There have been a lot of controversies on the origin of different dog breeds. Although this is not the issue for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, their kind has been commonly confused with another.
To start, you must know that there is really a breed of dogs so-called Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. And for your information, there is also a breed known as the King Charles Spaniels. Confusing, isn’t it? Both breeds aren’t only extremely alike in name, but also in the appearance. In some countries, in fact, they are collectively called as English Toy Spaniels because of their similarities.
If this isn’t confusing enough for you, even though they are considered spaniels, they aren’t like any other type of spaniels that are usually for hunting and sporting.
So start clearing up this confusion, we must first understand that the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and the King Charles Spaniel were originally one and the same. These breeds have been favorites of royal families in Europe. King Charles, for example, has been one who admired these dogs. And according to notes of the court’s diary keeper, “They had access to all parts of Whitehall, even on state occasions.” Moreover, it is said in the diary, “All I observed there was the stillness of the king playing with his dogs all the while and not minding to his business.”
Another example would be that of Mary, Queen of Scots. She had a number of toy spaniels. And just before her execution, one of her spaniels snuck under her clothing and hung on tight to her. The guards had to forcefully remove the dog from the Queen of Scots.
These toy spaniels have also been in paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Gainsborough. This was how popular and well-loved they were.
Because of their wide popularity over Europe, they’ve developed certain behaviors and qualities over the years. They became more like the Pekingese rather than to the miniature Springer Spaniel types. And in the long run, they came to be just the type of spaniel that King Charles adored.
In 1920, a special contest was put up at the Crufts Dog Show in England on who can replicate the old type of spaniel from the renaissance. This was sponsored by an American living in New York who came up with this challenge and was willing to give a generous amount of money to whoever wins. British breeders participated in this challenge and went over history to come up with the old type of spaniel.
It took just a few generations to finally produce the perfect replica of a King Charles Spaniel. Here is when the confusion was created, instead of naming these exact imitations of King Charles’ spaniels, the word “Cavalier” was added to their names to distinguish them from the original ones back in the king’s era. So they were called the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.
So since then, these two have been separate breeds. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is the type of spaniel that is most similar to that of the original spaniels of King Charles; while what’s known as the King Charles Spaniel today is not what they used to be way back in old Europe.
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