Woltmann, 269. Reproduced by Law, Pl. vii.; Knackfuss, fig. 135; Williamson, Pl. ii. fig. 7; Ganz, _Holbein_, p. 149 (1). [Sidenote: HENRY AND CHARLES BRANDON] The boys were the sons of Charles Brandon, first Duke of Suffolk, who became brother-in-law of the King by his secret marriage in Paris on May 13, 1515, with the young Queen Dowager of France, widow of Louis XII; and their mother, Suffolk’s fourth wife, was Catherine, only daughter and heiress of William, tenth Lord Willoughby de Eresby. The year date on the elder boy’s portrait has been usually read as 1535. It is so given by Wornum and Woltmann, and other writers have followed them, but if the portrait represents Henry Brandon, the date is quite impossible. Mary Tudor, the “French Queen,” the Duke of Suffolk’s third wife, died on June 25, 1533, and in September of the same year Brandon married Catherine Willoughby, the mother of these two boys. In Burke, on the other hand, it is stated that the marriage took place in 1535; but this appears to be incorrect. The _Dictionary of National Biography_ gives the date of the elder boy’s birth as September 18, 1535, which date is fixed by the _inquisitio post mortem_ held after his father’s death in 1545; so that it is quite impossible that the lad could have been five years old in 1535. Mr. Ernest Law reads the date on the miniature as possibly 1539; to the writer, however, who has not had the privilege of examining the original, it appears, from careful examination of the excellent reproduction in Mr. Law’s book, to be either 1543 or 1545, the third figure being plainly a 4. Neither of these dates, however, can be correct, and it is quite possible that at some time the inscription, growing illegible, has been repainted, and that in so doing the restorer has made a mistake. The lettering on both miniatures lacks the precision of an original inscription by Holbein. It is generally assumed that the two dates, “6 Sep” and “10 Marci,” refer to the boys’ birthdays, and there is no difficulty with regard to the second boy, Charles, who was born in March 1538, two and a half years after his brother. The two miniatures have every appearance of having been painted at about the same time, and it is to be expected that the elder of the two would be painted first. The writer suggests, therefore, that the correct date of the portrait of Henry is September 1540, and that of Charles, March 1541.