The “Four Kings” were Native American leaders who traveled to London, England in 1710 during Queen Anne’s War as diplomats of the Mohawk Valley. They met with Queen Anne in London, where their portraits, the earliest surviving oil portraits of Native people painted from life, were painted by Dutch artist John Verelst by royal commission.
Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) was the second in a series of colonial wars fought in North America involving Great Britain, France, and Spain. The four men, long misidentified as Mohawk leaders, were actually three Mohawks and one Mohican man.
The trip was organized by Pieter Schuyler (1657-1724), who served as the first Mayor of Albany (1686-1694) and later also as acting governor of the Province of New York twice in 1709, and governor of the Province in 1719-1720…