Famous Cavalier King Charles Spaniels: real dogs behind the breed

Part 1

What makes a Cavalier famous

Royal favor from Charles I and Charles II

Charles I, the father of Charles II, had a black-and-white spaniel named Rogue, who was reportedly at his side when he was executed in 1649. His son Charles II, who reigned from 1660 to 1685, was rarely seen without two or three spaniels trotting after him. His spaniels followed him everywhere, from state meetings to his bed at day's end. The diarist Samuel Pepys recorded one 1666 council meeting where he wrote that all he observed was the silliness of the King, playing with his dog all the while and not minding the business.

Why the breed carries a king's name

The dogs were called King Charles Spaniels because of Charles II's devotion to them. Supporters of the king during the English Civil War were known as Cavaliers, and that word was added later to set the revived long-muzzled breed apart from the shorter-faced dogs that also carried the King Charles name.

How the modern Cavalier differs from the old toy spaniels

The toy spaniels that followed Charles II had long faces, flat skulls, and no stop between forehead and muzzle. After his death, breeding with flat-faced dogs like the Pug and the Japanese Chin gave the King Charles Spaniel its domed head and pushed-in nose, and the older long-muzzled look nearly disappeared. In 1926, Roswell Eldridge offered a cash prize at Crufts for spaniels bred back to the old type shown in paintings from Charles II's day, and breeders who took up the challenge eventually produced the modern Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, recognized as its own breed in 1945. If you look at your dog's longer nose and flatter head next to a King Charles Spaniel's pushed-in face, you are seeing the result of that split.

Part 2

Royal and noble Cavaliers through history

King Charles II's dogs and court records

Charles II kept a large number of spaniels that followed him everywhere, from state meetings to his bed at night. Some accounts say he issued a decree allowing his dogs into any public building, including the Houses of Parliament. Other sources find no record of a formal decree, though Pepys' diary shows the dogs had free run of Whitehall Palace. When Charles II died in 1685, as many as a dozen of his spaniels were reportedly at his bedside.

Other royal or aristocratic owners

The earliest recorded toy spaniel in an English painting appears with Queen Mary I and King Philip. Mary, Queen of Scots, is said to have had a toy spaniel with her on the day of her execution. Charles II's brother, James II, also favored the dogs and is associated with the black-and-tan color pattern. In the early 18th century, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, kept red-and-white spaniels for hunting and recorded that they could keep up with a trotting horse; his estate, named Blenheim after his battle victory, gave its name to the Blenheim color still seen today. Queen Victoria later owned a spaniel named Dash, painted by Edwin Landseer in 1836.

Paintings that document these dogs

A Van Dyck portrait shows the young Charles II as a boy with his two sisters and a pair of long-legged, long-muzzled red-and-white spaniels. Painters including Titian, Lely, Stubbs, Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney also painted small spaniels of this type across the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. When you compare those old portraits with your own dog, the resemblance to the pre-1900s toy spaniel is easy to see in a long nose and a flatter skull.

Part 3

Cavaliers in art and literature

Portraits by well-known painters

Queen Victoria's dog Dash was painted by Edwin Landseer in 1836. Club members later brought pictures of Toy Spaniels by old masters to help shape the breed standard.

Mentions in historical writing

Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that the king's spaniels had free run of Whitehall Palace. The poet Jonathan Swift also wrote about a lady's toy spaniel in a satirical poem, describing its large, high forehead and other features typical of the breed.

What these depictions tell us about the breed's role

That companionable role is one your own Cavalier still fills today.

Part 4

A famous modern Cavalier: Rex at the White House

Centuries after Charles II, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Rex lived at the White House with President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. Rex came to the White House on December 6, 1985, as a Christmas gift from the president to his wife, and he had previously belonged to the commentator William F. Buckley, who kept Rex's brother Fred. Rex was named after Rex Scouten, the White House chief usher who retired that year. He lived at the White House until Reagan left office, then moved with the Reagans to their home in Los Angeles, and he died in 1998. If you have a Cavalier of your own, you can see in Rex's story the same devoted, easygoing nature that first drew Charles II to these dogs.

Part 5

Naming and breed recognition milestones

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was recognized as its own breed by the Kennel Club in Britain in 1945. It became the American Kennel Club's 140th recognized breed in 1996. Only six Cavaliers survived World War Two, and all of today's Cavaliers descend from them. Today the Cavalier ranks among the more popular breeds registered with the American Kennel Club.