Inscribed ‘Vertreck Carl Stuarts II Nach Engelandt Anno. 1660 Den 2 Junii’ (‘Departure of Charles Stuart II for England, 2 June 1660’)

On 1660 on the 23 May (Julian calendar, used in England) or 2 June (Gregorian calendar, used on the Continent) Charles II, with and his brothers, the Duke of York and Gloucester, set sail from the beach at Scheveningen in Holland in order to repossess the English throne. This episode is also depicted in a painting by Lingelbach in the Royal Collection (CW 98, 404975). This painting is a rather crude copy of an engraving published in 1660 in Amsterdam by Nicolaes Visscher (British Museum), where the main figures are identified.

This is one of three scenes of Royal transport between Holland and England, dealing with two different episodes: the Restoration of 1660 (in this case) and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (in the case of CW 267, 402860 and CW 268, 402861); they were acquired as a group in 1846. All three are documentary in purpose, workmanlike in execution, and similarly labelled with banners bearing inscriptions in Dutch. All three are of nearly identical height, though this one is narrower than the other two. The easiest explanation for the group is that at some time after 1688 a single artist saw the similarity between the two episodes and created the three, in this case using an earlier print as his source material. The style of the three is unfortunately not sufficiently close to make this a certainty. The other possibility is that a collector with a historical bent brought the three together at some time between 1690 and 1846.

Charles II, centre, takes leave of the Princess Royal, the Queen of Bohemia and Prince William of Orange who stand at the head of a procession of carriages; in the right foreground, footguards of the States General; above, a portrait of Charles II.