To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com

Ralph Hopton was one of the most capable, self-disciplined and loyal commanders of the Royalist army in the English Civil War, He had proved his service to the Crown early in his life when in 1620, six years before the painting of this portrait, he had taken part in the expedition to rescue Elizabeth of Bohemia, King James I's daughter after her husband had lost the Kingdom of Bohemia at the Battle of the White Mountain, eventually carrying the Queen to safety on the back of his horse in her flight from Prague.

Hopton was knighted in King Charles I's Coronation honours, which this painting of the following year perhaps commemorates. During the Civil War Hopton served as General of the Ordance until 1644 and then in 1646 was appointed General of the Armies in the West. He held out against Parliament and even after defeat by Lord Fairfax at the Battle of Torrington did not surrender until the Prince of Wales had been able to withdraw to the Continent. He then followed the Prince into exile, joining his Privy Council after his accession with King Charles I's execution in 1649. He remained in exile, dying at Breda in 1652.