In preparation for his restoration as king Charles II journeyed by road and water from Breda to The Hague. After a short stay there he went on to Scheveningen and on 23 May standing on a pink (a small Dutch fishing vessel) on the crowded shore, he took leave of Elizabeth of Bohemia, the Princess Royal, the young Prince of Orange and the States deputies. Then in the Earl of Sandwich’s barge he went on board the ‘Naseby’, which he renamed ‘Royal Charles’ before sailing with the fleet for England. Van de Velde’s view is from the shore with only with only part of the crowded scene of boats, carriages and people sketched in, evidence that he was present and working quickly. On the right, hauled up on the shore, is the pink with three crowns (representing Charles’s three kingdoms) on the mast tops, in which the king took leave of members of his family and the States deputies.

There is an inscription on the back of the drawing by the Younger ‘1660 den 23 meij, soo sijne maessistijt stant, in d see pinck, nemende sijn af scheijt van de state’, in translation ‘The 23rd May 1660, as his Majesty standing in the pink took leave of the States of Holland’.