HEREFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND—Experts from Historic Royal Palaces examined a richly embroidered altar cloth kept in a glass case at St. Faith’s Church, Bacton, and determined that it dates to the late sixteenth century. Tradition has associated the cloth with Bacton native Blanche Parry, who had a monument commemorating her years of loyal service to the Queen erected at the church. Made from cloth of silver, the fabric has shaped seams at the back that suggest it may have been a skirt panel in a court dress at one time. During the Tudor period, sumptuary law limited the wearing of cloth of silver to the royalty and the highest echelons of the aristocracy. Historians have not found any documentation linking the altar cloth to Elizabeth I, but it is similar to the garment worn by the Queen in the “Rainbow Portrait,” and may have been given to Parry as a gift. “This is an incredible find. Items of Tudor dress are exceptionally rare in any case, but to uncover one with such a close personal link to Queen Elizabeth I is almost unheard of,” Tracy Borman, joint chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said in a BBC News report. To read about artifacts linked to another associate of Queen Elizabeth, go to "Treasures of Rathfarnham Castle."
