Not Just the Tudors

A Tudor Mystery: The Girl Who Could Be Queen

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Episode notes

This episode solves the 400-year old mystery of a previously unknown portrait of a young woman, dressed to look just like Queen Elizabeth herself.


When Emma Rutherford - the country's leading expert in portrait miniatures - first saw it, she knew that the painting was recognisably by the celebrated Elizabethan court painter Nicholas Hilliard. But who was the mysterious girl depicted?


Together, Emma along with Hilliard’s biographer Dr. Elizabeth Goldring set out on some remarkable historical detective work to find out. What they discovered was a story ripe with political importance, espionage, diplomatic intrigue and the question of Elizabeth I's successor.


You can see the portrait if you go to Professor Suzannah Lipscomb’s Facebook and Instagram accounts or @NotJustTudors on X. 


This episode was edited and mixed by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.


For more information about our guests, please visit:

Emma Rutherford: www.portraitminiature.com or email [email protected]

Elizabeth Goldring: ttps://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/centrestaff/elizabethgoldring/

Instagram: @elizabeth.goldring 


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