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The painting, of Princess Mary, daughter of King Charles I, hung in Hampton Court while the king was under house arrest during the English Civil War. When he fled in 1647, he left it in the care of Lady Aubigny, a royalist, who took it to the Netherlands a year later. The work moved through various collections until it was bought in 1967 by the British Van Dyck expert Oliver Millar.

Now the Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council has acquired the painting on behalf of the British government under the Acceptance Lieu Scheme, which allows items of historic or artistic importance to be given to the government in lieu of inheritance tax.

"This is a very beautiful painting," said Andrew Motion, chairman of the MLA, "and a very important part of our historical and cultural heritage."