Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
by GHEERAERTS, Marcus the Younger, Oil on canvas, 218 x 127 cm
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565-1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years’ War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup d’�tat against the government and was executed for treason.
A Venetian observer described how, after taking Cadiz, Essex had ‘on this last voyage…began to grow a beard, which he used not to wear’. This portrait was painted soon afterwards and shows him as a Knight of the Garter.