It is extraordinary, and indeed almost inexplicable, that Holbein was at work for so long a time in England before he received royal recognition. That this did not happen during his first sojourn in London is surprising enough, but that on his return he should remain for three or four years busily employed in painting portraits of people about Henry’s court, some of which the King must have seen, is still more difficult of explanation. Henry entered into keen but friendly rivalry with Francis I in his patronage of art, and was anxious at all times to induce good foreign artists to settle in England; and yet here was a painter of gifts which placed him high above his fellows, who, apparently, went quite unrecognised. This is the more remarkable when it is remembered that the King was well acquainted with, and had expressed his delight in, at least one work of Holbein done during his first English visit—“The Battle of Spurs,” which decorated the back of the arch of the temporary Banquet Hall at Greenwich. It is hardly possible that it was owing to any disinclination on Holbein’s own part, however anxious he may have been to retain his rights as a citizen of Basel. He could have entered Henry’s service for a year or two without renouncing his burghership, or becoming a naturalised English subject, and that he did obtain the post in the end seems to indicate that the obstacle, whatever it may have been, was not one of his own making. It was, on the other hand, an honour to which he would aspire, and the possibility of holding some such position must have been one of the reasons which induced him to visit this country, as it was with all the foreign artists and craftsmen who made London their temporary home. A satisfactory explanation of this mystery is hard to find, and unless further evidence is discovered, it must remain unsolved. That there is some possibility that Holbein was indirectly employed by the Crown even earlier than 1535 is suggested by an interesting memorandum dealing with goldsmiths’ work published in the Calendars of Letters and Papers. The paper is undated, but is placed by the editor under the year 1534. It is an account rendered to the King’s Secretary, Thomas Cromwell, by the Dutchman Cornelis Hayes, one of the leading foreign goldsmiths in London during Henry’s reign, who was constantly employed by the King and the court. The articles supplied were apparently for the royal service, the chief among them being an elaborately decorated silver cradle, which may possibly have been for the use of the Princess Elizabeth, who was born on the 7th September 1533. The document runs as follows: