Elizabeth I’s mercenary scoundrel

Thomas Stukeley was a mercenary, pirate, diplomat and rogue of the highest order

No known portrait of Sir Thomas Stukeley survives. One portrait, Man in Red, now in Hampton Court, is said to be of Stukeley, however. It shows a young man in extravagant red doublet and hose in the right period. The artist could be Hans Holbein the younger, although it is usually attributed to the Holbein school or an unknown artist. Holbein made several portraits of young men, whose identities remain unknown, around this time. He also did work for figures who had known Stukeley – connections at the right date, such as Charles Brandon. Holbein drew Brandon’s two sons in 1541.

“IT IS POSSIBLE STUKELEY FOUGHT AT THE BATTLE OF PINKIE CLEUGH ON 10 SEPTEMBER 1547”