This column takes up where the December 2000 column in the AKC
GAZETTE left off -- examining the life of England's Charles II and
his troupe of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.
* All the King's Dogs PART TWO
Charles II left a number of the spaniels with his sisters,
Henrietta and Mary, and Mary's husband, William of Orange. The
Orange household was taken with the look of the Pug, and began to
breed the spaniels to suit their own tastes, crosses that the king
probably viewed with disdain.
Fortunately, Charles had a brother, James (later James II), who
also adored the spaniels. Charles and James had a pact to carry on
breeding of the dogs in the event of Charles' death. For instance,
once, when forced to abandon a sinking ship, James called to all
hands, "Save the dogs and the Duke of Monmouth." This incident
offers clear proof of just how important the spaniels were to the
Stuart family.
Charles II died at the age of 54. His attendant wrote that there
were a dozen small spaniel dogs at the king's bedside when he passed
away.
For two more centuries the breed was prevalent in the royal
houses, particularly those of the Dukes of Marlborough at Blenheim
Palace and at the Court of St. James. The spaniels figured
prominently in the British monarchy until the mid-19th century, when
their look began to change and they became what we know as the
English Toy Spaniel.
Queen Victoria's beautiful tricolor, Dash, is shown in a famous
1838 needlepoint that captures his large eyes, flat skull and
high-set ears. Seven years later, Landseer painted his now-famous
"The Cavalier's Pets," which is a painting of two beautiful
spaniels, a Tricolor and a Blenheim, with the same large eyes, soft
expressions, length of muzzle, flat skulls and high-set ears.
By 1907, the show specimens of the breed were disparagingly
referred to in Cane's New Book of the Dog as "goggle-eyed,
pug nosed, pampered little peculiarities." For some 20 years, the
breed was virtually nonexistent until Roswell Eldridge issued his
challenge and prize to the breeder of a "Spaniel of the old type, as
shown in the pictures of King Charles II's time, [with a] long face,
no stop, flat skull, not inclined to be domed..." The breed soon
began to regrow its roots and the rest is a very happy history.
Not only did Charles leave behind a more stable monarchy, he left
behind a living legacy for all of us to cherish.
Charles' efforts are well summed up by Hugh Dalziel in the book
British Dogs. In 1881, Dalziel wrote: "The merry monarch did
many more foolish things than take under his royal care and favor,
and thereby raising to court, the beautiful toy spaniel which still
bears his name."
