Our painting bears close comparison to the so-called ‘Suffolk Set’ of full-lengths by Larkin, now at Kenwood House, London, including a portrait of Richard Sackville, third Earl of Dorset from 1613.[1] Although James Hay does not stand on an oriental carpet and his costume is less elaborately detailed, nonetheless his stance, the handling of lace-work, and the curtains are finely rendered as befited his aristocratic status.  It was painted around 1618 – 1619, presumably to celebrate Hay’s appointment as ‘Viscount Doncaster’ in 1618. Larkin died suddenly around the same time, and it is entirely feasible that his studio assistants continued to work in London taking commissions from Larkin’s clients, and that this is a studio replica of a lost original.[2]

James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle was the son of Sir James Hay (d. 1610) of Fingask, Comptroller of Scotland, and descended from the earls of Erroll. His mother was Sir James’s first wife, Margaret Murray, cousin of George Hay, 1^st Earl of Kinnoull. A favourite of James I, Carlisle was a key figure in the Stuart era, a renowned courtier and diplomat. Unlike the majority of Scots who entered England with James I, he integrated easily and absorbed the culture of the English court. It is said that he established a ‘greater affection and esteem with the whole English nation than any other of that country by choosing their friendships and conversations, and really preferring it to any of his own.’[3]

Though there is no record of Carlisle having attended a Scottish university, he spoke fluent French, Latin, and adequate Italian. It is probable that he spent some of his early life in France,[4] and indeed, it was Carlisle’s first patron, Charles Cauchon de Maupas, Baron du Tour, who started him on the way to preferment with James VI. The baron was a highly talented French diplomat who was sent over to Scotland in the summer of 1602, ingratiating himself with James in a manner that was not duplicated by another diplomat for many years.[5] It appears that Carlisle returned to Scotland with the ambassador, and acted as an escort for the baron as he entered Scottish territory.[6]

Although Carlisle was one of James I’s chief courtiers for thirty years and one of the king’s leading foreign policy advisers, he was never the center of political attention, shrewdly maintaining a position once removed from the first rank of power, ensuring his longevity. In time Hay assumed the role of extraordinary ambassador, conducting embassies to virtually every major western European nation.[7] Carlisle also showed great interest in the colonies, and by using his position of influence at court, he became a director of the Virginia Company in 1612, and in 1627 obtained a grant of all the Caribbean Islands.[8]

The king bestowed on him numerous grants,[9] paid his debts, and secured him a rich bride, Honoria, only daughter and heir of Edward, Lord Denny. Their marriage was celebrated by as courtly masquerade, Lord Hay’s Masque, staged in honour on their wedding night on 6 January 1608. It was the first Anglo-Scottish marriage to be arranged by James I, with significant political association, mirroring a vision of a united British nationhood.[10] They had one surviving son, James (1612 – 1660), but the marriage was short lived, Honoria dying in 1614. He married, secondly, Lady Lucy Percy, daughter of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland and Lady Dorothy Devereux, on 6 November 1617.

Although Carlisle was a subtle ambassador and careful courtier, he was nonetheless renowned for his personal extravagances. He supported his expensive tastes by selling baronies and extracting enormous sums from merchant capitalists and colonists in his capacity as holder of ‘the grant for the Caribbean islands,’ and by his monopoly of Irish wine and tavern licenses. When he died on 25 April 1636 at Whitehall, London, he left many debts. Lord Clarendon observed ‘he was surely a man of the greatest expense in his person of any in the age he lived’.[11] Carlisle was buried with much pomp and circumstance on 6 May 1636 at St. Paul’s Cathedral.