Sir William Segar (c. 1554–1633) was a

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this ...

painter and officer of arms to the court of

Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

; he became

Garter King of Arms The Garter Principal King of Arms (also Garter King of Arms or simply Garter) is the senior King of Arms, and the senior Officer of Arms of the College of Arms, the heraldic authority with jurisdiction over England, Wales and Northern Ireland. ...

under

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

. 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 the

College of Arms The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the British Sover ...

. He painted Elizabeth's

favourite A favourite (British English) or favorite (American English) was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In post-classical and early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated s ...

the Earl of Essex in his "Sable sad" (black) armour for the

Accession Day tilt The Accession Day tilts were a series of elaborate festivities held annually at the court of Elizabeth I of England to celebrate her Accession Day, 17 November, also known as Queen's Day. The tilts combined theatrical elements with jousting, ...

of 1590. The famous "Ermine Portrait" of Elizabeth is sometimes attributed to Segar.

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 The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in ...

in 1557. Once thought to be of Dutch origin, Segar is now believed to have been born in England of an English mother. Segar stated his age as "fifty or thereabouts" in a document dated 13 September 1604. 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, including Thomas Segar who later became Bluemantle Pursuivant, and three daughters. In December 1616 one of Segar's rivals, York Herald Ralph Brooke, tricked him into confirming foreign royal arms to

Gregory Brandon Gregory may refer to: People and fictional characters * Gregory (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gregory (surname), a surname Places Australia *Gregory, Queensland, a town in the Shire of ...

, a common hangman of London who was masquerading as a

gentleman A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the r ...

. Brooke then reported him to James I, who imprisoned both Brooke and Segar in

Marshalsea The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners, including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition, it became known, i ...

. They were released a few days later and the Lord Chamberlain hoped that the experience would make Brooke more honest and Segar more wise.

Heraldic career

Segar was trained as a

scrivener A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and ad ...

and found employment with Sir

Thomas Heneage Sir Thomas Heneage PC (1532 – 17 October 1595) was an English politician and courtier at the court of Elizabeth I. Early and personal life Thomas Heneage the Younger was born at Copt Hall, Epping, Essex, the son of Sir Robert Heneage and L ...

, vice-chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. Through Heneage's influence, Segar was admitted to the College of Arms in June 1585. Moule, Thomas, ''Bibliotheca heraldica Magnæ Britanniæ'', 1822, a
Google Books
retrieved 7 December 2007Sir William Segar: Information and Much More from Answers.com
/ref>Strong 1969, ''English Icon'', p. 17-18 While serving as Portcullis Pursuivant, he "reluctantly" accompanied

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was o ...

on his 1586 expedition to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

to serve as the Master of ceremonies for the

St. George's Day Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. Sa ...

festivities in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. A description of this festival in

John Stow John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The ...

's ''Annales'' is based on "the true and faithful description by one William Segar, alias Portclose ortcullis an officer of arms in that service." Segar was promoted to Somerset Herald in 1589 and to

Norroy King of Arms Norroy and Ulster King of Arms is the Provincial King of Arms at the College of Heralds with jurisdiction over England north of the Trent and Northern Ireland. The two offices of Norroy and Ulster were formerly separate. Norroy King of Arms is ...

in 1593. During his tenure as Norroy, Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms, was encroaching on the traditional privileges of Garter King of Arms, Sir William Dethick. In 1595 Segar sided with Dethick, criticising Cooke for his inability to write clearly and for making many grants of arms to "base and unworthy persons for his private gaine onely." In 1596, Segar accompanied the Earl of Shrewsbury to invest

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monar ...

with the

Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the Georg ...

, witnessing Henry's famed Royal entry into

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

As Norroy, Segar carried the Sword of state in the funeral procession of Elizabeth I (1603). A contemporary

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

shows Segar in the black gown and hood with

liripipe A liripipe ()Also spelled liri-, lerri-, lyri- lirry- leery- leerepoop(e)/ pope, liri-, lyri-, luri-, leripup, lirripippes, liripipy, liripipion, and liripion. is an element of clothing, the tail of a hood or cloak, or a long-tailed hood. The moder ...

of Tudor court mourning worn with his herald's tabard (image, left). That same year, Segar was made deputy Garter to invest

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian mona ...

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. In 1612 he invested

Maurice, Prince of Orange Maurice of Orange ( nl, Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was ''stadtholder'' of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at the earliest until his death in 1625. Before he became Prince o ...

, with the Garter, and the same year was granted arms. He was knighted on 5 November 1616. 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 Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an i ...

frontispiece by Francis 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 John Colet (January 1467 – 16 September 1519) was an English Catholic priest and educational pioneer. John Colet was an English scholar, Renaissance humanist, theologian, member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, and Dean of St Paul's Ca ...

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 patronised by Essex in the early 1590s, and also painted portraits of Leicester, Sir

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 ...

, and other members of the court. The last recorded payment to Segar as a painter is for a portrait of the queen in 1597. Two

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

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.

Jane Segar

William Segar had a brother Francis Segar, and a sister Jane Segar, who were also artists. Jane Segar, who sometimes spelled her surname "Seagar", made a manuscript of poems in 1589, giving it the title, ''The Prophecies of the Ten Sibills upon the Birth of Christ''. She made covers for her manuscript from glass decorated with the '' verre églomisé'' technique. The work was apparently intended as a gift to Elizabeth I to gain her royal patronage and further commissions. She acknowledged her debt to Timothie Bright, a contemporary writing master and inventor of a form of

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''s ...

with an anagram. Apart from this manuscript, comparable with the works of Esther Inglis, little is known of her career. William Segar wrote that she married a Lionel Plumtree, perhaps a man connected with the Muscovy trade, and that she was in Russia in 1603.Susan Frye, ''Pins and Needles: Women's Textualities in Early Modern England'' (Philadelphia, 2010), pp. 76, 87-102.

Portraits by William Segar

File:Portrait of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester (1532-1588).jpg, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1587 File:Devereaux essex4.jpg, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, c. 1590 File:Elizabeth1England.jpg, Queen Elizabeth, the "Ermine Portrait" (attributed) File:UnknownLady Segar.jpg, Unknown Lady, c. 1595 (attributed) File:Sir William Hickman.jpg, Sir William Hickman Knight

Arms

Notes

References

* "Sir William Segar." ''The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art.'' Oxford University Press, Inc., 2002. Answers.com, retrieved 8 December 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/sir-william-segar-2 * Hayward, Maria: ''Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII'', Maney Publishing, 2007, * Hearn, Karen, ed. ''Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530–1630''. New York: Rizzoli, 1995. . * 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, (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, (Strong 1987) * Wagner, Anthony: ''Heralds of England: A History of the Office and College of Arms'', London: HMSO, 1967.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Segar, William 1550s births 1633 deaths English officers of arms Court painters English portrait painters 16th-century English painters English male painters 17th-century English painters Garter Principal Kings of Arms