Silk pieces ‘may be Charles I ribbon’

Researchers believe four pieces of cloth could be the sash owned by the monarch after one was radiocarbon dated to the period of his rule, the mid 17th century.

The discovery was made after Anthony van Dyck’s portrait, which features three images of Charles, was selected for a new exhibition and Royal Collection Trust curators decided to examine the silk pieces which were attached to a book about the King.

The 17th century tome called The Eikon Basilike – The Royal Portrait – was published 10 days after the monarch’s execution on January 30, 1649, and was once owned by the Queen’s grandmother Queen Mary.

Charles’s death came after he was tried for treason and convicted, and it followed the defeat of his forces in the Civil War and his capture.

The 17th century book, probably written in part by Charles, contains accounts of various events and hardships he encountered in the years before his defeat. It features an inscription that claims the pieces of cloth are from the garter worn by the sovereign but this was treated with caution by curators as the wording appears to date from the 18th century.

The garter ribbon and the portrait will be reunited in the trust’s new exhibition In Fine Style: 
The Art Of Tudor And Stuart Fashion, which explores the fashionable attire of European royal
courts in the 16th and 17th centuries.

A rare surviving lace collar, thought to have been worn by Charles I and dating from around the same year as the painting, completed in 1636, has been lent to the exhibition by the Bowes Museum.

The exhibition will be held
at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from May 10 to October 3.