This extinct breed is mentioned in Buffon’s `Natural History, but little is known about it. The literal translation of the name of this breed is ‘rogue’ or ‘scoundrel, and it may be significant that one of the royal dogs in 17th-century London had the pet name of Rogue.
Writing in 1750, Buffon says: ‘There are Black Spaniels, also called Gredins, and which are known as English Spaniels because they originate in that country: He goes on to say that there is also a variant, which he calls a Pyrame, that, although mostly black, also has ‘fire-marks’ in the form of small tan markings over the eyes, on the muzzle, the throat and the legs. The Pyrame is clearly the Black and Tan Spaniel, or King Charles Spaniel.
From this report it would seem that there was a largely forgotten black Toy Spaniel in the very early stages of the development of the English Toy Spaniel. A clue comes from the fact that, when Charles I was walking to his execution in 1649, he was accompanied by a small spaniel with the pet name of Rogue. Charles II, his son, who was to become obsessed with small spaniels and was to give his name to the black-and-tan breed, was 19 when his father was beheaded. It seems likely that he inherited some of his father’s dogs. This might have included Rogue, but one of the Roundheads kidnapped the dog after the axe fell and, that same night, exhibited it in a sideshow to earn a few pennies. It was never seen again, and the black spaniel tradition seems to have faltered after this. There were a few, scattered later reports of black spaniels being called King Charles Spaniels, but as time passed, nothing more was heard of them, and the black-and-tan came to dominate the scene.
Curiously, a special type of black spaniel did reappear many years later, in the form of the Toy Trawler Spaniel (see separate entry), which was said to be a ‘throwback’ to the early, black King Charles Spaniel, but the relationship between that and the Gredin is not known.
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