Now that this year’s tennis tournament at Wimbledon is well under way, we would like to draw attention to a recent purchase in the Library, a 17th-century book about King Charles I of England and his family. Entitled The true effigies of our most illustrious soveraigne Lord, King Charles Queene Mary, with the rest of the royall progenie, the small volume consists of eight etched portraits of Charles and his wife Henrietta Maria, along with portraits of their six children who had been born by the end of 1640, the last child Henrietta being born in 1644, after this work was printed. Each portrait is accompanied by an anonymous poem describing the subject of the facing image.
This copy of The true effigies is of particular interest as an additional thirty-nine engraved and etched portraits of members of the royal family have been pasted in after the original text. These include representations of Charles I, Henrietta, and their sons Charles and James, as well as engravings of James I, Anne of Denmark and Princess Elizabeth Stuart. These have been executed by a number of different artists and engravers, notably the artist Anthony van Dyck and the engraver Wenceslaus Hollar.
The illustration of the young James, then Duke of York, with his tennis racquet is one of the etchings in the original work, and is attributed to Matthäus Merian. 
It shows James playing what was known as ‘The Game of Kings’. Tennis has its origins in the game of hand-ball, or ‘jeu-de-paume’, as it was called in France, where it evolved from being a game in which the ball was hit with the palm of the hand to being struck by a short-handled racquet with gut strings. It was at first particularly popular in clerical circles, being played enthusiastically by bishops, abbots, clergy and even choirboys. From this sector of society its popularity spread to the nobility and to royalty, so that by the seventeenth century every young prince in both France and England was taught to play it at a young age. Indeed, Charles II of France was painted holding a tennis racquet at the age of two. The English Prince James is a few years older in this picture and he, as well as his older brother Charles, were said to have been fine tennis players throughout their lives. The court and 
the rules of this game, now known as Real Tennis, are somewhat different to modern tennis as played these days at Wimbledon. It is, however, still played by enthusiasts and there are a number of courts still surviving, principally in Britain. Most of the courts in France were destroyed during the French Revolution since the game was associated with the nobility.
This book is currently on display in the case beside the Donations Box in the Long Room, open at the illustration of young James holding his tennis racquet.