The date of 1600-1602 usually ascribed to the Rainbow Portrait connects it with Queen Elizabeth's visit to Hatfield in 1602 but it could have been painted earlier. It is one of a series of allegorical pictures of the Queen which presented her as an icon. Sir Roy Strong[8] dates such depictions as from 1579. Indeed, it is now clear that the earliest use of this 'Gloriana-portrait-design' was the Blanche Parry monument in Bacton Church which is now securely dated from documentation to before November 1578. In this monument the Queen is shown in the guise of St. Faith[9] .

The Rainbow Portrait depicts Elizabeth as the classical goddess Diana, or Cynthia, personifying the sun. She holds a rainbow in her right hand, which, by appearing after storms, was a symbol of peace. This could be an allusion to the 1588 Armada victory eighteen months before Blanche Parry's death in 1590. Elizabeth's jewels, which nclude rubies, diamonds and pearls, are magnificent. Her ageless face is meant to be iconic, not realistic, and although she was aged in her sixties, she wears her hair (a wig) loose as a girl, a virgin, would do at her wedding. The eyes and ears painted on her cloak and the serpent on her sleeve, refer to her foreknowledge and wisdom. It is a portrait designed to demonstrate the Queen's all-seeing, all-knowing, power to safeguard her subjects.

However, what astounded me was the Queen's bodice, perhaps a stomacher. It is probable that it matched her skirt which is unseen under her draped cloak. It is shown embroidered with flower motifs which I immediately saw are the same design as those on the Blanche Parry Embroidery in Bacton Church. This piece was professionally embroidered with similar flowers including sprigs of columbine and vine, daffodils, roses, honeysuckle, oak-leaves, acorns and misteltoe. Recognised as skilled embroidery, the cloth used is white silk and silver thread that is often known as tissue of silver. Many of the motifs were worked in gold. Due to the quality of the piece it had to have been made for royalty as the Sumptuary Laws prevented anyone else being able to wear something so costly. Even though the Queen treated Blanche as a Baroness, and she owned sables, Blanche could not wear such cloth.

What she could do was to augment such cloth. So perhaps Blanche herself sewed the earliest of the additional motifs in those hours when she was keeping the Queen company. Interspersed between the lovely flowers are motifs which include bears, birds, butterflies, caterpillars, dogs, dragonflies, fish, frogs, squirrels, stags, and tiny rowing boats with minuscule occupants some of whom are fishing. I have spent hours with a magnifying glass picking out the extraordinary details of these enchanting additions. The embroidery hung on the north wall of Bacton Church where the sun never reached it so preserving its colours. Subsequently, it has been found that the colours have been preserved even more vividly under the frame's cross struts and on the back of the cloth. When new it was magnificent.

Exactly how this beautiful embroidery arrived at Bacton Church is difficult to determine. Analysis of the cloth itself and investigating the source material that inspired some of the additional motifs can provide some answers. What is clear beyond doubt is that it was somehow connected with Blanche Parry for, although Bacton Church has been described as 'a perfect shrine of beauty', and 'a little restful church'[10] , it is a long way from the hub of historic events. The only reason this embroidery was given to Bacton Church was due to Blanche Parry and/or in memory of Blanche Parry. Perhaps Blanche loved the design so much that Queen Elizabeth herself made a gift of the cloth to Blanche's family church. Therefore, it is right to call it the Blanche Parry Embroidery.

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[8] Strong, Sir Roy, Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, Thames and Hudson, 1987.

[9] Richardson, 2007, pages 143-148. This is the first depiction of Queen Elizabeth as Gloriana, an icon.

[10] Both quotations are preserved in Rev. Charles Brothers own volume of cuttings now in the possession of his great-nephew Colin Brothers. The second was written by Rev. A. Baring-Gould of St. Martin's, Haverfordwest in his parish magazine. He describes Bacton as 'a picture church with its great walled-in yew, also at the entrance to the churchyard, where the paths are lined with standard roses, all in full bloom'.