To accompany an exhibition at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Jane Roberts has written an extended essay which summarizes the main events of Charles I's reign, examines the function of the royal portrait at court and in society at large, and traces the gradually-evolving depiction of the King from his childhood to his death - and beyond. Engravings, medals, plaquettes, miniatures and oil paintings, all selected from the holdings of the Royal Collection, are reproduced, and there is an additional essay by Jonathan Marsden on the portrait sculpture of Charles I.