In this innovative double portrait Mytens depicts King Charles I being passed a laurel wreath, a symbol of their union and a public statement of tenderness and intimacy. Given its unusual format, this portrait was presumably originally produced to fill a particular space in the interior decoration of Somerset House, the Queen's London residence.

X-ray images reveal that the picture was significantly amended and reworked, possibly by Van Dyck, particularly in the portrait of the Queen, who looks out towards the viewer rather than towards her husband in the revised composition. Mytens's original representation of Henrietta Maria may have been displeasing to the King who could take the opportunity of having it altered on the strength of a new portrait by Van Dyck (RCIN 404430). The compromise perhaps proved unsatisfactory and Van Dyck was subsequently commissioned to paint as a substitute his own version of the design in which he included the monarch's regalia and an olive branch in the Queen's left hand (now in the Archiepiscopal Castle and Gardens, Kromeríž, Czech Republic). As a result this painting was soon taken down soon after it was hung and placed into store, although by the Restoration it was hanging at Hampton Court.