Some believe that the name of the breed comes from the Latin word Pugnus, which means fist, because the Pug's profile looks like a clenched fist.

Another explanation is attributed to the Pug's facial similarities that resembled a Marmoset  monkey's.

These monkeys were kept as pets in the early 1700s , and were already called a "Pug Monkey ", therefore, Pugs at first were called "Pug Dog " to distinguish them from the monkey.

The designation of "Pug Dog " has endured until today.

         King William III
           and Queen Mary II

In 1688, one hundred years after Prince William the Silent´s  adventure, his great-grandson, William III (1650-1702) and Mary II (1662-1694), ascended the throne of Great Britain.

They brought with them the family pets, the symbols of the House  of Orange, their beloved Pugs.

Each with an orange ribbon tied about its neck.

It was no long before the British not only fell in love with the little newcomers but found the possession of one a convenient way of expressing their approval of their new monarchs.

After Williams 's death, Pugs remained a favorite of the British royalty through the 18th century.

The Pug's charming features have been portrayed on some famous paintings.

The great English artist, William Hogarth, was an owner of Pugs and used them many times in his paintings.

And, in his famous "Self-Portrait", also portrayed his Pug "Trump " with him.

William Hogarth with his Pug Trump. (1745)

    Lady with a Pug

The English painter and writer Joseph Highmore (1692-1780), painted "Lady with a Pug ".

    Blonde with Brunette Pug

"Blonde with Brunette Pug ", painted by Charles Burton Barber  in 1879, depicting a young lady engrossed in her book while her Pug rests comfortably in her arm.

George III, Queen Charlotte and their six eldest children. 1770

The wife of George III, (1738-1820), Queen Charlotte Mecklenburg-Strelitz, fell in love with the breed during his reign (1760 to 1820).

It is said that she maintained a large kennel of Pugs.

The Royal Pugs  had a great effect on the future of the breed.

One of Charlotte 's Pugs appears in the famous painting of George III, at Hampton Court, England.

By the closing years of the nineteenth century the popularity of the Pug was on decline.

The breed's rivals were firstly the Pomeranians  who then gave way to the Pekingese.

   Queen Victoria,
    family and her Pug

And their popularity again grew when Pugs became a favorite of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and her son Edward VII (1841-1910).

The Duke of York,       holding a Pug.
           (1895)

They kept Pugs as well as detailed records of the dogs and their progeny.

Pug with cropped ears.(1808)

Cropped ears  were in style at this time.

Thankfully, the phase quickly passed and this inhumane practice was eliminated.

Queen Victoria, feeling it was unnecessarily cruel, was instrumental in getting ear cropping itself banned in England.

    "A Family of Pugs"

The English artist Charles Burton Barber  painted "A Family of Pugs", Queen Victoria 's Pugs.

She had many Pugs, and her most favorite was Bosco. When he died she showed how much she loved her little Pug by burying him by the Frogmore House Gardens, and giving him his own memorial.

His tomb has an epitaph that says:

"Bosco 1887-1892"

"Bosco , favourite dog of their Royal Highnesses, Prince and Princesses of Battenberg".

The Prince Edward of Wales (1841-1910), son of Queen Victoria, gave a Pug named "Bully " to his wife, Queen Alexandra (1844-1925), before leaving for an Indian tour.

Of course, Queen Alexandra, too, was famous for her devotion to dogs and took an active interest in dog shows, an increasingly popular activity, particularly among Pug  owners.

Photo: Princess Alexandra with her dogs, one of them, a Pug.

In the early 1800s, Pugs  were standardized as a breed with two lines becoming dominant in England and were rivals for many years.

*The "Willoughby line"

Was developed by Lord  and Lady Willoughby d'Eresby, and was founded on dogs imported from Russia  or Hungary.

The "Willoughby Pugs", a line of Pugs noted for their silver fawn color, sometimes called pepper and salt, with entire, or nearly entire, black heads, tall and thin, small eyes, but better wrinkled than the Dutch Pug.

"Mops " and "Nell " were two prominent Willoughby  Pugs that can be found as ancestors in Pug pedigrees even today.

*The "Morrison line"

Was developed by Charles Morrison, a tavern owner from Walham Green, and was founded from a pure Dutch Pug. It is said that this strain descended from the royal dogs of Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, who obtained their original stock from the continent.

The Morrison program produced dogs more like modern Pug of today, with compact body, rich apricot-fawn coats, lovely headsblack mask and smaller size.

Morrison  and his two Pugs, "Punch " and "Tetty ", are responsible for the improvement of the Pug breed.

After much selective breeding, the Morrison  lines and the Willoughby  lines were crossed and recrossed.

Thereby, these lines became fused together as one, but breeders today can still recognize the individual characteristics of the two types of Pugs.

Even today it is quite usual to speak of a "Willoughby Pug " or a "Morrison Pug", thus implying that it is either of the cold, fawn colour of the first-named strain or of the more golden apricot shades of those bred by Mr Morrison.

The "Windsor Pugs " belonging to Queen Victoria  were said to have come from both the Morrison  and Willoughby  strains.

The Queen preferred apricot-fawn Pugs.

Pugs were first exhibited in England in 1861.

The studbook  began in 1871 with 66 Pugs in the first volume.

*"Click"

      Tsu-Hsi
      (1834–1908),
  Empress of China
      (1861–1908)

Another important development of the Pug breed came about in 1860.

Meanwhile, in China, Pugs  continued to be bred by the Royal Families.

When the British overran the Chinese Imperial Palace  in 1860, during the reign of Empress Tsu-Hsi, they discovered several dogs; more closely resembled today´s Pugs, with shorter legs and much shorter nose, and brought two of the little dogs, "Lamb " and "Moss ", back to England  with them.

These two "pure" Chinese line  Pugs were bred and produced "Click ", the Pug of Mrs. Laura Mayhew  of Twickenham, London.

He was an outstanding apricot fawn dog, with an ideal head and expression and the most beautiful eyes

The Pug´s grand skull, large round eyes, square muzzle, and short face can be traced to Click.

He was bred many times to bitches of both the Willoughby  and Morrison  lines.

Click, the direct descendent of the Chinese Lamb  and Moss, is the major contributor to the best show Pugs in England and in America, making Pugs a better breed overall and shaping the modern Pug as we know it today.

    Duke and Duchess
         and their Pugs

In 1936, when Edward VIII (1894-1972), abdicated his throne to marry his love; Wallis Simpson, they took refuge in France  and brought their Pugs  with them.

The Duke  and Duchess  of Windsor  were probably the most famous Pug fanciers in the 20th century.

       Duke and Duchess
                of Windsor

They took their Pugs with them to almost all social activities.

Anyone studying the history of the Pug cannot fail to be struck by the numerous rises and falls in its popularity.

But the breed has been lucky in that it has always retained sufficient enthusiastic breeders who have maintained good typical and sturdy stock, so that even when the Pug  breed is numerically weak it retains its type and temperament.

*Black Pugs*

A Pug fancier, Lady Brassey, made Black Pugs  fashionable after she brought some back from China.

They were exhibited for the first time in England in 1886.

In 1877 black was considered a "new" color in the breed.

                 "House of Cards"

However, we know that blacks existed in 1700, because Hogarth 's "House of Cards ", painted in 1730, shows a black  Pug in the left-hand corner.

Black Pug, detail

It has been said that black Pugs  had been bred for many years earlier in England, but because they had been bred from apricot-fawns they were considered mutations and thus destroyed at birth.

It is also known that the Queen Victoria  had owned a black Pug who was heavily marked with white.

               Black Pugs.(1890)

This dog may have been brought into England perhaps as a gift to the Queen  from China  and it is certain that the closer a dog or bitch was to Oriental ancestry, the greater the likelihood of it producing black offspring.

Black Pugs  today are considered acceptable and desirable.