The Lyte Jewel

The ‘Lyte Jewel’ is one of the best jewelery pieces in the British Museum. It is in fact an enamelled gold locket. The openwork cover, set with diamonds, bears the royal monogram 'IR’ (Latin, Iacobus Rex) for King James, the first Stuart king of England (r. 1603–1625, also James VI of Scotland, r. 1567–1625).

Inside the locket is James’ portrait on vellum by the great miniature painter Nicholas Hilliard (c. 1547–1619). The pendant pearl is a late-19th-century replacement of an original.

The 'jewel’ was presented by James to Thomas Lyte (1568–1638) of Lytes Cary, Somerset, in thanks for Lyte’s royal genealogy tracing James’ descent, through Banquo (whose murder is a key element in Shakespeare’s Macbeth), from Brutus, the mythical Trojan founder of Britain. This was a political message which James wished to promote at court in establishing his rule as king of Great Britain, and the genealogy was displayed in Whitehall Palace for all to see. You can find out more about the genealogy on the British Library’s website. A portrait of Lyte, shown proudly wearing the jewel, was painted in 1611 and is now in the Museum of Somerset, Taunton.

James, the son of a Catholic, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, had succeeded to the throne of England in 1603. As a Protestant and the first Stuart monarch of England, he saw the political necessity to emphasise his ancient lineage not only through the Tudor line, but also through his Welsh ancestry back to the first king of the Britons. It is possible that Lyte, a relatively unknown member of the gentry, was encouraged by James’ advisers to produce the genealogical table, and to present it with full publicity at court, as if spontaneously from a loyal subject.

The jewel remained in the Lyte family for centuries until Baron Ferdinand Rothschild acquired it in 1882 for £2,835. He gave it prime position in his New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor from 1896. Within the context of a strongly continental collection, largely formed on the art markets of Frankfurt, Vienna and Paris, it had a special role as a document of British history and identity. On Baron Ferdinand’s death in 1898 it was acquired by the British Museum as part of the Waddesdon Bequest. The Bequest will be redisplayed in a new gallery at the Museum from 11 June 2015.

Find out more about the Lyte Jewel on the Museum’s collection online.

Image of Thomas Lyte: Somerset Museums Service.

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