Cope
previously catalogued as by Queen Catherine (of Aragon) (1485-1536)
Category
Costume
Date
Unknown
Materials
Metal, Silk, Velvet
Order this imageCollection
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
NT 135701
Caption
Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536), first queen of Henry VIII (1491–1547), has become associated with the embroidery on this 15th-century cope. Noted for her needlework, Catherine is said to have met Henry’s deputation to request a divorce while sewing with her maidens and with a skein of white thread about her neck, symbolising her virtue. She refused to give up her title following the annulment of her marriage and Henry’s subsequent union with Anne Boleyn (c.1500–36), and came to symbolise Catholic resistance to the king’s break from Rome in the 1530s, when he became head of the Church in England. Made of velvet, the cope has an embroidered hood, morse and pair of orphreys featuring the Virgin and Child and figures of saints and prophets; it is further decorated with angels, eagles and flowers. The cope was probably assembled in a London workshop in the 1500s. Remarkably, it survived the English Reformations, when priests were forbidden to wear such garments and many textiles from monasteries and churches were destroyed. Emma Slocombe
Summary
Cover; Cope reputed to have been worked by Queen Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII. Purple velvet, the border embroidered with the Virgin and Child and with figures of saints in niches in coloured silks and metal threads and with detached sprays and emblems. Early 16th century.
Full description
The antiquary Charles Henry Hartshorne (1802-65) recorded in 'English Medieval Embroidery' (1848) an illustration of an embroidered eagle motif 'from a cope, removed two years ago by Sir - Throgmorton from Weston Underwood, Northamptonshire' (Plate 24). This may document the movement of the Coughton cope between the Throckmorton estates along with other valuable items and fittings in the years before and following the partial demolition of the house at Weston Underwood in 1827.
Makers and roles
previously catalogued as by Queen Catherine (of Aragon) (1485-1536), embroiderer
References
Antrobus and Slocombe 2025: Helen Antrobus and Emma Slocombe, 100 Things to Wear: Fashion from the collections of the National Trust, National Trust 2025, pp. 24-25.