Dog Stories · history
Pugs in History: the royal lapdog that saved a prince, bit Napoleon, and outlived Marie Antoinette
A Pug saved the founder of the Netherlands during the siege of Mons, another bit Napoleon on his wedding night, and a third kept returning to Marie Antoinette's prison cell. The documented royal history of the breed behind the flat face.
The dog people buy today thinking of a couch ornament carries something very different in its bloodline. The documented ancestor of the modern Pug saved the life of the founder of the Netherlands during the siege of Mons in 1572. Another bit Napoleon on his wedding night and left him a scar for the rest of his life. A third kept returning to Marie Antoinette's cell in the Conciergerie. And a fourth, owned by the painter William Hogarth, was portrayed in 1745 with such prominence that the artist's own face seems to mirror the dog's. The Pug probably has the strongest courtly resume of any breed in Europe, and it is the only one ever proclaimed the official dog of a royal house.
Where does a flat-faced dog that ended up in every European court come from?
The origin is documented in China, where short-muzzled dogs were prized from the Han dynasty onward as palace animals. The earliest depictions appear in funerary figurines from the first to third centuries. What the AKC recognizes today as the Pug sits in the Toy group, a miniaturized mastiff-type small companion. The English name has nothing to do with China or Holland. The Spanish and Italian name for the breed, carlino, honors the Italian actor Carlo Antonio Bertinazzi (1710-1783), famous in the Comédie-Italienne under the stage name Carlin. He performed in a black mask covering part of his face, and French audiences decided the masked dogs looked too much like him. The nickname stuck.
The breed reached Europe, according to its own breed documentation, with traders of the Dutch East India Company (the VOC) in the final decades of the 16th century. The Netherlands were the first door. From there it spread through half the European nobility within a hundred years. Here are the five verifiable chapters.
How did a Pug save the founder of the Netherlands in 1572?
William I of Nassau, called the Silent, led the revolt of the Low Countries against Philip II of Spain. To place him: the kingdom of the Netherlands exists today in large part because of his persistence. During the campaign of summer 1572, at the siege of Mons, William slept in a tent near what is now the French-Belgian border, guarded by a small personal escort. On the night of an assassination attempt (assassins sent, by Protestant tradition, by the men of the Duke of Alba), a small dog sleeping beside him began barking and scratching the bed until it woke him, then jumped at his face. The prince escaped in time.
The primary source is William's own Apologie ou Défense de son Excellence Guillaume de Nassau, published in 1581. The identification of the dog as a Pug comes from later traditions, mostly 20th-century dog literature (Phil Maggitti, Pugs, 2000). Other historians, working from artistic evidence, argue it may have been a Kooikerhondje, a Dutch duck-decoy breed more consistent with local court customs of the period. The dog's name, Pompey, appears in 18th-century writings, not contemporary ones. Treat it, then, with due caution.
What is documented is what came after. William proclaimed the Pug the official dog of the House of Orange, a distinction the breed still holds in heraldic terms. When the prince was shot dead at his residence in Delft on July 10, 1584, by Balthasar Gérard, his funerary monument in the Nieuwe Kerk included a dog lying at his feet. The terracotta model Hendrick de Keyser made for that statue survives in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
How did Pugs reach England?
When William III of Orange, great-grandson of the Silent, was crowned king of England alongside his wife Mary II in the Glorious Revolution (1689), he crossed the Channel with his court. Several Pugs traveled with it. English cynology marks this as the breed's official arrival in the islands, though earlier specimens appear in engravings from the mid-17th century. The English nobility adopted them eagerly. Through the 18th century there was hardly an aristocratic family portrait that did not include, in some corner, one of these black-masked dogs.
Who was Trump, William Hogarth's Pug?
To understand Trump's fame, it helps to know his owner. William Hogarth (1697-1764) was the most important English satirical painter of his century, author of series such as A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. In 1745 Hogarth painted a self-portrait titled The Painter and his Pug, now in Tate Britain. The canvas works on two planes: in the background, an oval with the artist's face in trompe-l'oeil perspective; in the foreground, his Pug Trump, rendered in as much detail as the painter himself. Hogarth openly said he identified with his dog's character: stubborn, obstinate, scrappy. The art historian Ronald Paulson, in his biography of Hogarth, suggests the painting works as a double portrait.
There is a detail that matters to today's Pug owners. Look at the image of Trump and you will see he has a muzzle. A muzzle noticeably longer than the contemporary Pug's. That is because 20th-century selective breeding favored flatter and flatter heads, which has driven up the breed's respiratory problems. Hogarth's Trump looks more like a retro pug (a line deliberately crossed with longer-muzzled breeds to restore breathing viability) than a show specimen of 2026. The AKC breed standard treats the dog's overall health and soundness as the priority; the drift toward ever-flatter faces is a matter of how the standard gets interpreted, not of the standard itself.
Did Marie Antoinette really have a Pug named Mops?
The short answer: the story as usually told is probably a 19th-century myth. The useful explanation needs more room.
In German, Mops means, simply, "Pug." It is the common word for the breed, not a proper name. When 20th-century biographers of Marie Antoinette (notably Stefan Zweig, 1932, and later Antonia Fraser, 2001) wrote of her "Pug named Mops," they were probably mistranslating the phrase un chien mops ("a Pug dog") from the Austrian correspondence of the time. The verifiable letter dates to May 1770: the future queen, newly arrived at Versailles, wrote to Count Mercy-Argenteau, the Austrian ambassador, asking him to have un chien mops sent from Vienna, no name, simply "a Pug." It arrived.
The scene in Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette (2006), in which a small dog is torn from the archduchess's arms at the French border, does not appear in contemporary sources (letters, ladies-in-waiting memoirs, diplomatic correspondence). It is most likely a 19th-century invention added for melodrama. What is documented is what happened at the end. During her last months, confined in the Conciergerie, Marie Antoinette kept a small dog in her cell. After her execution on October 16, 1793, the dog kept entering the cell each morning for three months to sniff the mattress where it had slept. Monsignor de Salamon, a contemporary prisoner, recorded it in his memoirs. Whether it was the same little dog or a different one is not known.
Why did a Pug bite Napoleon on his wedding night?
On March 9, 1796, the civil marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte (then a 26-year-old general, just named head of the Army of Italy) and Joséphine de Beauharnais (a widow six years his senior, two children) took place. Napoleon arrived two hours late to the ceremony. A bad start. That same night, Fortuné, the Pug that usually slept in the bride's bed, bit the newlywed on the calf when he slipped under the sheets. Joséphine refused to remove the dog. Napoleon spent the rest of the night with cold compresses on his leg, complaining loudly that he was "dying of hydrophobia." He did not die of it. He was left with a scar he carried to the grave.
Fortuné had a prior record. When Joséphine had been imprisoned during the Terror, in 1794, at Les Carmes prison, the Pug carried messages between her and her two children hidden under his collar. It is the first documented canine courier mission of revolutionary France, though the word "documented" deserves a caveat: Joséphine herself tells it, in memoirs dictated long afterward.
The dog died soon after the wedding, at the Milanese residence of Montebello, in a fight with the cook's mastiff. Joséphine got another Pug almost immediately. One morning the cook apologized to Napoleon for what had happened and assured him the mastiff was locked up. The general's reply, recorded in the memoirs of the playwright Antoine-Vincent Arnault, leaves no room for argument: "Let him loose again. Let's see if he frees me from this one too."
Why did Queen Victoria keep several Pugs?
After a century and a half of fashion, Pugs were still palace dogs when Victoria came to the throne of the United Kingdom. The queen (who kept more than six hundred animals over her lifetime) maintained several Pugs in the royal kennels at Windsor in the 1870s and 1880s. The names documented in the photographic records of the Bambridge studio are Olga, Pedro, Minka, Fatima, Venus, and Basco. The queen's interest in the breed coincided with an expansion of its color range: until 1877, Pugs in the United Kingdom had been almost always fawn with a black mask. That year Lady Brassey brought a pair of all-black Pugs back from the East, and the color caught on. Victoria kept dogs of both colors in her kennels.
The queen also made several of her favorite breeds objects of public exhibition at Crufts from 1891. The Pug's fame, however, began to wane at the end of the 19th century, displaced by the fashion for the Pomeranian (also one of Victoria's breeds) and, above all, the Pekingese.
Is a Pug a good fit for a US apartment?
Yes, with conditions. The Pug is a companion breed historically bred to live indoors in courts, with moderate walks, regular meals, and plenty of human contact. It fits well in apartments and small homes, tolerates living with children and other animals, and has no need for intense exercise. Even so, there are two non-negotiable warnings.
Summer heat in the South and Southwest is its enemy. By morphology, brachycephalic dogs (the flat-faced ones) ventilate poorly, regulate temperature poorly, and enter heat stress above roughly 80°F (27°C) with humidity. In Texas, Arizona, Florida, or Georgia, walks have to shift to dawn and dusk, hot pavement has to be kept off the paw pads, and air conditioning at home matters. The AVMA flags brachycephalic breeds as among the most vulnerable to heatstroke.
Obesity is the most common condition in the breed. British studies published in The Veterinary Record in recent years put around 65% of Pugs at clinical overweight. An overweight Pug worsens its breathing, its joints, and its lifespan. Portion the daily food to the dog's ideal weight, not its appetite, and confirm the amount with your veterinarian.
Full breed reference
Identification
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| AKC name | Pug |
| Other names | Carlino (Spanish, Italian), Mops (German) |
| Origin | China (ancient) |
| AKC group | Toy |
| Working trial | Not required |
Physical
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ideal weight | 14-18 lb (6.3-8.2 kg), AKC |
| Height at withers | roughly 10-12 in (25-30 cm) |
| Coat | Short, fine, smooth, dense, glossy |
| Accepted colors | Fawn, black (AKC) |
| Markings | Black mask, dorsal trace, cheek moles |
Health
| Condition | Prevalence / note |
|---|---|
| Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS) | Very common; affects most specimens to varying degrees |
| Pug Dog Encephalitis (PDE) | Genetic; onset between 8 and 18 months; usually fatal |
| Hip dysplasia | Common; OFA recommends radiographic screening before breeding |
| Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) | Genetic; DNA test available |
| Obesity | Most diagnosed condition in the breed in the UK (over 60%) |
| Average lifespan | 12-15 years |
Temperament and lifestyle
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Energy | Low to moderate |
| Trainability | Moderate (stubborn breed, with bouts of selective deafness) |
| Barking | Low; alert barking, not continuous |
| With children | Excellent |
| With other dogs | Good |
| With cats | Good |
| Daily exercise need | 30-45 minutes split across two walks |
| Apartment-suitable | Yes |
| Heat tolerance | Low |
| Cold tolerance | Moderate to low |
| Grooming | Weekly brushing and daily cleaning of facial folds |
US market (2026)
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Price of a registered puppy | $1,500-3,000 from AKC-registered breeders |
| Availability in rescue | Common; many Pugs reach rescue through acquired health problems |
| Estimated annual cost | $1,200-1,800 (food, veterinary, nail and fold care) |
Is a Pug for you?
If you want a manageable, sociable dog with no need for an agility course that adapts to an urban apartment, the Pug fits. If you are an athlete, live somewhere very hot, cannot tolerate nighttime snoring, or lack the patience to take a dog to the vet several times a year, look at another breed. The modern Pug's health carries historical weight (literally), and although the retro line is improving the breed's breathing, this is still the companion dog with the most documented brachycephalic problems in Europe and a heavy presence in US brachycephalic-welfare debates.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a Pug live in good conditions?
Between 12 and 15 years, according to data consolidated by the AKC and the British Kennel Club. With excess weight, untreated breathing problems, or unsuitable summer exercise, the figure can drop to 9-10 years.
What is the difference between a Pug, a carlino, and a Mops?
None. They are three names for the same breed. Pug is the international English name, Carlino is the Spanish and Italian name, and Mops is the German one. The AKC recognizes the breed in the Toy group.
Why do Pugs snore so much?
Because of their brachycephalic morphology. The elongated soft palate, narrow nostrils, and proportionally small trachea obstruct airflow. This is BOAS (Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome). Severe cases require corrective surgery. If your Pug snores at rest, pants after short walks, or chokes on food, see a veterinarian familiar with brachycephalic airways.
Is it a good guard dog?
Not for protection, yes for alerting. It barks at strange noises and at strangers at the door, but its size and sociable character rule it out as a defense dog.
Which famous Pugs appear in film and pop culture?
Frank, the Pug that talks with Tim Robbins's voice in Men in Black (1997 and 2002). Otis, the Pug from the film The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1986). And, in a nostalgic register, the Pugs in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), with the caveat already noted about the Mops myth.
Where can I see the Hogarth painting with his Pug?
At Tate Britain in London. The painting The Painter and his Pug carries inventory number N00112 and is on permanent display.