Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Breed Magazine - Showsight

THE HISTORY OF THE CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIEL

BY ROBERT A. SCHROLL

T he Cavalier King Charles Spaniel of today really owes its recreation to three things—an American, paint- ings and prize money. The Cavalier gained its royal stature way back in the 1600s during the rule of the Stuart Kings Charles I and his son Charles II. The dogs were court favor- ites and trailed both monarchs around the various castles, occasionally to the dismay of other subjects. They were prominently featured in the paintings of Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough and others. At the end of their reigns and the annexation of Scotland into the Unit- ed Kingdom, they were replaced by other breeds. By the 1800s, the breed had morphed into the very short-faced, dome-headed English Toy Spaniel (or King Charles Spaniels over there). That look and type remained through the 19th century. In the 1920s, an American named Roswell Eldridge noted the absence of the old longer-nosed, flat-skulled span- iels he admired and so for five years offered a prize at Crufts of 25 pounds— a very tidy sum—to the dog and bitch most resembling the dogs in the paint- ings of the old masters. Roads diverge at this point as to how the recreation of the breed truly came about. Some would have you believe

“Young King Charles II of England with his Spaniel” by Van Dyck, c. 1600s. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

that Charlie breeders just began to keep their longer-nosed pets and bred them to each other, while still others suggest that Cockers, Papillons and even Welsh Springer Spaniels were added to the gene pool. I believe that the answer tru- ly lies somewhere in between the two. Whatever the case, in 1928 the prize was awarded to a Blenheim dog named Anns Son, and with him in the

center of a table surrounded by breed- ers, a standard was written and the club was formed in 1929. Breed popularity continued to grow until it eventually became the UK’s top toy dog. The first Cavaliers arrived on these shores in 1952 and in 1956 sisters-in- law Gertrude Polk Brown Albrecht and Sally Brown formed a club and approached the AKC to find out how to

“BREED POPULARITY CONTINUED TO GROW UNTIL IT EVENTUALLY BECAME THE UK’S TOP TOY DOG.”

304 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , J ANUARY 2019

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