Connections to royalty for The East India Company date back to Elizabethan times with the issue of a Royal Charter in 1600, but it was Charles II and more specifically his young Portuguese wife, Catherine of Braganza who first introduced tea to the royal court.

A young artist Dirck Stoop from Utrecht, known initially for his Italian-style hunting paintings, ended up in Lisbon, where he met and became the court painter to the same Princess Catherine and followed her to London at the time of her betrothal to Charles.

His fine painting of Charles II’s coronation, in the style of the Dutch Old Masters, was therefore the perfect choice as a backdrop for our Royal Breakfast tea.