QuoteReplyTopic: Life at Court Posted: 07-Jul-2015 at 20:08
Precise rules governed the procedure to be adopted at the imperial court of Emperor Napoleon I of the French in Paris.
When Emperor Napoleon and Empress Josephine ate in public, the Grand Chamberlain proffered a basin for the Emperor to wash his hands.
The Grand Equerry offered him his armchair.
The Grand Master of the Palace took a napkin and presented it to Napoleon.
The Empress's First Prefect, the First Equerry and the First Chamberlain performed the same functions for Her Majesty.
Marie Louise of Orléans (1662-1689) was the first Queen Consort of King Charles II of Spain.
She had a very lonely existence at the Spanish Court.
The etiquette of the Spanish Court was confining that touching the Queen was forbidden.
King Richard II of England would sit on his throne for hours at a time in silence, with the whole court gathered around him.
If his gaze rested upon anyone, that individual had to make obeisance to King Richard.
In Imperial Russia, court protocol remained obstinately rigid.
In the palace, courtiers backed away from the presence of the sovereigns.
No one ever contradicted a member of the Imperial Family.
It was improper to speak to a member of the family without being spoken to.
Extending of hands was quite common in the French royal courts of the 1600s and 1700s.
It was accompanied by much bowing and pomp. Manners had become serious business.
Aristocrats were issued "tickets" of admission to court ceremonies that had an elaborate code of conduct printed on the back.
However still the French at the court including royalties were defecating in the public and there was no toilets in Louvre and other French royal castles and palaces.
"I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood" - Friedrich Nietzsche
In 1777 King Gustav III of Sweden introduced the old-fashioned national costume for all people at court.
The design looked like costumes from the beginnings of the 1600s and was intended to stifle the competition at court of who had the most luxurious dress.
This national costume was very disliked by many courtiers.
Elisabeth of Bavaria was sixteen when she married Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.
As Empress she found the formal Habsburg court life uncongenial.
In Hungary Elisabeth found a welcome respite from the constraints of Austrian court life.
Sometimes King Edward VII of Great Britain came down unannounced before dinner. Dinner itself was like an ordinary party.
Before long the etiquette stiffened up very much. Ladies were required to wear tiaras and men to appear in court costume with decorations.
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