<i>Portrait Miniature of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.</i> Painting on card, cut down to an oval of <span style="white-space:nowrap">5 × 3 cm</span>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wriothesley,_1st_Earl_of_Southampton" class="extiw" title="w:Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton">Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton</a> (<i>c.</i>1536–50), was Clerk to the Signet by 1530 and close to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cromwell" class="extiw" title="w:Thomas Cromwell">Thomas Cromwell</a>, the head of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII_of_England" class="extiw" title="w:Henry VIII of England">Henry VIII</a>'s government. He rose to become Lord Chancellor and was made an earl in 1547. In 1549/50, after the fall of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seymour,_1st_Duke_of_Somerset" class="extiw" title="w:Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset">Edward Seymour, Lord Protector Somerset</a>, he made a bid to replace him but was outmanoeuvred by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dudley,_1st_Duke_of_Northumberland" class="extiw" title="w:John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland">John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland</a>, and banished from the Privy Council.
Despite the museum's attribution, scholars do not believe that this fine miniature is an original Holbein. Based on a Holbein drawing (see "Other versions" below), it may, according to art historian John Rowlands, have been painted in the second half of the 16th century, since its shares characteristics with the miniatures of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Hilliard" class="extiw" title="w:Nicholas Hilliard">Nicholas Hilliard</a> (1547–1619).
<b>Reference</b>
</p>
<ul><li>John Rowlands, <i>Holbein: The Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger</i>, Boston: David R. Godine, 1985, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0879235780" title="Special:BookSources/0879235780">ISBN 0879235780</a>, p. 239.</li></ul>
<bdi>After <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Hans_Holbein_the_Younger" class="extiw" title="w:en:Hans Holbein the Younger"><span title="German artist and printmaker (1497-1543)">Hans Holbein the Younger</span></a>
</bdi>
second half of 18<sup>th</sup> century <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1750-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P4241,Q40719707</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.elizabethan-portraits.com/">Tudor and Elizabeth Portraits.</a>