English: The Landing of Charles II at Dover 1660, by Edward Matthew Ward, 1864. Waterglass painted mural in the corridor of the House of Commons in the Palace of Westminster. Part of a series of murals depicting episodes in Charles II's life and the British constitutional history of the 17th century. The king retuning from exile, on the right, descends the gangway, hat doffed, as a sailor aboard his boat grasps the mooring-post securely. Ashore at the head of a sympathetic crowd, General George Monck doffs his hat and bows. In the left foreground a kneeling figure on the dockside cheers the king's restoration with a red cap (reminiscent of a liberty cap or Phrygian cap) thrust into the air. In the middle distance on the left a canopy is prepared for the king's welcome. In the background, Dover Castle and the white cliffs. N.B. that the royal boat's Union Flag shown at right has an anachronistic red saltire, a element only added to the British flag at the start of the 19th century. (Parliamentary Art Collection,
WOA 2609.) Samuel Pepys, who was present, records the scene, writing that the king:
... was received by General Monk with all imaginable love and respect at his entrance upon the land of Dover. Infinite the crowd of people and the horsemen, citizens, and noblemen of all sorts. The Mayor of the town came and gave him his white staff, the badge of his place, which the King did give him again. The Mayor also presented him from the town a very rich Bible, which he took and said it was the thing that he loved above all things in the world. A canopy was provided for him to stand under, which he did, and talked awhile with General Monk and others, and so into a stately coach there set for him, and so away through the town towards Canterbury, without making any stay at Dover. The shouting and joy expressed by all is past imagination.
— Samuel Pepys, Diary, Friday 25 May 1660