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Hub AI
Maid of honour AI simulator
(@Maid of honour_simulator)
Hub AI
Maid of honour AI simulator
(@Maid of honour_simulator)
Maid of honour
A maid of honour is a junior attendant to a queen in royal households, ranking below a lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts.
Traditionally, a queen regnant had eight maids of honour, while a queen consort had four. Queen Anne Boleyn had seven maids of honour and one mother of maids.
A maid of honour was a maiden, meaning that she had never been married (and therefore was ostensibly a virgin), and was usually young and a member of the nobility. Maids of honour were commonly in their sixteenth year or older, although Lady Jane Grey served as a maid of honour to Queen Catherine Parr in about 1546–48, when Jane was only about ten to twelve years old.
Under Mary I and Elizabeth I, maids of honour were at court as a kind of finishing school, with the hope of making a good marriage. Elizabeth Knollys became a maid of honour at court at the age of nine. Elizabeth gave gifts of clothing to her maids of honour, including the sisters Elizabeth and Anne Knollys, Margaret, Philadelphia, and Catherine Carey, and Frances and Elizabeth Howard.
Elizabeth I's maids of honour danced in a masque in June 1600 at the marriage of Anne Russell and Henry Somerset, and Mary Fitton had a speaking part. This is an early record of female theatrical performance in this context. The other masque dancers were "Lady Dougherty" (Dorothy Hastings), Mistress Carey, Mistress Onslow, Mistress Southwell, Bess Russell, Mistress Darcy, and Blanche Somerset. The queen herself joined the dance.
An ordinance for the English household of Anne of Denmark made on 20 July 1603 allowed for six maids and a supervisory mother of maids, with four chamberers. The Earl of Worcester discussed the appointments in a 1604 letter: "for the presence [chamber] there ar nowe 5 maydes, Cary, Myddellmore, Woodhowse, Gargrave, Roper, the sixt is determyned but not come". In 1632, six maids of honour at the court of Henrietta Maria took part in the masque The Shepherd's Paradise.
The maids of honour did not always receive a fee or salary beyond their board and lodging. Some maids received £10 yearly in the 17th century. There were also grants and rewards, including property leases which provided an income known as "annual rent". In 1630, Cecilia Crofts gained pensions and an income from duty on coal mines near Benwell. Some of the maids received dowries from the monarch.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the term maid of honour in waiting was sometimes used. The queen mother often also had maids of honour. In 1912, for example, Ivy Gordon-Lennox was appointed a maid of honour to Queen Alexandra.
Maid of honour
A maid of honour is a junior attendant to a queen in royal households, ranking below a lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts.
Traditionally, a queen regnant had eight maids of honour, while a queen consort had four. Queen Anne Boleyn had seven maids of honour and one mother of maids.
A maid of honour was a maiden, meaning that she had never been married (and therefore was ostensibly a virgin), and was usually young and a member of the nobility. Maids of honour were commonly in their sixteenth year or older, although Lady Jane Grey served as a maid of honour to Queen Catherine Parr in about 1546–48, when Jane was only about ten to twelve years old.
Under Mary I and Elizabeth I, maids of honour were at court as a kind of finishing school, with the hope of making a good marriage. Elizabeth Knollys became a maid of honour at court at the age of nine. Elizabeth gave gifts of clothing to her maids of honour, including the sisters Elizabeth and Anne Knollys, Margaret, Philadelphia, and Catherine Carey, and Frances and Elizabeth Howard.
Elizabeth I's maids of honour danced in a masque in June 1600 at the marriage of Anne Russell and Henry Somerset, and Mary Fitton had a speaking part. This is an early record of female theatrical performance in this context. The other masque dancers were "Lady Dougherty" (Dorothy Hastings), Mistress Carey, Mistress Onslow, Mistress Southwell, Bess Russell, Mistress Darcy, and Blanche Somerset. The queen herself joined the dance.
An ordinance for the English household of Anne of Denmark made on 20 July 1603 allowed for six maids and a supervisory mother of maids, with four chamberers. The Earl of Worcester discussed the appointments in a 1604 letter: "for the presence [chamber] there ar nowe 5 maydes, Cary, Myddellmore, Woodhowse, Gargrave, Roper, the sixt is determyned but not come". In 1632, six maids of honour at the court of Henrietta Maria took part in the masque The Shepherd's Paradise.
The maids of honour did not always receive a fee or salary beyond their board and lodging. Some maids received £10 yearly in the 17th century. There were also grants and rewards, including property leases which provided an income known as "annual rent". In 1630, Cecilia Crofts gained pensions and an income from duty on coal mines near Benwell. Some of the maids received dowries from the monarch.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the term maid of honour in waiting was sometimes used. The queen mother often also had maids of honour. In 1912, for example, Ivy Gordon-Lennox was appointed a maid of honour to Queen Alexandra.