*Strong, Roy: "The English Icon: Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraiture", 1969, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London (Strong 1969)
*Strong, Roy: "Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I", Thames and Hudson, 1987, ISBN 0500250987 (Strong 1987)
*Wagner, Anthony: "Heralds of England: A History of the Office and College of Arms", London: HMSO, 1967.Further reading
*Segar, William: "The Booke of Honor and Armes (1590) and Honor Military and Civil (1602)", Scholars Facsimilies & Reprint (May 1999), ISBN 0820111384
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