The exact origins of the breed have not been proved, but there are many theories of where it came from. One is that it may have come from somewhere on the continent may be Italy. Another theory closely linked with the previous one is that the breed may have been created when Italy and China were trading by Chinese dogs interbreeding with Italian dogs. The word spaniel comes from Spain which causes a popular belief that the breed may have originated there. However we do know that the breed in the form of Toy Spaniels were in England by 1554. The Toy Spaniels were an early ancestor of the breed, they were very similar to the Cavalier and came in two colours brown and white and black and white. These Toy Spaniels were kept by the rich and aristocratic families because poor families could not afford to keep ‘non-working’ dogs. The Toy Spaniel was nicknamed the comforter because they sat on ladies knees when they were in the cold draughty carriages and kept them warm. They were also called this because they were thought to take away disease from their owners (this was the general explanation of why they often died for no apparent reason). There are many paintings of families and portraits with small spaniels in the background. One well known one is that of Mary I and her husband Philip of Spain with several small spaniels around their feet. This was painted by Antonio Moro and at present hangs in Woburn Abbey. Henry VIII decreed that “Only some small spanyells for the ladies” could be kept at court. Elizabeth I’s chief physician doctor Johannes Caius, wrote an essay on the breeds of dogs known at the time. This essay was called the Canibus Britannics and it included “Spaniell gentle, or comforter- a delicate, neat and pretty kind of dog.” When Mary the Queen of Scots was executed a dog believed to be a Toy Spaniel was found under her petticoats covered in blood. Charles I had a Toy Spaniel called Rouge. When Charles was executed, Rouge was taken by one of the roundheads and displayed around London. Although Charles I, was a lover of the breed, it got it’s name from Charles II who truly loved his dogs. On his return from exile he was rowed to shore in a boat with a Toy Spaniel beside him. He was often “in trouble” for taking his dogs into council with him and playing with them instead of attending to business. The Lord Rochester once wrote “His very dog at council board, sits wise and grave as any lord.” This quote reminds me very much of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel with it’s regal manner and wiseness. King Charles II gave the dogs run of his court. There is also a belief that he gave the breed special rights. These rights were supposedly the rights to go into any public place or royal park, and the right to go into the houses of parliament. This is a nice thought, but proved not to be the case by a lady who tried to gain entrance to the houses of parliament with her Cavalier, but did not succeed. According to Samuel Pepys diary the king let his bitches give whelp and bring up their pups in his bedroom “and indeed made the whole court nasty and stinking ”. The next monarch on the throne was James II, who like his brother Charles was another great lover of the breed. Once when forced to abandon ship he shouted save the dogs.... and then after a few moments and Colonel Churchill. Luckily the Colonel was saved and went on to become the Duke of Marlbrough, and like the king he kept several brown and white spaniels. When the Duke was called away to fight at the battle of Blenhiem he left his anxious wife at home. To bide her time the Duchess stroked and repeatedly pressed her thumb on the head of a bitch due to whelp in the near future. When the bitch came to whelp, it gave birth to brown and white spaniels each with a brown spot on their heads the size of the duchess’s thumb. Today this spot is called the lozenge. After James’s reign the spaniel went out of favour, because William and Mary favoured the Pugs The next royal to favour the breed was Queen Victoria, who as a child owned a spaniel called Dash. Dash has been found in many embroideries and is thought he mat have been a set pattern. At the time the colours were given different names :- The tricolours were called Prince Charles, the Brown and white spaniels were Bleneims, Black and Tans were called King Charles and the Rubies Red. A few years later in the show ring the old type had been replaced by a new type with a domed head and a very short nose. These were called King Charles Spaniels. In the early 1920’s a rich man from America called Roswell Eldridge, came over to England in hope to find and buy a dog of the old type, but could not find one. So in his determination he offered £25 at Crufts (1926-1931) for the best dog and bitch of the old type. In 1928 the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel club was formed by a band of breeders. They used Ann’s Son, a winner of the prize to set down a standard. The King Charles breeders were unhappy about what was going on. As far as they were concerned these people were buying up the worst quality dogs they could. But they thought the whole thing would die down after a while. In 1945 the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was registered by the Kennel Club as a separate breed to the King Charles Spaniel and in 1946 the breed was issued it’s first set of C.C’s. In 1948 Daywell Roger became the first champion of the breed. A few years later in 1972 John Evans of the Alansmere Affix took a seventeen month old blenheim Cavalier called Alansmere Aquarius to Crufts. This dog went on to win Best in Breed and Best in Group. Then he went on to win best in show ( he is the only toy dog to win BIS at Crufts to date) From then onwards everyone knew about the breed, and many people joined it, taking the breed from strength to strength.

Donna Wright

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