French bulldog Tudor portrait: fact, myth, and real breed history

Part 1

What people mean by a french bulldog Tudor portrait

You're probably picturing a painting from the English royal court with a small dog whose face looks round or flattish. It's an easy mix-up, since many old portraits show companion dogs with soft, rounded faces that can look vaguely bulldog-like at a glance. The Tudor dynasty's monarchs included Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, and all three are recorded as dog owners. The French Bulldog did not appear until the mid-nineteenth century, in Paris.

Part 2

What dogs actually appear in Tudor portraits

The dogs you actually see in Tudor accounts include toy spaniels and mastiffs. Toy spaniels, ancestors of today's King Charles Spaniels, were favourites of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and Mary I kept a pack of them for hunting. A sixteenth-century English writer sorted dogs by what they did rather than by breed, describing hunting dogs, small companion dogs kept by well-to-do women, and mastiffs used for guarding and for baiting bears, bulls, and lions. That same account names only spaniels and mastiffs as recognisable types, with no other breed described.

• Mastiffs were trained to be fierce enough to bait bears, bulls, and even lions.
• Toy spaniels were kept by court ladies as companions, and were also thought to ease an upset stomach when held against the chest.
• Henry VIII's own dogs included beagles, spaniels, and greyhounds, fitted with collars of velvet and kid leather, some with torettes of silver and gold.

Part 3

Where the French Bulldog really comes from

The French Bulldog's real history starts in England. After bull-baiting was banned in 1835, breeders in the United Kingdom began breeding bulldogs for other purposes, and by the middle of the century there were miniature bulldogs weighing around seven to eleven kilograms. At the same time, lace workers from Nottingham who had lost work in the Industrial Revolution settled in Normandy and brought small Toy Bulldogs with them. The little dogs became so fashionable in France that by 1860 few Toy Bulldogs were left in England. The breed gained its French name, Bouledogue Français, and was sought after by society ladies, artists, and writers in Paris.

Part 4

Why the breed looks like it belongs in a painting

Painters of the time noticed the breed too: Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec are both thought to have included French Bulldogs in their paintings. Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec are thought to have included French Bulldogs in their paintings. The breed also appears in historic photographs dated from 1890 through the 1910s.

Part 5

How to date a dog portrait if you find one

If you come across an old painting of a flat-faced dog and want to know when it was really made, a few details can help you and your dog spot the truth. In 1897, the judge at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show chose only winners with rose ears, the folded type used in the Bulldog standard.