Carl Frederik von Breda was also a painter, who studied under his father. Breda died in Stockholm in 1818. Breda's great-grandfather Pieter emigrated to Stockholm around the year 1670 from the Netherlands. The "von Breda" family name seems to indicate a connection with the city of Breda. "Von" is not a Dutch preposition, but in the Nordic countries, this originally German preposition has occasionally been used as a part of names of ennobled families of native or foreign, but non-German, origin. Pieter's son Lucas (Carl's grandfather, 1676–1752) was a successful painter. His son Lucas (Carl's father, 1726–1799) was an "arbitrator in cases of shipwreck",
Breda surrendered to the Spaniards, now led by Spinola; the event was immortalized by Diego Velázquez. In the Siege of Breda of 1637 the city was recaptured by Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, after a four-month siege, and in 1648 it was finally ceded to the Dutch Republic by the Treaty of Westphalia. In 1646, Frederick Henry founded the Orange College of Breda, modelled on Saumur, Geneva, and Oxford, intending it to train young men of good family for the army and the civil service. The exiled Stuart Charles II of England resided in Breda during most of his exile during